How to hire an interface designer: myths, mistakes, market assessments and winning strategies
Over the past 7–8 years, our employees have read about 2,000 resumes of UX designers. We had a talk - under a hundred. A couple of dozens were accepted for temporary or permanent work. At the same time, we experienced an incalculable number of similar conversations with those who “also want” (or pretend to want) to get a similar specialist into the team.
We dare to hope that now we understand something in the search and hiring of interface designers. And we see well that leaders who have never encountered this task approach it with a fairly standard pattern of myths and legends.
Let's try a little to shatter the most common myths. Suddenly it will help someone to approach the issue of hiring a UX-designer a little more rationally and efficiently.
')
The article has a lot of different numbers. Their source is our internal statistics, corrected using HeadHunter's data analysis and manual refinements. The cut is only for the St. Petersburg market - but we venture to assume, according to some indirect indications, that it differs from the Moscow one only quantitatively (including wages), and not qualitatively.
Let us list the distortions of reality, on which it is a pity to waste time-power-letters. Too much has already been said on these topics in other speeches and publications.
All these statements are both true and erroneous. Let's just say: if they are still alive and well in your head, then hiring a specialist is a bit early.
The design of an IT product is a collective matter.
To create a valuable broom, you need a vigorous and intelligent manager, an eager analyst, a thinking customer, a competent technician, a sociable sales person, and still a lot of people - and yes, an experienced UX designer among them.
If everyone else in your team is engaged in nonsense or is completely absent - the UX-designer will not pull out the situation.
As a matter of fact, such waiting helps to diagnose production. With a high probability there is just a mess. Do you want to shift the responsibility for a key expertise of your business to a newbie? Good luck.
Now the idea is very popular, “But let the designer be at the same time imposing” . Well, let it be. Why not. Let's look at reality.
Pieces on the labor market declare themselves as a designer-layout designer. That is, here it is real in our base of their unit. And they are ... impressive. Well, because the work is really difficult - in fact, you need to combine the two professions.
There are programmers-makers who want to change the scope of activities and become designers. Well, they did not become yet! If you want to be a training ground for them, please. Just choose not too advanced designers: the brain of an accomplished programmer is so different from the brain of a person who knows how to think about people (and UX-designers, of course, know how) that it can turn out to be a little expensive for time and money. In other words, this is a question of luck (we were lucky once, but we did not require the employee to impose).
Unfortunately, the market shows that it is too early to satisfy this Wishlist. Well, just no one. Because it is in the myths.
Wildlife observations show that UX designers are divided into three groups.
Now watch your hands.
Character 2 - the actual designer - after several years of work really starts to think: isn’t it time to organize the processes? But he is well aware that this task is very, very difficult to combine with "drawing pictures." In other words, he is ready to consider the establishment of processes as a priority official duty, but not in any way secondary.
And the character 3 will be extremely happy at the same time with the proposal to establish something there. After all, to lead is not to work with your hands! They simply do not know how to work with their hands.
Guess which of these people will seem to you more suitable for a position that requires "at the same time and organization." Alas, not long to guess.
The distribution of 1-2-3 - as we see - now in the industry is about that.
Who we just did not see at their interviews. And from the coolest companies. And from the province (by the way, these are the best candidates). And with experience from the 20th century.
And they noticed that experience is not directly converted into quality. So-so news, we understand. But the fact is that in the work of the UX-designer, he is somehow completely fatally not converted.
Apparently, the fact is that self-education in this IT profession is much more difficult than in many others. To talent and interest need a mentor.
And such a mentor is not found in all companies, this time.
And in your company it is not (otherwise you would have read this article?), These are two.
Accordingly, people with real experience transforming into professional skills will not replace their developing environment with the situation “One in a field of a soldier”. And you have to choose from those who used to somehow make their way on their own. But just for them, the experience preserves the bad rather than develops the good.
We do not look at work experience. He is deceptive and crafty, especially if fashionable IT brands were crammed into him. We look at belonging to the IT industry as a whole, at the portfolio (see below) and the result of the test task.
Recall: design is a collective matter. And in the team, of course, must be an expert - the carrier of knowledge in the subject area. And an analyst who can interrogate this expert with passion. And a manager who can organize the exchange of information. Sometimes a couple of roles here can be combined: expert manager, expert analyst, manager analyst - not uncommon in our zoo.
However, the profession of UX-designer does not imply accurate knowledge in any particular industry. Rather, it requires the ability to quickly understand the nuances and apply them in the work. Respect for the constraints dictated by the context is also helpful.
Our practice shows that it is not so much the industry that matters more than the scale of the organization: it will be very difficult for an employee who has worked in a startup or web studio all the time to get involved in designing an interface for a large bureaucratic office.
So this myth is simple: you slightly minimize your risks if you look at the size of the organizations in which the UX designer used to work. But industry specifics are better for him to vaccinate in place.
No, no longer cursing. We got used to it. Listen, we can’t force our portfolio to put it out - and yet we understand that they, too, sooner or later will have to look for a new job, they are not forever with us!
But in general, alas, “everything under the NDA” is the most standard excuse. 40% of candidates watched by us - and good candidates! - all in words, nothing on the screen.
However, this is only a third of the problem.
The second third is what it is. The result of the work of a UX designer is a poorly structured set of obscure language and pictures. Because, for the time being, there is no notation in which one can impressively demonstrate the result of designing the interaction with the system. These are partly sketches, partly texts or comments on pictures, partly tables, or very ugly flowcharts - in general, no wow factor to you. In short, are you sure you can understand what you are shown?
Well, the last third. It is rather about those who have an impressive portfolio. On Behance or Dribble . With a high degree of probability they are designers. They are not big docks in the question of the interaction of people with the system and can only provide you with a solution to the questions of visual impression. What closes a significant piece of UX-tasks - but not all, not all.
Yes, designers will swear to you that in fact they are very interested in the UX area and they are ready to dive straight. But you know, it's better to draw beautiful pictures, they do it cool.
Summary: an impressive portfolio is either an indicator of a very cool designer (are you ready to buy it?), Or a non-designer attribute in general.
Oh, I almost forgot. The very, very wanting, but not able to show anything, stand apart. What prevents a person from taking the task from the ceiling, to design the interface and show it as a model of his work, we still have not understood. Is that faith in the freebie "You take me for beautiful eyes for a salary, and I will already study in the workplace" - so what?
Here the problem is not so obvious. But still it is.
Let's just recalculate the minimum set of interface environments that a modern user has to deal with.
People use it. Know used to. Waiting and demanding. So all this needs to be designed.
Why did you cling to the mobile? Stylish trendy youth? And which mobiles are Android, iOS, Win? Straight must-must-yesterday-yesterday?
In other words, for you mobile qualification is a key requirement for a designer? He will every day in these mobile dig?
Or do you want a mobile "in reserve"? If the second - you can safely rely on the fact that the designer will master the mobile environment in the course of work. In the end, the distribution of a single approach to a specific platform is one of the qualifications of the UX designer.
Freelancer (expensive, cool, fast) is useful for solving problems that do not require immersion in your production process. In the world of UX-design, we even somehow find it difficult to name such tasks. Perhaps the most trivial ones? Or bordering on graphic design? Well, if the requirements for the quality of the final product are small, then you can also try a remote employee.
There is one more problem with freelancers: they do not want to work with you, they want to earn money on you. The expertise of the company from attracting a freelancer will not grow, there will be no team decisions - instead of a new production quality, you will receive only disposable pictures. And well, if you get (about throwing in this market is already written a lot, and no one is insured).
Another interesting fact is that in our database of specialists there is a noticeable correlation between the level of professionalism and the unwillingness to take third-party orders.
We hope to see alternative opinions in the comments. Even interesting. However, we ask the distinguished commentators to remember our position: the design of an IT product is a collective matter.
And the involvement of a lone freelancer in the work of a complex team never takes place on the change, here one must either invest the strength of a manager, or put up with poor communication (and inevitably a bad result at the exit).
But if everything is finally decided, looking for a freelancer, then at least you will have the price distribution.
Ha. Three times.
Here you just distribution of salary expectations in our database. Thousands of rubles. Svezhachok.
It is interesting that here it was necessary to correct the initial data. After all, in the resume people write the amount in excess of their current salary. The question “How much are you worth?” Is also reported a higher amount than they receive now monthly. The fact is that when a person declares a new income bar, he adds an average of 10–15% to his current.
Boys are more expensive, girls are cheaper. The salary with the gender of the candidate is also related: the boys noticeably overestimate themselves. But the floor is not connected with the quality of work in any way (all of a sudden you are worried - here, reassure).
Median - 60 in fact (70 in dreams).
The average is 65 in fact (75 in dreams).
The median is less than the average, which means that most companies pay less than the average salary in the sample. Either some of the rich are overpaying a good deal, or a mass employer is content with a very, very mediocre qualification of an employee, or both. That we do not know something and do not understand.
So, 36% obviously do not reach the level of qualification that interests us. And another 9% do not want to work on full time. The rest will take a closer look.
Most of all, we are interested in the salary range of 55–65 (expectations of 65–75): already specialists, but not yet fed up and not starring. We'll have to reach out, of course, but within reason. And there are very few of them - 7%, tears.
The current salary range of 70–80 (i.e., 80–90 according to expectations) is a fishing rod thrown at an employer who wants to take more than give. Well, right, you can not give knowledge and experience - at least give me money. It is not surprising that at this stage people can get very firmly stuck: in time, the employer pays them well, but helps them with professional growth.
The range from 70 (according to expectations from 80) is mostly people from IT companies-vacuum cleaners (where salaries are heavily bullied, just because of the specifics of the market). Let them stay there. The first layer of these people (70–80 after the fact, 80–90 according to expectations) is no better than those who work for 55–65, but they managed to get an interview at a rich IT company.
It is curious that from the rich vacuum cleaners we - it was the case - took very small beginners to turn them into steep ones and return them back to cookies and team building.
Notice that our distribution is noticeably different from public statistics. This is because we know a lot about people who do not bargain on the labor market. For example, out of the last two cohorts, not one person at all (at the time of writing this article) is looking for work - and by the way, 28% of them are quite a few.
We dare to hope that our assessments are closer to the harsh reality than estimates that can be obtained by analyzing public summaries. And this quick review of open sources, apparently, misleads some employers about the “cheapness” of UX designers.
And a little more statistics. We have a special tick "Asshole" in our database. Sorry, it is really so called. We put it on those UX-designers who showed themselves from the "best" side on literally all fronts. And with whom you never want to do anything else.
Do you know how many such ticks are there? 10% base. Wow
It says nothing about the objective quality of specialists. In the end, we could simply not get together characters.
But this says something about our allowable error when choosing an employee. Do you think for sure that yours is lower?
Now there are about 200 available UX-design candidates resumes on HeadHunter in St. Petersburg. Most likely, a third of them are dead - that is what we did not check, an estimate by eye. Each week updated 3-4 appears resume.
Almost all of these people we have already looked. Most of the resumes were simply read, but some candidates were called for an interview.
On average, 40 suitable candidates (and unsuitable darkness) respond to our vacancy “about UX”. Half come to the interview. It happens that we do not select anyone.
Think fastidious? Well, what do we do? We need a narrow stratum “already a pro, but not yet stars”, but the market offers ... the market offers ... this is what it offers.
The only exception to this sad rule is as follows: if a person has “traveled far in” and is looking for his first job in St. Petersburg, it is highly likely that he is a good specialist, even if he is a beginner. But to say that the choice of a nonresident is rich is, perhaps, to embellish reality.
About 40% of the respondents directly told us explicitly: I am not looking for work, and in the near future I am not going to look for it. Most likely, they will be lured directly, they will not post resumes anywhere. But this is a hypothesis, here we do not know exactly. And yes, of course, these are the most expensive specialists.
“Acquaintances” are social networks and professional communities, right? They give an excellent stream of candidates for managers, analysts, copywriters and even - sometimes - sales managers. But not in UX designers.
However, we do not mind, we list the key "familiar" tools.
For Peter, that's all.
The question “Do you have anyone in mind?” You can ask your friends and acquaintances, but usually people or freelancers in life are usually taken in mind.
The first does not rush to change jobs. Something like this, they declare head-on: they’re working and don’t want to change anything.
The second will try to convince you to work with them in freelancing. And about freelancers, see a separate myth.
In general, despite being immersed in a party and even some name in it, we prefer to search through HeadHunter. No, this is not advertising, it is the reality of a monopolistic market.
Usually we do not use any useful links and go head-on - we post an ad on HeadHunter. And this is how the time scale looks like from the moment of its publication.
Total at a minimum: the designer you have appears after 24 working days. Colleagues, this is a calendar month. At least a month! There are two and three. And they do not go to hunting, but to search and choose from a rather large range.
In principle, not bad: there was a time to think, the decision was not spontaneous, you are set up for a long game. But this is not the 2-3 days that new employers are counting on (we did not understand why).
Yes, we didn’t do target hunting for ourselves, we didn’t lure a star.
UX-designer must be entered into the workflow in the same way as any other employee (except top managers). The dream that the “interface designer” will appear in the team and immediately understand what and how to draw, and in a couple of hours or days will show cool pictures - this dream, frankly, is not realized very often.
But actually the problem is different. Tell yourself honestly: where did your interfaces come from, who designed them? Whoever it is, especially if it is you yourself, he will at first be very dissatisfied with the results of the designer’s work (and perhaps even by his presence).
You - well, who else? - it is necessary to solve purely human problems. Against the background of the fact that you yourself will not be sure of your choice and the meaningfulness of hiring in general, a cheerful month is guaranteed.
And only then, if the stars develop successfully, work will boil.
That's about all that we think about the procedure for hiring a UX-designer. From a business-organizational, of course, point of view.
And the bonus is a short check list, according to which we filter incoming resumes. Bold highlighted preferred options. The more “correct” answers, the more chances to get us for an interview.
So it goes.
In the following series: alarm bells and good signs in the work of the designer, the use of the designer in the work of the IT collective farm, the track of professional development, what to do for those without a budget for hiring a designer - and other horrors of our UX town.
We dare to hope that now we understand something in the search and hiring of interface designers. And we see well that leaders who have never encountered this task approach it with a fairly standard pattern of myths and legends.
Let's try a little to shatter the most common myths. Suddenly it will help someone to approach the issue of hiring a UX-designer a little more rationally and efficiently.
')
The article has a lot of different numbers. Their source is our internal statistics, corrected using HeadHunter's data analysis and manual refinements. The cut is only for the St. Petersburg market - but we venture to assume, according to some indirect indications, that it differs from the Moscow one only quantitatively (including wages), and not qualitatively.
Myths below the baseboards
Let us list the distortions of reality, on which it is a pity to waste time-power-letters. Too much has already been said on these topics in other speeches and publications.
- Our designer can deal with the design of the interface.
- As programmers do, so well.
- I'll draw everything myself.
- I only need a UX-designer with a special education.
- UX designers are creative people.
All these statements are both true and erroneous. Let's just say: if they are still alive and well in your head, then hiring a specialist is a bit early.
Myth 1. I will hire a designer - and he will create interfaces for me.
The design of an IT product is a collective matter.
To create a valuable broom, you need a vigorous and intelligent manager, an eager analyst, a thinking customer, a competent technician, a sociable sales person, and still a lot of people - and yes, an experienced UX designer among them.
If everyone else in your team is engaged in nonsense or is completely absent - the UX-designer will not pull out the situation.
As a matter of fact, such waiting helps to diagnose production. With a high probability there is just a mess. Do you want to shift the responsibility for a key expertise of your business to a newbie? Good luck.
Myth 2. And exactly do it: that is, to type out too
Now the idea is very popular, “But let the designer be at the same time imposing” . Well, let it be. Why not. Let's look at reality.
Pieces on the labor market declare themselves as a designer-layout designer. That is, here it is real in our base of their unit. And they are ... impressive. Well, because the work is really difficult - in fact, you need to combine the two professions.
There are programmers-makers who want to change the scope of activities and become designers. Well, they did not become yet! If you want to be a training ground for them, please. Just choose not too advanced designers: the brain of an accomplished programmer is so different from the brain of a person who knows how to think about people (and UX-designers, of course, know how) that it can turn out to be a little expensive for time and money. In other words, this is a question of luck (we were lucky once, but we did not require the employee to impose).
Unfortunately, the market shows that it is too early to satisfy this Wishlist. Well, just no one. Because it is in the myths.
Myth 3. And he will arrange all the work with the interfaces in the company
Wildlife observations show that UX designers are divided into three groups.
- Students and former students. A lot of enthusiasm and little understanding of how the process of IT-production. Nothing can adjust by definition.
- Actually the designers. They ask interesting questions about the statement (and before that they read the statement!). Draw pictures. Explain what they drew. Make edits to the results of discussions. They perceive criticism as an attempt by colleagues to improve the interface, and not as a struggle for power. In general, bunny. And they are not at all eager to build someone there and build something there.
- Pseudo designers. You can identify them by the close attention that they give to “setting the task” and “analyzing business processes”. They like to talk on the topic "The designer is not only a picture painter, he solves business problems." They know how to troll, do not know how to cooperate. There is a suspicion that they do not really know how to draw interfaces at all - but this is rarely possible to understand, because - “I haven’t been given the task!” . What they can do for you is incomprehensible.
Now watch your hands.
Character 2 - the actual designer - after several years of work really starts to think: isn’t it time to organize the processes? But he is well aware that this task is very, very difficult to combine with "drawing pictures." In other words, he is ready to consider the establishment of processes as a priority official duty, but not in any way secondary.
And the character 3 will be extremely happy at the same time with the proposal to establish something there. After all, to lead is not to work with your hands! They simply do not know how to work with their hands.
Guess which of these people will seem to you more suitable for a position that requires "at the same time and organization." Alas, not long to guess.
The distribution of 1-2-3 - as we see - now in the industry is about that.
- Students, beginners and low-skilled - about 80% in the public space of the labor market and about 45% in the specialty as a whole. Yes. Exactly. Perhaps this is the law of nature for any industry.
- Actually designers are in public space about 7% (actually more, but they are carefully hiding from HRs).
- The rest are false designers. We would like to be mistaken - but there is a suspicion that we were mistaken just in the smaller direction and there are actually more than 13%. We do not know. We are afraid. Themselves tinker regularly, yes.
Myth 4. The designer must have experience ...
Who we just did not see at their interviews. And from the coolest companies. And from the province (by the way, these are the best candidates). And with experience from the 20th century.
And they noticed that experience is not directly converted into quality. So-so news, we understand. But the fact is that in the work of the UX-designer, he is somehow completely fatally not converted.
Apparently, the fact is that self-education in this IT profession is much more difficult than in many others. To talent and interest need a mentor.
And such a mentor is not found in all companies, this time.
And in your company it is not (otherwise you would have read this article?), These are two.
Accordingly, people with real experience transforming into professional skills will not replace their developing environment with the situation “One in a field of a soldier”. And you have to choose from those who used to somehow make their way on their own. But just for them, the experience preserves the bad rather than develops the good.
We do not look at work experience. He is deceptive and crafty, especially if fashionable IT brands were crammed into him. We look at belonging to the IT industry as a whole, at the portfolio (see below) and the result of the test task.
Myth 5. ... in my industry
Recall: design is a collective matter. And in the team, of course, must be an expert - the carrier of knowledge in the subject area. And an analyst who can interrogate this expert with passion. And a manager who can organize the exchange of information. Sometimes a couple of roles here can be combined: expert manager, expert analyst, manager analyst - not uncommon in our zoo.
However, the profession of UX-designer does not imply accurate knowledge in any particular industry. Rather, it requires the ability to quickly understand the nuances and apply them in the work. Respect for the constraints dictated by the context is also helpful.
Our practice shows that it is not so much the industry that matters more than the scale of the organization: it will be very difficult for an employee who has worked in a startup or web studio all the time to get involved in designing an interface for a large bureaucratic office.
So this myth is simple: you slightly minimize your risks if you look at the size of the organizations in which the UX designer used to work. But industry specifics are better for him to vaccinate in place.
Myth 6. ... and an impressive portfolio
⎯ Show the portfolio?
⎯ Everything is under the NDA ...
⎯ Bl [censored].
No, no longer cursing. We got used to it. Listen, we can’t force our portfolio to put it out - and yet we understand that they, too, sooner or later will have to look for a new job, they are not forever with us!
But in general, alas, “everything under the NDA” is the most standard excuse. 40% of candidates watched by us - and good candidates! - all in words, nothing on the screen.
However, this is only a third of the problem.
The second third is what it is. The result of the work of a UX designer is a poorly structured set of obscure language and pictures. Because, for the time being, there is no notation in which one can impressively demonstrate the result of designing the interaction with the system. These are partly sketches, partly texts or comments on pictures, partly tables, or very ugly flowcharts - in general, no wow factor to you. In short, are you sure you can understand what you are shown?
Well, the last third. It is rather about those who have an impressive portfolio. On Behance or Dribble . With a high degree of probability they are designers. They are not big docks in the question of the interaction of people with the system and can only provide you with a solution to the questions of visual impression. What closes a significant piece of UX-tasks - but not all, not all.
Yes, designers will swear to you that in fact they are very interested in the UX area and they are ready to dive straight. But you know, it's better to draw beautiful pictures, they do it cool.
Summary: an impressive portfolio is either an indicator of a very cool designer (are you ready to buy it?), Or a non-designer attribute in general.
Oh, I almost forgot. The very, very wanting, but not able to show anything, stand apart. What prevents a person from taking the task from the ceiling, to design the interface and show it as a model of his work, we still have not understood. Is that faith in the freebie "You take me for beautiful eyes for a salary, and I will already study in the workplace" - so what?
Myth 7. Let him surely know how mobile
Here the problem is not so obvious. But still it is.
Let's just recalculate the minimum set of interface environments that a modern user has to deal with.
- Web on the desktop and laptop. Multiple browsers.
- The tablet. Multiple OSes.
- Smartphone. Multiple OSes.
- GUI application on the desktop. Windows and Mac at least.
- Touch interfaces. Terminals, navigation, etc.
- ATM interfaces. Yes, a separate thing.
- Voice interfaces. IVR at least.
- SMS and USSD interfaces. Mostly with mobile operators.
- Integration capabilities between all these building blocks.
People use it. Know used to. Waiting and demanding. So all this needs to be designed.
Why did you cling to the mobile? Stylish trendy youth? And which mobiles are Android, iOS, Win? Straight must-must-yesterday-yesterday?
In other words, for you mobile qualification is a key requirement for a designer? He will every day in these mobile dig?
Or do you want a mobile "in reserve"? If the second - you can safely rely on the fact that the designer will master the mobile environment in the course of work. In the end, the distribution of a single approach to a specific platform is one of the qualifications of the UX designer.
Myth 8. In principle, a freelancer is enough for me
Freelancer (expensive, cool, fast) is useful for solving problems that do not require immersion in your production process. In the world of UX-design, we even somehow find it difficult to name such tasks. Perhaps the most trivial ones? Or bordering on graphic design? Well, if the requirements for the quality of the final product are small, then you can also try a remote employee.
There is one more problem with freelancers: they do not want to work with you, they want to earn money on you. The expertise of the company from attracting a freelancer will not grow, there will be no team decisions - instead of a new production quality, you will receive only disposable pictures. And well, if you get (about throwing in this market is already written a lot, and no one is insured).
Another interesting fact is that in our database of specialists there is a noticeable correlation between the level of professionalism and the unwillingness to take third-party orders.
We hope to see alternative opinions in the comments. Even interesting. However, we ask the distinguished commentators to remember our position: the design of an IT product is a collective matter.
And the involvement of a lone freelancer in the work of a complex team never takes place on the change, here one must either invest the strength of a manager, or put up with poor communication (and inevitably a bad result at the exit).
But if everything is finally decided, looking for a freelancer, then at least you will have the price distribution.
- Up to 700 rubles. per hour - 20%.
- 700–1000 - 17%.
- 1000-1200 - 17%.
- 1500-1800 - 13%.
- 2000 and higher - 6%.
- Do not want to freelance - 27%.
Myth 9. Although why not in the state? This is inexpensive
Ha. Three times.
Here you just distribution of salary expectations in our database. Thousands of rubles. Svezhachok.
- Does not want - 9%.
- 20–35 (that is, they never worked) - 10%.
- 40–45 (now they have about 30) - 9%.
- 50–60 (40–50) - 17%.
- 65–75 (55–65) - 7%.
- 80–90 (70–80) - 20%.
- 100–120 (80–100) - 18%.
- 125 and above (100 and above) - 10%.
It is interesting that here it was necessary to correct the initial data. After all, in the resume people write the amount in excess of their current salary. The question “How much are you worth?” Is also reported a higher amount than they receive now monthly. The fact is that when a person declares a new income bar, he adds an average of 10–15% to his current.
Boys are more expensive, girls are cheaper. The salary with the gender of the candidate is also related: the boys noticeably overestimate themselves. But the floor is not connected with the quality of work in any way (all of a sudden you are worried - here, reassure).
Median - 60 in fact (70 in dreams).
The average is 65 in fact (75 in dreams).
The median is less than the average, which means that most companies pay less than the average salary in the sample. Either some of the rich are overpaying a good deal, or a mass employer is content with a very, very mediocre qualification of an employee, or both. That we do not know something and do not understand.
So, 36% obviously do not reach the level of qualification that interests us. And another 9% do not want to work on full time. The rest will take a closer look.
Most of all, we are interested in the salary range of 55–65 (expectations of 65–75): already specialists, but not yet fed up and not starring. We'll have to reach out, of course, but within reason. And there are very few of them - 7%, tears.
The current salary range of 70–80 (i.e., 80–90 according to expectations) is a fishing rod thrown at an employer who wants to take more than give. Well, right, you can not give knowledge and experience - at least give me money. It is not surprising that at this stage people can get very firmly stuck: in time, the employer pays them well, but helps them with professional growth.
The range from 70 (according to expectations from 80) is mostly people from IT companies-vacuum cleaners (where salaries are heavily bullied, just because of the specifics of the market). Let them stay there. The first layer of these people (70–80 after the fact, 80–90 according to expectations) is no better than those who work for 55–65, but they managed to get an interview at a rich IT company.
It is curious that from the rich vacuum cleaners we - it was the case - took very small beginners to turn them into steep ones and return them back to cookies and team building.
Notice that our distribution is noticeably different from public statistics. This is because we know a lot about people who do not bargain on the labor market. For example, out of the last two cohorts, not one person at all (at the time of writing this article) is looking for work - and by the way, 28% of them are quite a few.
We dare to hope that our assessments are closer to the harsh reality than estimates that can be obtained by analyzing public summaries. And this quick review of open sources, apparently, misleads some employers about the “cheapness” of UX designers.
Inset about the source data
Here you are talking about the candidate base. And how many people do you have in it?
More than a hundred and less than a thousand.
Oh, and can I see with one eye?
Not.
Then please recommend me to someone? I'll pay the money!
We did everything we could by writing this article. Next yourself.
I am a designer and want / do not want to be on this list.
Write , and we will add / cross out.
Your data is inaccurate!
Yep
Myth 10. I can easily understand if a specialist is good or bad
And a little more statistics. We have a special tick "Asshole" in our database. Sorry, it is really so called. We put it on those UX-designers who showed themselves from the "best" side on literally all fronts. And with whom you never want to do anything else.
Do you know how many such ticks are there? 10% base. Wow
It says nothing about the objective quality of specialists. In the end, we could simply not get together characters.
But this says something about our allowable error when choosing an employee. Do you think for sure that yours is lower?
Myth 11. HeadHunter is full of candidates, I will have plenty to choose from.
Now there are about 200 available UX-design candidates resumes on HeadHunter in St. Petersburg. Most likely, a third of them are dead - that is what we did not check, an estimate by eye. Each week updated 3-4 appears resume.
Almost all of these people we have already looked. Most of the resumes were simply read, but some candidates were called for an interview.
On average, 40 suitable candidates (and unsuitable darkness) respond to our vacancy “about UX”. Half come to the interview. It happens that we do not select anyone.
Think fastidious? Well, what do we do? We need a narrow stratum “already a pro, but not yet stars”, but the market offers ... the market offers ... this is what it offers.
The only exception to this sad rule is as follows: if a person has “traveled far in” and is looking for his first job in St. Petersburg, it is highly likely that he is a good specialist, even if he is a beginner. But to say that the choice of a nonresident is rich is, perhaps, to embellish reality.
About 40% of the respondents directly told us explicitly: I am not looking for work, and in the near future I am not going to look for it. Most likely, they will be lured directly, they will not post resumes anywhere. But this is a hypothesis, here we do not know exactly. And yes, of course, these are the most expensive specialists.
Myth 12. But, as always, it’s best to search by acquaintances.
“Acquaintances” are social networks and professional communities, right? They give an excellent stream of candidates for managers, analysts, copywriters and even - sometimes - sales managers. But not in UX designers.
However, we do not mind, we list the key "familiar" tools.
- The UX Club Facebook group. Not targeted to Peter, but in principle you can post vacancies there. We do not even remember whether they did it or not. Try it - tell us how to progress.
- Newsletter community UX SPb. Someone regularly throws vacancies there. We also tried. We get from there a stream of all the same "quickly trained students who have just graduated from the faculty of ergonomics." It is necessary to understand that these are not specialists, but the raw materials for transformation into specialists. However, certainly more serious people would be interested in the dream vacancy - but we do not have any buns and voluntary medical insurance, we are just working.
- Axure RP Rro on VKontakte. With the vacancy published there, several people came - oddly enough, the level is slightly higher than the student one. But all the same, they do not reach the state interesting to us. All the boys, all from the province, all up to 25 years.
For Peter, that's all.
The question “Do you have anyone in mind?” You can ask your friends and acquaintances, but usually people or freelancers in life are usually taken in mind.
The first does not rush to change jobs. Something like this, they declare head-on: they’re working and don’t want to change anything.
The second will try to convince you to work with them in freelancing. And about freelancers, see a separate myth.
In general, despite being immersed in a party and even some name in it, we prefer to search through HeadHunter. No, this is not advertising, it is the reality of a monopolistic market.
Myth 13. In 2-3 days there will be a suitable person.
Usually we do not use any useful links and go head-on - we post an ad on HeadHunter. And this is how the time scale looks like from the moment of its publication.
- Primary collection of candidates - 3-4 days. After that, the stream dries out, resumes begin to send all sorts of "fast learners" and other storekeepers.
- Primary filtering and issuing test tasks begin immediately, but even a very quick candidate still needs 2–3 days to complete the test.
- Appointment of interviews and interviews themselves. The key limitation is the inability of candidates to come to the conversation during the day. It means that more than three people a day (two in the morning, one in the evening) cannot be watched. Here we get into the task of a discriminating bride : when to stop? Practice shows that after 10 days of interviews, the meaning in them already disappears, suitable candidates stop, the parade of madmen begins.
- Decision-making. We try to shoot candidates for video - so that all internal decision makers look and that their presence at the interview itself is not obligatory. But still, the question is not instant, it takes about three days.
- Negotiations with selected ones, setting up an informal job offer. A couple of days (someone has already settled - switch to the next ...).
- Waiting to go to work. It happens that a person must resign from the previous place. Or go on vacation. Or something similar. Theoretically, a good candidate and you can wait? Practically - those who would have to wait longer than a week, we have not yet seen at the interviews.
- The first 3-4 days of newbie work. Here all the shoals of the candidate (or our strangeness) come out, which make the further coexistence of the individual and the office impossible. Well, parting, it happens. It’s good that in 3-4 days (yes, this is a specific feature of the UX industry: crap is immediately visible, which is nice).
- Mailing bounce. A burden, but necessary. The problem is that I really do not want to deny the "almost fit" - because there is a risk of failure of the already selected beginner. This means that we can send out refusals only when a person has already integrated into the workflow, or it has become clear that no one has been found.
Total at a minimum: the designer you have appears after 24 working days. Colleagues, this is a calendar month. At least a month! There are two and three. And they do not go to hunting, but to search and choose from a rather large range.
In principle, not bad: there was a time to think, the decision was not spontaneous, you are set up for a long game. But this is not the 2-3 days that new employers are counting on (we did not understand why).
Yes, we didn’t do target hunting for ourselves, we didn’t lure a star.
Myth 14. Naidu, self-employed - and work boils
UX-designer must be entered into the workflow in the same way as any other employee (except top managers). The dream that the “interface designer” will appear in the team and immediately understand what and how to draw, and in a couple of hours or days will show cool pictures - this dream, frankly, is not realized very often.
But actually the problem is different. Tell yourself honestly: where did your interfaces come from, who designed them? Whoever it is, especially if it is you yourself, he will at first be very dissatisfied with the results of the designer’s work (and perhaps even by his presence).
You - well, who else? - it is necessary to solve purely human problems. Against the background of the fact that you yourself will not be sure of your choice and the meaningfulness of hiring in general, a cheerful month is guaranteed.
And only then, if the stars develop successfully, work will boil.
Need the same picture!
That's about all that we think about the procedure for hiring a UX-designer. From a business-organizational, of course, point of view.
And the bonus is a short check list, according to which we filter incoming resumes. Bold highlighted preferred options. The more “correct” answers, the more chances to get us for an interview.
- Previous work: any IT / UX, but not IT / not UX and not IT.
- Place of residence: local / indent .
- Portfolio: beautiful on Behance / scattered files / no.
- Language summary: Russian / English.
- Age: strongly up to 30 / close to 30 / noticeable in 30.
- Expected salary: by market / higher / lower.
- Education: technical / science / humanities / arts.
- Paul: M / F (it doesn’t matter to us, but among girls there are more of those who are already cool, but still don’t know about it).
- Mail domain: mail.ru/ any other .
- Skills of the artist or designer: yes / no .
- Cover letter length: 1–2 lines / 3–7 lines / more.
- The essence of the cover letter: I want to work / ready to consider a vacancy.
* * *
So it goes.
In the following series: alarm bells and good signs in the work of the designer, the use of the designer in the work of the IT collective farm, the track of professional development, what to do for those without a budget for hiring a designer - and other horrors of our UX town.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/291340/
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