UX - IA - UI - IxD (What do recruiters really want?)

As a recruiter that has specialized in UX/IA/ID for over 6 years, I totally understand your frustration. It was people in the UX community that requested I represent them and then showed me what you do. Wireframes, sitemaps, personas, process flows.... you know, classic UX deliverable.

Please allow me to introduce myself to those that do not already know who I am. My practice is nationwide and I would be happy to speak with anyone actively seeking or considering seeking. My database population is primarily made up of UX (with some interactive PM's AD's and CD's) and I'm currently working on filling roles in NYC, LA, Orange County (Southern CA) and Northern CA although new roles come across my desk all the time in areas around the US.

My contact information is below and I will be posting several positions to this site on Monday.

Have a wonderful weekend all and feel free to reach out should you wish to speak about opportunities.

Warm regards, Laura Ps...apologies if this sounds like a shameless plug as it seems relevant to the subject. Laura Hunter Vivid Resources office-424-237-2602 cell-559-303-9018 fax-310-919-1801 laura.hunter@vividresources.com www.vividresources.com

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. Ralph Waldo Emerson

-----Original Message----- From: ixdaor@host.ixda.org [mailto:ixdaor@host.ixda.org] On Behalf Of Maurice Carty Sent: Friday, June 04, 2010 8:24 AM To: laura.hunter@vividresources.com Subject: [IxDA] UI / UX / IA Definition and Recruiters

OK. Here's the jist.

I have had alot of recruiters contacting me about opportunities recently (I
feel blessed). To be honest. I'M PISSED OFF about recruiters calling/emailing me about jobs
who have NO IDEA about what the roles mean.

There has been this misconception about roles and what they entail. In my opinion an IA should not be a programmer with C#, Java, CSS, JQuiry
skills, neither should be a UI or UX professional. People with those skills
are called developer!!! Our role is dedicated to make the life of people more simple, by providing
experiences, not backend code. As a professional with 15+ years I know the average user doesn't care about
backend code, functionality or databases. They are engaged in an experience.
We provide that experience. Mind you, we as profesionals do need to know how our designs and experience
roadmap translate into development.

I'm just frustrated with some of these recruiter who have no
Tech/Design/UX/UI/IA experience asking for UI Designers with C#, Java
development skills, 5+ years of programming experience, and Photoshop is a
plus bull crap. Do us all a favor and do some research within our world!

Please rant with me and blow off some steam if you feel the same.

I completely understand. Some recruiters state you must have five years flash and be a graphic designer, or you must have five years programming with java and ajax and so on. I agree that those are developer jobs. However, I believe some companies are simply trying to be cheap by having a program do information architecture and design work. It is frustrating as a new graduate with an MSIS trying to find a job. I find this problem with recruiters to also be true of HR personal and for other professions. Very annoying. I have seen C developers making massive amounts of money because they can code but their information design for interaction are horrible.

Maureen Dostert 919.490.8405 mdostert2002@yahoo.com

----- Original Message ---- From: Maurice Carty To: mdostert2002@yahoo.com Sent: Fri, June 4, 2010 11:39:15 AM Subject: [IxDA] UI / UX / IA Definition and Recruiters

OK. Here's the jist.

I have had alot of recruiters contacting me about opportunities recently (I feel blessed). To be honest. I'M PISSED OFF about recruiters calling/emailing me about jobs who have NO IDEA about what the roles mean.

There has been this misconception about roles and what they entail. In my opinion an IA should not be a programmer with C#, Java, CSS, JQuiry skills, neither should be a UI or UX professional. People with those skills are called developer!!! Our role is dedicated to make the life of people more simple, by providing experiences, not backend code. As a professional with 15+ years I know the average user doesn't care about backend code, functionality or databases. They are engaged in an experience. We provide that experience. Mind you, we as profesionals do need to know how our designs and experience roadmap translate into development.

I'm just frustrated with some of these recruiter who have no Tech/Design/UX/UI/IA experience asking for UI Designers with C#, Java development skills, 5+ years of programming experience, and Photoshop is a plus bull crap. Do us all a favor and do some research within our world!

Please rant with me and blow off some steam if you feel the same.

I've been fighting this one for years...

I recall all the wonderful job adverts with titles like, "UI Designer" only to read that 5 years of C++ and a degree in CS was mandatory; Positions whose requirements mentioned "a bonus if you are familiar with usability"; or web design positions who refused to negotiate over the "must have graphic design degree". Even those that managed to understand UX as multi-disciplinary wanted gurus (this is the UK I'm talking about here).

All the while feeling that my HCI/psychology background and scientific research training was a waste of time...

Things are changing though. I've been interviewing over London lately and it seems good (though a bit strange) how so many organisations have established UX teams where not too many years ago I had to explain to them what UX was and why it's a bad idea to insist on an IT or graphic design degree.

Perhaps when we see adverts like the above, we should call them out? I saw one "developer in designers clothing" ad the other day and was too tired to correct. 

btw, I'm looking for contract work in the UK (primarily London): send me an email if anyone's interested. My linkedin profile should be available from my IxDA profile.

This might be a small consolation, but this problem is rampant in most technology fields, from QA, PM, design, DBA and yes, even developer roles.

As a dept leader, I've had a chance to work with a half-dozen recruiters over the years, and finally started asking them why it's so difficult to grasp the definition of the role they're filling, before seeking out candidates.  For the most part (almost to a person), the answer is lack of familiarity with the software engineering field at all, much less the dozens of shifting roles, technologies, methods and degrees throughout the field. 

From what I can tell, companies looking for UI practitioners (loosely, the whole 'design' realm, including IxDA, IA, and UXD) tend to rely primarily on technology recruiters for their talent.  At many of these companies, recruiters tend to be assigned based on potential ROI (to the staffing agency) for the candidate.  Therefore, the lesser-paid roles tend to go to newer recruiters (junior anything, including designer, developer, tester, even short-term PMs), while the higher-paid roles go to more experienced recruiters, who tend to have learned the nuances of our profession. 

I've been really pleased to meet a few UI-specialized recruiters, who know what we do, thanks Laura =].  However, they can only do so much when most large companies still lean on their big tech staffing agencies for their talent.

Since I can't help sharing my experience:  I was once asked to explain why my javascript expertise would make me an ideal candidate for a Java programming role.  When I explained that a) they are not the same thing, b) I had no interest in programming Java, and c) I couldn't get the position for my total lack of experience, the recruiter was flummoxed that I wouldn't at least try for the job, just to see if I got it.  I should also mention that the position was three hours away, a 3 month contract, and I would have to move my entire family to take the role. 

My personal pet peeve is being "discovered by keyword search" on a job board where my resume is posted, for a job I'm entirely un-qualified for, then asked immediately for a Word version of my resume.  In order to find me, I'm pretty confident that 99% of recruiters have to scroll through my resume to find out whether I am or am not qualified for a role...why not just read the one you found?

I completely agree with Maurice - I feel truly blessed to get any kind of inquiry for a position, and try my best to help recruiters find someone in my network who fits the bill.  It just astounds me, sometimes, when folks don't do a whole lot to make sure the candidate fits the bill.

Bryan

I can understand your point of view, Maurice, but I don't really get upset about it when people ask me if I have those skills - I just tell them I don't, and they're looking more for a UI Developer (and I think to myself good luck in finding one :) ). But I know there are all kinds of ways to work in this field.

However, I do think it's a problem in our community that companies have to go to recruiters at all to find us - because there is this perception that we are so hard to find. And yet we have organizations like IxDA and BayCHI who list us on their sites. But how can anyone find a practitioner here by city (which is usually important)? Any word on adding that simple filter field, Elizabeth? Maybe even skill set? I'm sure you all can think of more ways we would all like to be able to find other members here.

I personally will not work with recruiters any more - I've only worked with one one time over 10+ years as an independent - but I've also endured slow periods during slower economies, and during moves between cities. Fortunately I've created enough connections locally again now where I don't need to advertise much. But it would be nice to have some option for folks in our communities to get their names out there (other than  the standard time-consuming networking, social media, etc.)

I know the pain Maurice,   Thankfully there are enough good recruiters out there to block any company that asks you if you'd like to do asp, flash front ends, project managing or become a creative director.    The other thing that niggles me is when people send me a job description that describes what a user experience (UX) person does but nothing about what that person would do within the company and what exactly the company does. My first thoughts these days are 'does this company get UX?'  and 'have they got a proper UX team?'.  Often this comes down to where the UX team resides and who they report to. That tells me much more about the role than if the company would find Axure skills useful but not essential.

  Stew Dean