Hire minds, not tools

In the last few months I find on my way a lot of jobs offers for UX and UI designers. Also, I get a lot of calls from HR recruiters — LinkedIn makes this easier than ever.

Most of them ask me about the tools that I use and know. If I don’t know Photoshop or Illustrator, I’m not even relevant. I find it very interesting, and also very sad, that I’m never asked about my design process or analytical skills — which are way more critical as a UX designer.

I am also asked about the platforms that I’ve been working on. If I do mobile, I am definitely not suitable for working on web. If I work on consumer apps, I’m probably not capable of transitioning to enterprise or complex systems.

I can understand that HR recruiters, who are spanning on hiring several job positions, don’t have the knowledge to understand what these mean. But UX and product leads in the companies should guide them better about who are the right people to look for.

Sketch is the new thing in UI design. I learned Sketch in 15 days, with an online course. It took a few days and practise, but it’s not rocket science. I also designed for Android Wear. There is no single chance that I could have experience on that before — it is a brand new platform and I had to learn it by myself.

Don’t get me wrong — tools are important. But tools and platforms change by the day, and can be learned relatively fast. Tools and platforms are perishable.

Here is what is not changing and what is definitely not perishable:
Analytical capabilities, communication skills, user experience principles, learning abilities (and motivation for that). Also, these are things that take longer to learn — usually from experience, from failing and trying again.

Now, please: go and hire the right UX professionals. Not the ones that know the tools — the ones that know the job.