What if getting a (design) job were human-centered?How might we reconsider this system of collecting a pool of resumes and dwindling them down to a few dozen potential candidates? With so many qualified individuals in the job market, from new grads to seasoned professionals, there has to be a fit somewhere.Call me an idealist — I am.In an ideal world, somehow the complexity of what makes a person unique could be captured and understood easily and quickly without any technological translators. But until then, a resume and a portfolio will have to do, in addition to the pre-screening interviews and design challenges. Without diving into a speculative design fiction, what if getting a (design) job were human-centered? How might the system be a bit more personal, yet still efficient enough to give the hundreds of qualified job seekers a chance in a span of weeks or months?

despite our human-centered mantra, the system of getting a job is anything but human-centered.For the sake of efficiency, consistency is key. Resumes should have some consistent nature to them so HR knows what the heck they’re looking at and the software can accurately pick out whose qualified. Even portfolios fall prey to these expectations for new grads and transitional job seekers. Go through enough examples of resumes and portfolios and they can begin to blur together. Yet, if I’m following a standard, how do I stand out when a lot of us are in the same boat?

Is the founder focused on a market opportunity, or a way that they want to change and improve our daily lives? It’s the difference between pitching the tool vs. the benefit. The best founders are always focused on the benefit—they’re putting themselves in the shoes of the consumer, instead of just building something because they can.

On how to identify a winning founder: “Great, thoughtful design. Great design tells you if the founder is focused, has good taste, understands the simplicity required to connect with the average consumer, and has a strong, specific point of view on what they’re building. It has always been my barometer. Great design is harder to identify than it sounds, though.”

i don't even really care if the answer is right, as long as the person i'm talking to can talk about complexity cogently. if i'm interviewing for an entry-level position, i don't even really care about that, we can teach it, it's not that hard.

Anecdotally I have noticed junior engineers being increasingly difficult to work with since many of them are leetcode drones who have issues working and figuring things out on their own. They got really good at passing 'the test' but did not develop many other skills relating to technology and many times do not really have an outside interest in it beyond being able to get a job.