One Year In: On Recruiting and Candidates

The end of the year is approaching and that means my first year at Paladin is coming to a quick close. With that in mind, I wanted to post an article on LinkedIn from a copy of the email I sent the candidates I've spoken to in 2017.

My goal here is that you will find these insights and tidbits of information useful or practical. As with every interaction I have had with all varieties of people in 2017, the goal is to facilitate and to continue having useful and meaningful conversations.

The State of Jobs in General –

It’s been a weird year for creatives.

Throughout 2017 there were points where my head was spinning trying to keep my job orders straight. At other times, the lulls in jobs were so quiet I had to go through some innovative methods to keep myself busy and to use my time effectively.

Despite the economy or individual clients’ obstacles in hiring a lot, or few, people, the one thing I have been seeing across the board this year is the following: our clients are really trying to tap into the minds of potential candidates.

Interviews aren’t, for the most part, about qualifying for the role anymore. Yes, that’s important, but it’s hardly the majority of what you need to be concerned with. Sure, qualifications and prior experience will get you in the door, but it won’t stay open for those reasons. Getting the job in this market requires more than that.

In the saturated digital age we now live in, it’s your job to show yourself, to let employers know who it is you are and who you want to be. It’s not enough just to stick out anymore (and it’s hard enough to just do that!). My clients want to know the intricacies of what it is you are looking for. They want to know what challenges you want to wake up to every morning.

And you know what? I do, too. One of the biggest reasons I like to ask hard questions, to have meaningful, honest discussions, is so that I can go to my client and tell them why you would be an excellent person, not candidate, to talk to. That opens doors. That creates brilliant relationships.

So, to wrap it all up: the market has been odd in 2017; but, it’s also been encouraging and highly personal. I think that that is tremendous.

Analytics –

Whatever it is you do, be it marketing, UX, branding, communications, writing, literally anything, analytics are changing the professional world at an insane pace. I hear that word with nearly every job order that comes across my desk.

Having the talent to piece together information in a useful way, with methods that will alter how a company responds to everything, is priceless right now. Do yourself a favor and start living in data, in analytics. You won’t regret doing so.

Competitor Insights –

This is another huge skill or practice that I see as a client must-have across most of my job orders.

If you’re a Marketing Writer, this means that you must be a voracious reader in your industry. If you’re a Brand Manager, this means spending as much time researching other branding means and methods as much as you spend on your own.

Knowing what your competition does is key right now but knowing why they do it is even more important. The ability to come back to your employer and say why A company is disrupting the game, or why B company needs to change their methodology, is invaluable.

Wrestle with the information and trends that are around you. Understand it. Improve upon it. Make it your own.

Portfolios and Samples of Work, or Methodologies –

This one is a bit harder to parse through. Companies don’t want to only see final products now. They want to see the nitty gritty process that you fight through to reach the final product. Like back in mathematics during middle and high school: show your work and how you got there, not just what came at the end.

If you are a UX Designer, this means lo-fi artifacts, wireframes, pictures of user-flows or sketches. If you’re a Digital Designer, that means showing the work you put in before getting to the end result (read: how you improved the project time and time again before wrapping it up for your consumers). If you are a Brand Manager, this means showing the processes you implement to revolutionize companies, products, &c. Where have those methods succeeded? Failed? Why?

It’s one thing to show brilliant work. It’s another to illuminate how you approach and solve problems.

So, what does this all come down to, Keller?

If you asked me for one piece of advice that I’ve gathered since starting here at Paladin, it would be this: recognize that the world we live in is changing so fast that staying up to date with it isn’t merely enough. Instead of being on-trend or ahead of the curve, recognize that the most important aspect of working right now is about having the opportunity to learn more about everything and anything, more so than any other generation before you.

You get to connect with more people right now than anyone ever thought imaginable just two decades ago, before social media existed. With that comes a great responsibility: do we want to merely connect and talk to as many people as possible, to reach the largest audience; or, do we want to enrich our lives, our workplaces, our network, our world? What can you do to make sure you get there?

Thanks for reading and have a great Thanksgiving.