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...| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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 ca...| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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 specia...| What is Wrong with Hiring
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...| What is Wrong with Hiring
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 fram...| What is Wrong with Hiring
Why is the tech job market still so bad? Why are the mass layoffs still happening? Why is hiring so broken, and whose fault is it? Job seekers, hiring managers, and recruiters alike will want to tune in to my conversation with recruiter and founder of Hire Breakthrough, Kimone Napier, for some commiseration and perspective during this defeating and demoralizing time. We also talk what exactly an ATS is and why you don’t need to worry about it, what companies are legally allowed to verify ...| What is Wrong with Hiring
Amy chats with writer, podcaster, speaker, Pokémon enthusiast, research champion, and founder of User Research Academy, Nikki Anderson about leveling up in user research job interviews. Nikki provides sage advice 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...| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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 on...| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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 asses...| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
Amy chats with Sally Carson, a leadership coach and design executive with over 20 years in tech, about a whole smorgasbord of Vital Information for Your Everyday Professional Life. Hiring insights from her experience leading design teams at Cisco & LinkedIn Crafting your resume, portfolio, and other materials according to the "jobs to be done" of your audience (recruiters and hiring managers) Insider info & tips on optimizing your LinkedIn profile (Sally led design for a variety of features ...| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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 ...| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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/2p...| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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 t...| What is Wrong with Hiring
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-emplo...| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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 mod...| What is Wrong with Hiring
In this episode, 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 ca...| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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 transcri...| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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 tig...| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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...| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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. 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!| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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 o...| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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...| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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! Episode transcript That unpleasant job posting from Nielsen ...| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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. 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 favorit...| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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 cours...| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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. 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 fe...| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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. 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 ou...| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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. 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 ...| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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!)| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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)| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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)| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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 b...| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
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...| www.whatiswrongwithhiring.com
