I have always been honest on this one. I AM NOT THE BEST GRAPHIC DESIGNER. A long time ago I decided not to take part on any design competition because I knew I would never win one. Technically there are many designers who are better skilled than me, and other personal and professional commitments do not let me much free time to expand my knowledge as fast as technology moves these days. However, when it comes to job interviews, my success report is over 90%.
What makes us the chosen candidate for a job offer?
To pick the right candidate depends on the person chosing decision to choose “tools” or people for a job.
My first job in London, back in 2005, came up throug the Job centre. After a phonecall from the same job office I got an appointment for a interview with the employer the next day. Right after the interview I was asked to come back for a design test that I should do using a professional design software I had never used before. I had 24 hours to learn how to use it to get a chance for the job opportunity. I haven´t seen that test again since, but I am very sure it was terrible! However, I was hired. After one and a half years on a Junior Designer role, I was checking and supervising other colleague designers’s work (who had been in the company for years and were more experienced), I was coordinating the printing production schedule along with the production manager and I was dealing with client phonecalls and supporting other designers on problem-solve issues on design. During all my working experiences I have delivered over the expected from myself and the role.
To be the right candidate you don´t need to be the best technically but the most able. To be the most-able includes many skills and attributes plus the right attitude, something that makes us different from machines. Tools, like machines, can’t evolve on their own; they don´t feel motivation, they can’t socialise but they need to be directed/programmed; they don’t feel empathy, curiousity or have dreams.
To pick the right candidate depends on the person chosing decision to choose “tools” or people for a job.
Few days ago a Japan hotel dismissed half of its staff…robots. Apparently many needed human assistance constantly, others have faults and activate at night through people’s snoring sounds. In brief, they were not people but machines without sensibility, empathy, independence and adaptability.
How about you, what do you look for your business?