What is Wrong with Hiring

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
How to find a decent job and workplace wellbeing based on our personal definitions of design maturity, and our career and life priorities
Looking for mature teams in times of job scarcity—can we be selective?
Balancing the desire for impact and quality with the realities of organizational constraints and our individual capacity
And some existential questions like Does true design maturity even exist?, How much should we care?, and Can UX be just a job?
Links
Hang's Design Maturity Repo
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!

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 tight UX job market, how do I convince myself to wait for an opportunity that I know is a true fit for me, rather than taking the first role I’m offered?
What are hiring processes actually optimized for? Do people really know what they're doing when assessing candidates? (short answer: a lot of the time, no). 
Do Amy & Laura actually drink while recording the show?
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!

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 of the awfulness. 
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!
 

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!

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 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!

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 REALLY that flooded? 
How do conversion salaries typically compare to hourly contract rates? 
Episode transcript
🤑 2021-2023 Global UX Compensation Transparency Database 🤑
 
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!

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 Norman Group by Per Axbom
Gender Decoder: Finding subtle bias in job ads
Laura's famous Twitter post featured in r/antiwork (Amy's favorite subreddit aside from r/birds, r/birding, r/birdsfacingforward, r/linkedinlunatics, and r/stupiddovenests)
Katrina Kibben - Writing Advice for Job Postings and Recruiting
Why are UX job descriptions so bad?
 
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!
 

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 favorite podcast app.
And if you're feeling extra generous, we would appreciate a financial contribution to support our work!

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 course, the classic tumblr Clients from Hell
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!

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 feeling extra generous, we would appreciate a financial contribution to support our work!

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 our work!
 

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 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!
 

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

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

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