What is Wrong with Hiring

It might sound like a conspiracy to say that tech workers are subject to a rigged job market designed by billionaires for the consolidation of wealth and power.  After 2+ years of continued instability, mass layoffs, a hellacious job market, wage stagnation, RTO mandates, and ever increasing workloads, we need no more proof that Big Tech bosses and their acolytes see workers as disposable cogs in a machine.  Amy talks with Lauren Friedman, founder of Workforce Consulting, LLC, to unpack the hidden forces and power plays shaping the tech job market. With extensive experience in tech recruiting and workforce consulting, Lauren spills the tea on the machinations of Big Tech to hoard talent, knowledge, and money as a deliberate business strategy with disastrous consequences for millions of tech workers. Precarity has come to tech work, but you don't have to be a fish in a barrel. We have the individual and collective power to enact change and survive this together. Please support the show! Leave a rating and review, tell your friends, or throw us a few gold doubloons! Find Lauren on LinkedIn Episode transcript

It's been a tough couple of years for UX research professionals, and many are considering pivoting their careers within tech or beyond. Leadership coach Tatiana Vlahovic reminds us that researchers plenty of marketable skills that can be applied in other contexts and roles. Challenging as they may be, professional and personal inflection points present opportunities for UXR practitioners and leaders to expand and evolve their careers.  During this time of uncertainty, we hope this episode causes listeners to ponder an important question: What do I really want for my career and life, and what will I do to get there? Tatiana Vlahovic is the founder of Nurturing Clarity, a boutique leadership coaching and development firm where she creates custom partnerships for leaders and teams in UX, tech, and beyond to support them through leadership challenges and to open new possibilities. Please support our work! Leave a rating and review, tell your friends, or throw us a few gold doubloons! Links Transcript

In this AMA, Amy and Laura (or maybe her doppelgänger) answer some listener-submitted questions. - Hiring managers want UX rock stars, so how do you get hired if you've had the misfortune of working in places where you weren't supported or were underutilized, and didn't get to have much impact or work on cool stuff? - How do you describe work impact on your resume if it's not tracked or measured, a project got canceled, or you got laid off and don't know what happened? - What should specialist designers do in a job market that favors generalists and visual design skills? Is a generalist path still viable? - A role for Senior UXR at Amazon wants 6+ years leading research projects with demonstrated impact. Would academic research count toward this? - I was recently interviewing for a job and the salary I discussed with the recruiter was $105K-$110K CAD. I got the job and now they're offering me $82K-$90K CAD. Is there a way to re-negotiate this offer? - What's your take on engaging with LinkedIn content that's critical about the inhumanities of the job search? Bonus: find out how Laura really feels about Figma. Please support our work by leaving a rating and review, telling your friends, or throwing us a few gold doubloons! Transcript

In this three-part series replay from Halloween 2023, we share some fantastically horrific stories of tech hiring gone wrong, sent in by listeners. So grab your Halloween candy, holy water, and a flashlight while you listen into some spine tingling tales of candidates getting ghosted, tricked, and treated ghoulishly by ghastly hiring managers. Plus some freaky anecdotes from hiring managers who must also regularly deal with unacceptable levels of hiring clusterfuckery, and other nightmares of major organizational incompetence, frustratingly fickle decision-makers, hot tub interviews, and more.  - Episode transcript Got a hiring topic request? Reach out to Amy on LinkedIn and we can cover it in a future episode. Please support our work by leaving a rating and review, telling your friends, or throwing us a few gold doubloons!

A lack of standardized definitions for UX research roles and levels across companies presents a challenge for job searches, hiring, promotions, and career planning.  Amy chats with Lawton Pybus and Thomas Stokes of Drill Bit Labs about their research on the state of UXR job leveling, qualifications, responsibilities, and compensation for IC and manager roles.  Join us for a fun discussion of what they learned and actionable recommendations for how you use their new data-driven leveling framework to design a more effective and efficient job search, hiring process, team leveling infrastructure, and UXR career plan. Plus some an update on the UXR job market. Come for the insights, stay for the research nerdery. Please support our work by leaving a rating and review, telling your friends, or throwing us a few gold doubloons! Links Transcript The research: What we can learn from UX Research job descriptions (three part series) Drill Bit Labs Newsletter

Amy chats with recruiter and founder of Hire Breakthrough, Kimone Napier. Kimone coaches and consults with founders, organizations, and professionals on navigating workforce changes and advancing their careers.  Job seekers, hiring managers, and recruiters alike will want to tune in for some commiseration and perspective as we talk about the state of the tech job market, why the mass layoffs are still going 2 years later, resulting in a even more broken hiring process that makes everyone feel stressed, defeated, and demoralized. Additionally, Kimone clarifies what exactly an ATS is and what companies are legally allowed to verify about your past employment, and provides some advice on quitting a stable job during a down market and building a resilient career in uncertain times. Please support our work with a rating and review and telling your friends. Or, you can throw us a few gold doubloons! Got a request for a topic or guest? Reach out to Amy on LinkedIn. Links How to navigate the ever-changing job market Hire Breakthrough Weekly Job Leads  Kimone's LinkedIn Building a resilient career in uncertain times

Amy chats with writer, podcaster, speaker, Pokémon enthusiast, research champion, and founder of User Research Academy, Nikki Anderson about All Things User Research Hiring. Nikki provides sage advice from her experiences with interviewing and hiring for UXR roles, for leveling up your resume, selecting the right portfolio case studies, and the common mistakes she sees people make with their materials and interviews. With empathy, Nikki imparts a supportive message to job seekers, and realistic perspective on the current and future state of UX during a very challenging time for everyone in the community. The chaos and uncertainty of mass layoffs and AI have led many to ask, is UX dead? Nikki believes that UX will persist and encourages us to use this moment as an opportunity for a conversation about reimagining and rebuilding in a better way.  Links Episode transcript Join Nikki's User Research Academy Subscribe to Nikki's Substack A UXR Resume Journey (Nikki's comprehensive guide) Nikki's guide to case studies Please support our work with a rating and review and telling your friends. Or, you can throw us a few gold doubloons! Got a request for a topic or guest speaker? Reach out to Amy on LinkedIn.

Amy chats with coach Roberta Dombrowski about the experience of interviewing for tech jobs as “an only”. If you've ever been an “only” (woman, person of color, neurodivergent, queer, etc.) or first of your kind on a team, this one's for you. Hiring managers, recruiters, and anyone else who cares about other people, can also learn a thing or two about creating an inclusive hiring process to set “onlys” up for success. Roberta is the founder of Learn Mindfully where she helps onlys reestablish their relationship to work, themselves, and the people they work with, through an integration of head, heart, and body.  With more than a decade of experience designing employee and customer experiences and working with leaders at companies like Adobe, Instacart, Shopify, ServiceNow, and LinkedIn, she is dedicated to leveling the playing field at work and believes that leaders at all levels can spark change. Links Episode transcript Navigating Job Search Bias 70+ questions to make sure your next role meets your needs More resources from Roberta Please support our work with a rating and review or a throw us a few gold doubloons! Got a request for a topic or guest speaker? Reach out to Amy on LinkedIn.

Senior Product Design Manager and respected UX community contributor Mitch Clements shares how he created an attentive, fair, and effective hiring process to scale his 26-person (and counting!) design team at Encino. UX hiring managers and job seekers will appreciate Mitch's reflections on: Lessons learned on screening and interviewing candidates in a crowded market, from entry level to advanced practitioners The necessity of implementing a career architecture framework and standardized assessment rubrics to streamline the process and set expectations The importance of empathy, communication, transparency in creating a high quality hiring experience What Mitch looks for when hiring senior designers/IC's and design managers Why portfolios should NOT be a requirement for applications! How posting on LinkedIn can help hiring managers attract design candidates Optimistic predictions for a resurgence of UX hiring… sometime down the road Links Episode transcript Mitch's website and coaching services Mitch's LinkedIn Please support our work with a rating and review or a throw us a few gold doubloons! Got a request for a topic or guest speaker? Reach out to Amy on LinkedIn.

Leadership coach, design executive, and founder of Happy Path Sally Carson. Sally shares her hiring insights and job search advice based on 20+ years in tech, including her time as a hiring manager and leader of design teams at LinkedIn and Cisco. We talk about: Using a "jobs to be done" framework to craft your resume, portfolio, and other materials according to the needs and goals of your audience   Insights into how recruiters use LinkedIn search and filters to find qualified candidates (Sally's team worked on variety of features for finding talent)   Tips for optimizing your LinkedIn profile that go beyond the basics (like adding skills tags to your jobs so you come up in search) One Weird (Smart) Trick for figuring out how to talk about the business impact of your work   How managing up *might* help you avoid a layoff   Why design and tech professionals need to learn AI now Something about bras for dogs? Links Episode transcript Sally's website Keep your job in 2024 by managing up Adding business results to LinkedIn profile Importance of adding skills to LinkedIn profile The AI Dilemma - from the Center for Humane Technology (vimeo) Free LinkedIn Learning AI course Please support our work with a rating and review or a throw us a few gold dubloons! Got a request for a topic or guest speaker? Reach out to Amy on LinkedIn.

Amy chats with Dave Miller, an 18-year talent management veteran and founder of Design Citizen, a human-centered recruiting and career advisory firm for product and creative professionals in tech.  Tune in for lots of gems as Dave shares his insights on past, present, and future tech industry and job market trends (good news: things are looking a bit better!), with a healthy mix of reality check and optimism about the impact of AI on tech professionals.  Dave actually walks the talk in his work with candidates, emphasizing fair pay and respectful hiring processes. If you're looking for (or hiring for!) positions in product, design, research, marketing, and related roles, get with Dave stat!  Links Episode transcript Please support our work with a rating and review or a throw us a few shillings! This shit costs money after all. Got a request for a topic or guest speaker? Reach out to Amy on LinkedIn.

In this special episode swap, Amy joins Jeremy Miller, host of Beyond UX Design, for an in-depth conversation about the state of the UX job market. We touch on some familiar topics around the mass tech layoffs, but the primary focus of our discussion looks at how job seekers can manage their response to layoffs and navigate the job search during a chaotic time. Plus a fun April Fool's Day Joke...  Coming up: Join Amy & Jeremy for a live follow-up Q&A event on Friday April 5th at 11am PST/2pm EST.  Episode transcript Support our work: Please rate our show, spread the word, or hit us up with a lil contribution! This shit costs money after all. Got a hiring topic request? Reach out to Amy on LinkedIn and we can cover it in a future episode.

Today we answer some great questions from our fabulous listeners! Hope it helps! Is it worth applying to jobs on LinkedIn and Indeed? We're supposed to network to find a job, but what do you do when no one you know has an open role?  When hundreds or thousands of people apply to a job in just a few days, should you even bother? Why does it seem like companies are hiring more UX contractors these days? What does it mean for the future of the field? What are some UX research-adjacent careers that pay the same? With more companies wanting hybrid designer-researchers, what does this mean for the evolution of our skill sets? Why are companies passing up on qualified, extending the process in search for the “perfect candidate" (who may not actually exist)? Why do I keep seeing the exact same jobs getting reposted every few months for nearly 2 years now? This episode is sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design. Learn more about their Executive Program in Design Leadership here. Episode transcript Support our work by leaving a rating and review, or throw us a few bucks for coffee and beer! Got a hiring topic request? Reach out to Amy on LinkedIn and we can cover it in a future episode.

What can job seekers, hiring managers, and companies do to mitigate bias in hiring? In this conversation with writer, speaker, consultant, and all around awesome guy David Dylan Thomas, we discuss the individual and collective actions we can take to alleviate the burden on candidates who just want to get a damn job. Buckle your seatbelts for an adventurous exploration of cognitive biases in hiring, how to address common concerns like resume gaps and layoffs, the ugly origins of employer-employee power dynamics and exploitation, risk taking and self-censorship, the dangers of AI (because of course), and the role of *gasp* tech worker unions in creating a more equitable hiring processes.  Plus a sneak peek into Dave's zombie-social commentary film project, White Meat! Episode transcript Links David Dylan Thomas This episode is sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design. Learn more about their Executive Program in Design Leadership here. Support our work by leaving a rating and review, or throw us a few bucks for coffee and beer! Got a hiring topic request? Reach out to Amy on LinkedIn and we can cover it in a future episode.

Amy chats with coach, trainer, speaker, and founder of The Early Manager, Joe Cardillo (they/them), about how we can use research and emotional intelligence to "read the room" when interviewing—i.e., figuring out the context of the organization, team, and manager to ascertain fit and effectively position ourselves to land the role. We cover: Asking specific questions to get specific answers   Questions as a form of positioning   The importance of researching an organization's business model, funders, product roadmap, reporting structure, public earnings reports, and other items   Explicit and implicit values, and corporate performativity   Self censorship and and professional risk-taking Episode transcript Links The Early Manager Connect with Joe on LinkedIn and Mastodon

Feeling slightly depressed, Amy talks about the state of the UX and tech job market in the US, which is complete shit show right now. She tries her darnedest to make sense of what's going on and what we might expect in the near-term, based on existing data sources and job seeker sentiment.   Original post Episode transcript Support our work: Spread the word about our show, leave a rating and review, or hit us up with a lil donation!. Got a hiring topic request? Reach out to Amy on LinkedIn and we can cover it in a future episode.

In the latest episode of What is Wrong with Hiring, we discuss the really unpleasant topic of "professional branding" (ew!), and try to make a bit more palatable and relevant. As awful as it sounds, putting a bit of effort into how you show up in the world and tell your story can be beneficial for a job search, career development, networking, and professional opportunities. And don't worry, it doesn't mean you need to become a Thoughtfluencer TM with a massive following! Links Episode transcript [Panel Event Recording] Job Search Strategy, Taking Risks, & Telling Your Story, Research Ops Community Personal Branding Ruins People's Lives Dre Beltrami - No BS Branding (podcast) Personal branding for people who hate personal branding Why 'Build Your Personal Brand' Is The Worst Career Advice Ever   Brand or be branded — Beautiful Trouble  How to Design a Bio, Part 1 - nikki espartinez How to Design a Bio, Part 2 - nikki espartinez Building & growing a (digital) reputation - nikki espartinez   Got a hiring topic request? Reach out to Amy on LinkedIn and we can cover it in a future episode. If you're so inclined, we'd love your help in spreading the word about our show with a rating and review on your favorite podcast app. And if you're feeling extra generous, we would appreciate a financial contribution to support our work!

Amy chats with Hang Xu, a former UX designer and the founder of Collective Supply, an independent design talent firm, about assessing organizational design/UX maturity during job interviews, and whether or not it matters.  We cover: Hang's backstory, how he got into talent management, and his excellent satirical LinkedIn content The state of design & tech hiring today The philosophical, historical, cultural, and practical onion of design maturity and its impact on the satisfaction of UX pros How to find a decent job and workplace wellbeing based on our personal definitions of design maturity, and our career and life priorities Looking for mature teams in times of job scarcity—can we be selective? Balancing the desire for impact and quality with the realities of organizational constraints and our individual capacity And some existential questions like Does true design maturity even exist?, How much should we care?, and Can UX be just a job? Links Hang's Design Maturity Repo Episode transcript   Got a hiring topic request? Reach out to Amy on LinkedIn and we can cover it in a future episode. If you're so inclined, we'd love your help in spreading the word about our show with a rating and review on your favorite podcast app. And if you're feeling extra generous, we would appreciate a financial contribution to support our work!

For this episode, we answer some listener-submitted questions, including How do I answer those annoying questions like "tell me about a time when you had a difficult stakeholder" or "a challenge with a teammate", especially when I don't have a good example? How do we deal with the farce of companies expecting everyone to have a cogently designed professional brand and career when sometimes we choose jobs based on things that have nothing to do with that concept in the slightest?  In this tight UX job market, how do I convince myself to wait for an opportunity that I know is a true fit for me, rather than taking the first role I'm offered? What are hiring processes actually optimized for? Do people really know what they're doing when assessing candidates? (short answer: a lot of the time, no).  Do Amy & Laura actually drink while recording the show? Got a job search/hiring topic request? Reach out to Amy on LinkedIn and we can cover it in a future episode. Episode transcript

We're wrapping up our Hiring Horror Stories series with more spine chilling anecdotes from hiring managers who, like their job seeker counterparts, must also regularly deal with unacceptable levels of hiring clusterfuckery.  In Part 3, we share some terrible tales from our listeners featuring major organizational incompetence, pompous candidates, frustratingly fickle decision-makers, and more. We like to think that a couple of the stories have happy endings, so hopefully that alleviates some of the awfulness.  Episode transcript Got a hiring topic request? Reach out to Amy on LinkedIn and we can cover it in a future episode.  

Today for Part 2 of our Hiring Horror Stories series, we continue with more terrible tales from job candidates.    Episode transcript Got a hiring topic request? Reach out to Amy on LinkedIn and we can cover it in a future episode.

In honor of Spooky Season, Amy and Laura share some hiring horror stories sent in by listeners (thank you!). This episode features spine tingling tales of candidates getting ghosted (see what we did there?), tricked (like trick or treat, get it?!), and treated ghoulishly by ghastly beings and businesses (ok, look, they can't all be winners).   Also, there's one involving a hot tub. Seriously, what is wrong with people?    Episode transcript Got a hiring topic request? Reach out to Amy on LinkedIn and we can cover it in a future episode.

For this episode, we "randomly" select five questions from Listeners Like You (thanks!) and attempt to give quick (well, as quick as Laura ever gets) answers to each of them.  What's up with unpaid take-home assignments as part of the interview process? How many rounds of interviews and assignments is actually reasonable? Should I apply to a job if I don't meet all the qualifications? What the heck is going on right now with huge companies paying peanuts for contract positions? Is the market REALLY that flooded?  How do conversion salaries typically compare to hourly contract rates?  Got a hiring topic request? Reach out to Amy on LinkedIn and we can cover it in a future episode. Episode transcript

In this episode, Amy and Laura discuss the awful state of job postings—even the best ones are a bit confusing, and the worst are pretty much just bad fiction. If you are baffled by the different titles, levels, code words, and meaningless jargon, tune in for some tips for how to figure out what you're even applying for, and how to identify the red, green, yellow, and checkered flags. Plus a special cameo from our producer, Adonis! Got a hiring topic request? Reach out to Amy on LinkedIn and we can cover it in a future episode. Episode transcript That unpleasant job posting from Nielsen Norman Group by Per Axbom Gender Decoder: Finding subtle bias in job ads Laura's famous Twitter post featured in r/antiwork (Amy's favorite subreddit aside from r/birds, r/birding, r/birdsfacingforward, r/linkedinlunatics, and r/stupiddovenests) Katrina Kibben - Writing Advice for Job Postings and Recruiting Why are UX job descriptions so bad?  

In this episode, Laura and Amy talk about who you should listen to when looking for career advice. Besides Laura and Amy, obvs. The answer is pretty straightforward, except it sort of isn't. Also, sorry about the audio on this one. Technology is hard.  Got a hiring topic request? Reach out to Amy on LinkedIn and we can cover it in a future episode.   Episode Transcript

In this episode, Amy and Laura talk about their experiences as freelancers, consultants, coaches, trainers, and everything else in tech. They explain which business models to use when and how to not get screwed by red flag clients.  Episode Transcript Some useful links for more information after you listen to the show:  Avoiding worker misclassification from Bitches Get Riches Tips for figuring out your pricing at Anthropologizing  Pricing Design by Dan Mall from A Book Apart And, of course, the classic tumblr Clients from Hell Got a hiring topic request? Reach out to Amy on LinkedIn and we can cover it in a future episode.

In this episode, Laura and Amy chat about the pros and cons of becoming a freelancer, consultant, contractor or some other form of self employed person. After all, it's tough to get hired these days! Maybe you should hire you!  Episode Transcript Got a hiring topic request? Reach out to Amy on LinkedIn and we can cover it in a future episode.

In this episode, Amy and Laura talk about a few key ways to help other folks get jobs, even in a bad market.   Based on Amy's blog post, which you can check out here.

Amy Santee and Laura Klein kick off a whole new season of ranting about hiring! In this episode, Amy and Laura talk about what's been going on in tech over the last 9 months or so (spoiler: it's not great!) and what this means for folks looking for jobs. They also tease some future podcast episodes that they'll probably get around to recording in the future. 

In this episode, Laura talks to Mary Lukanuski about how to tell whether a candidate is right for the job. They discuss the pros and cons (mostly cons) of design exercises of various sorts and the things that actually do help you hire better.  Drink Pairing: Mezcal Negroni

In this episode, Laura talks to Cindy Alvarez, Director of UX for Powerpoint, about how to figure out what sort of hire you really need and write a job description targeted to the right folks.  Drink pairing: Sparkling Rose

In this episode, Laura talks to Bryan Cantrill, CTO of Oxide, about a wildly different approach to recruiting and hiring.  Drink Pairing: Diet Dr. Pepper

In this episode, Laura talks with Lisa Dusseault, CTO and Co-founder of Compaas about how to make sure you're making the right offer and paying people fairly for their work.  Drink Pairing: California Chardonnay (properly chilled!)     

In this episode, Laura talks with James Mayes, Founder at Mind the Product and currently an Evangelist at Pendo about why recruiting in tech is so hard and why recruiting technology can make it even harder.  Pendo is hiring!  Drink Pairing: Pinot Noir

In this episode, Laura talks to Emmy Southworth, Principal Product Manager at Lendio about how she created an apprenticeship program to create new designers.  Interested in working with Emmy? Lendio is hiring!  Drink Pairing: Draft Diet Dr. Pepper  

In this episode, Laura interviews Lawrence Humphry and Fallon Blossom, the co-founders of Pearl. They talk about finding tech folks from non-traditional backgrounds and creating a better hiring pipeline.  Pearl is a brand new platform for peer based leadership consulting where you can get wisdom and guidance from people you trust.  Drink Pairings: Berry Sparkling Water or an Old Fashioned, depending on time of day (note from Laura: it's a big world. it's always happy hour somewhere)  

In this episode, Laura interviews Sarah Milstein, VP of Engineering at Daily. They talk about how to position smaller companies to compete with the big corporations and be appealing even in a hot market.  Drink Pairing: Lambrusco

In this episode, Laura talks with Tracy Kroop, the Director of User Experience at Boomi, about how hiring managers can forge a great relationship with recruiters and how the process is largely broken.  Interested in working with Tracy? Boomi is hiring!   Drink Pairing: Old Fashioned

In this episode, Laura interviews Jess Dale, a Senior Product Design Manager at an ecommerce company, about how to onboard new hires in a way that makes them feel like they weren't lied to during the recruiting process!  Drink Pairing: Anything from the Athletic Brewing Company

In this episode, Laura talks with Sara Howes, SVP of Product at Diesel Laptops about building a new product team from scratch in a very subject matter heavy industry.  Sara is hiring! Drink pairing: Black coffee

In this episode, Laura interviews Julia DeBari, a UX designer and educator turned recruiter. Julia shares her perspective on what hiring managers are asking for from designers and how she goes about finding the right fit for candidates.  Drink pairing: Aperol Spritz

In this episode, Laura talks with Dani Nordin, a Product Design Architect at Athena Health, about what happens when you decide you need to structure your own role. They want you to know that deciding you don't want to be a manager isn't a personal failing!   Drink pairing: Athletic Brewing Company Run Wild IPA (Non-alcoholic)

In this episode, Laura interviews Sarah Merlin, Associate Director of Product Design at Curology. Sarah shares tips about working with internal recruiters who might not be familiar with hiring in your domain and how to hire a lot of designers in a short period of time (it's possible!).  Interested in working with Sarah? She is hiring!   Drink pairing: Kirkland tequila on the rocks with a splash of lime

In this episode, Laura talks with Amy Santee about what candidates really want to know, what it's like hiring designers and other tech people right now, and what hiring managers can do to make it easier for everybody.  Amy Santee is a Career Strategist and Coach for UX professionals who want to design their careers with intention and bring their good to the world. As a personal growth nerd, Amy loves partnering with individuals to build confidence and courage, develop a unique professional brand, navigate work environments, and find jobs they love. Prior to coaching, Amy built a career as a UX researcher, working on end-to-end product development and strategy with all flavors of organizations, including eBay, Lowe's, General Motors, and the City of Portland.    Drink Pairing: H20 (It's rough out there. Stay hydrated!)

In this episode, Laura interviews Kim Bieler, UX Director at Expel. They talk about hiring generalist designers vs specialists and how if you learn to design for cyber security, you will end up with job security.  As of May 2022, Kim's team is hiring! Check out these two open roles:  Senior UX Designer, growth Senior UX Designer, analyst experience Drink Pairing: Really Good Boxed Wine