Why HR people shouldn’t hire Creatives.
March 10, 2010
Recently, in my search for a new job, I was contacted by a company that shall remain nameless, but shares their name with a popular Battlestar villain.
I exchanged several e-mails with the person who posted the job and set up a time last Thursday to talk on the phone. We talked, and of course, the usual questions were asked. “Are you good at ( insert Adobe Product here)?” “What do you want to do with your life?” et cetera, et cetera.
We talked about how I worked with the U-Haul Web Team on a variety of projects, and then he asked about banners.
Now I want you to think for a second, have you EVER seen a web banner for U-Haul? That’s right, you haven’t, because they don’t exist. U-Haul’s branding mainly dictates that they operate on a name basis, basically like how we refer to every adhesive strip as a band-aid. It’s worked very well for them (well, not well enough, seeing they laid off a ton of people last year), but you get my point.
I went through school for 5 years, and have been in the industry for 3. I know how to make a banner, it’s just I’ve never had a client rely on one, or have a need to create one.
Fast forward to today. I haven’t heard from them since the phone call, so I shot an e-mail. Here’s the response.
“I think they were looking for a more web graphics work examples. (multiple examples of banner, landers) Ideally they’d like an agency graphics person who has worked on several accounts across several verticals.”
Basically, someone with my talents & experience isn’t desired because I didn’t have any examples of banners and landing pages, which is absolutely bizarre, and makes me think that it’s quite possible that this HR person didn’t even forward my portfolio along, which is a huge bummer.
And this makes me think, should HR people really be in charge of hiring creatives? In my experience, the majority of them don’t really know anything about our skills, and just look for keywords & certain graphics. Am I wrong in thinking this?
Let me know.
March 10, 2010 at 3:54 am
Quite true, but in this economy, employers CAN and WILL find someone with the specific skill set and examples they are looking for who will work for less pay than what you want.
Don’t feel bad for expecting more, and don’t work for less than what you think you are worth.
I recently didn’t get hired for a few jobs because I didn’t have tri-fold brochure experience or specific experience in the field I’d be building print materials for, but somehow managed to win nearly 20 industry awards for graphics, design and illustration in my 10 years of working.
Keep looking. It might be awhile until the business world realizes that you get what you pay for in the creative world.