GroupTalent on Finding, Picking and Hiring Designers

http://blog.folyo.me/andrew-kinzer-on-finding-evaluating-and-hiring-designers/

by superkinz • 14 years ago

22 6 14 years ago

blog.folyo.me

I work as a game designer in the video game industry, and even though GroupTalent and Folyo focus on graphic design, a lot of the sentiment holds true, especially this:

"If you’re trying to hire full time, you’re going to have to steal somebody from another company by being the brightest bird in the forest, or you’re going to have to find somebody young with aptitude, and teach them how to be great."

In the general talent wars withing Silicon Valley, I generally had lots of luck hiring young designers (and engineers) with aptitude and helping them grow, which is generally a more pleasant experience on the hiring manager end than getting in a bidding war over high priced talent.

sgdesign• 14 years ago

Agreed, but the problem is that a lot of young startups simply don't have those skills at all. So for the first hire, they can't afford to get someone inexperienced since there won't be anybody that can mentor them.

Add to this the number of new startups getting launched these days, and you can see why senior designers are so in demand.

superkinz• 14 years ago

Exactly, the existing team really needs to be able to carry that person for the first six months before they start becoming really productive.

RileyJames• 14 years ago

Big respect for realizing the bigger issue is that not enough people know of either site.

When startups in this massive space need to start competing with each other they have already won. Recruiters have the market at the moment, but I don't think that will last.

mnicole• 14 years ago

In trying to sign up for GroupTalent, there doesn't seem to be a middle ground between designer and developer. There's listings for designing just mockups, but in order to be considered a developer I'd need to be able to do backend programming as well. Do any other services cover this gray area as well as list those who are looking for projects and what those project-types are?

(Should probably add I wrote this comment before realizing I could click "Continue" without having to make a selection, which then asks me to provide my own team members. I'll assume that as long as I have a team, it doesn't really matter who does the work or what their role is specified as. A "skip" link would be useful on these screens.)

I kind of wish I could see groups that are already comprised of developers that are looking to seek designers, but maybe there are other services for that.

GroupTalent on Finding, Picking and Hiring Designers

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