It's been fun times this year on What is Wrong With Hiring, the show where Laura Klein and I attempt to understand why hiring and getting hired in tech are both absolute nightmares, and try to figure out what to do about it.

While Laura is away (doing what, I am not sure; maybe she will grace us with her presence some day soon!), I've been enjoying playing host to a series of fantastic guest chats with design hiring managers and recruiters.

Tech job seekers—queue up our show to learn about navigating the current crappy job market and playing the stupid game of absurd and biased interview processes.

Hiring managers and recruiters—tune in to hear about ideas for designing a fair and effective hiring process, and how candidates feel about going through the rigamarole just to get a damn job.

The goal of our show is to provide some new perspectives and mild entertainment as we discuss the experiences of hiring managers, candidates, and talent professionals, and work toward solutions. Because y'know, we do care, and there is a better way.

🎙️ 2024 Episode Recap

You Asked, We Answered - Listener Grab Bag #4

October 27, 2024

We answer some listener-submitted questions about getting UX design jobs, describing work impact on a resume, negotiating a bait and switch salary, and engaging with LinkedIn posts that critique the job search. Plus, Laura shares how she really feels about Figma.

Making Sense of UX Research Job Leveling with Lawton Pybus & Thomas Stokes

October 7, 2024

A lack of standardized definitions for UX research roles and levels across companies presents a challenge for job searches, hiring, promotions, and career planning. Lawton Pybus and Thomas Stokes of Drill Bit Labs discuss their research on the state of UXR job leveling, qualifications, responsibilities, and compensation for IC and manager roles. Plus actionable recommendations for how you use their new data-driven leveling framework to design a more effective and efficient job search, hiring process, team leveling infrastructure, and UXR career plan. Come for the insights, stay for the research nerdery.

Yes, Hiring is Broken with Recruiter Kimone Napier

September 15, 2024

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. 

From Charmander to Charizard: Level Up Your UX Research Job Search with Nikki Anderson

July 13, 2024

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 taking your resume up a notch and selecting the right portfolio case studies, and shares the common mistakes she sees people make with their materials and interviews. She also imparts a supportive message to job seekers, and realistic perspective on the current and future state of UX during a very challenging time for everyone in the community.

Interviewing When You're an "Only" With Roberta Dombrowski

July 13, 2024

Amy chats with Roberta Dombrowski, coach and founder of Learn Mindfully, 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.

Mitch Clements on Scaling Design Teams & Hiring Senior Talent

June 17, 2024

Senior Product Design Manager 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 screening and interviewing candidates (entry level to advanced), implementing a career architecture framework and standardized assessment rubrics, why portfolios should NOT be a requirement for applications, and optimistic predictions for a resurgence of UX hiring.

Finding a Job Search Happy Path with Sally Carson

May 28, 2024

Leadership coach, design executive, and founder of Happy Path, Sally Carson shares her hiring insights and job search advice based on 20+ years in tech, including her time as a hiring manager and leader of design teams at LinkedIn and Cisco. We talk about applying a "jobs to be done" framework to the job search, how recruiters use LinkedIn search and filters to find candidates (Sally's team worked on variety of features for finding talent), LinkedIn profile optimization, and why tech professionals should learn AI now.

Job Market Insights from Dave Miller, a Truly Human-Centered Recruiter

April 24, 2024

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, with a healthy mix of reality check and optimism about the impact of AI on tech professionals.

How to Manage in the Messy UX Job Market with Jeremy Miller

April 2, 2024

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.

You Asked, We Answered - Listener Grab Bag No. 3

March 3, 2024

Laura and I answer some great questions from our fabulous listeners on several topics: applying to jobs on LinkedIn when there are "thousands" of applicants, networking, the proliferation of UX contract roles, alternate career options for UX researchers, jobs that get reposted over and over, and the annoyances of companies searching for "perfect" candidates.

Reading the Room with Joe Cardillo

February 19, 2024

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.

What the heck is going on with the UX job market?

January 28, 2024

Feeling slightly depressed, 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.