It’s been a trend among industry leaders like Google, Facebook, and Airbnb to establish dedicated Design Recruitment Teams within their organizations. These teams focus exclusively on hiring for design roles such as UX, Visual Design, and Research.

Smaller companies and startups, such as Grammarly and Bolt, have also embraced this practice early on in their development.

There’s a good reason for that:

<aside> 📍 You won’t be a good recruiter if you don’t fully understand the roles you’re hiring for.

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To effectively recruit design talent, there are essential things to learn and skills to develop compared to generalist recruiting.

Design Recruiter Skills:

• Familiarity with UX sourcing: Utilize platforms like LinkedIn, Dribbble, Behance, and UX communities.
• Deep understanding of roles in design: product design vs UI design vs content design vs design systems, etc.
• Knowledge of the product space: competitors, similar products, how the teams of those companies are structured and what they focus on
• Knowledge of the basics of visual design: be able to assess whether a portfolio is visually appealing.
• Ability to evaluate portfolio: from the visual side, and being able to read case studies
• Understanding the design process: Be capable of reading and evaluating case studies.
• Understanding designers’ roles in product teams: Be able to discuss candidates' experiences effectively during interviews.
• Understanding that design is not about the tools: Avoid the mistake of searching for candidates based solely on “Figma” or “Illustrator” keywords.

Recommendations for Onboarding Recruiters into Design Roles:

• Create a detailed onboarding program: Include chapters on sourcing, portfolio review, visual design, and the design process.
• Gift “The Design of Everyday Things” by Don Norman as an onboarding gift 🎁.