{"id":13224,"date":"2025-08-06T18:36:50","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T11:36:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cstc.vn\/blogtsk\/have-design-job-ads-become-too-specific\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T18:36:50","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T11:36:50","slug":"have-design-job-ads-become-too-specific","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cstc.vn\/blogtsk\/have-design-job-ads-become-too-specific\/","title":{"rendered":"Have design job ads become too specific?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe level of specificity on job ads now is insane,\u201d says designer and founder of Never Dull Studio<\/a>, Ben Mottershead.<\/p>\n

He reflects a growing sentiment among designers that job listings have become too rigid in their criteria, particularly when it comes to asking for sector or industry experience.<\/p>\n

The first thing to acknowledge is that this is not a new phenomenon. Designer Graham Wood remembers an illustrator friend losing out on a commission to draw bananas in the 1980s, \u201cbecause they hadn\u2019t previously illustrated bananas.\u201d<\/p>\n

More common, or more visible?<\/h5>\n

Some recruiters we spoke to explained that as frustration in a difficult job market boils over, we just hear more about these frustrations than we used to.<\/p>\n

Dan Poole, the founder of Path design recruitment,<\/a> subscribes to that view.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been recruiting in this space for nearly 20 years, and I don\u2019t see this as anything new,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s just more visible, as it\u2019s shared on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cDesign is a fast-paced industry, and clients and agencies are time poor. Clients are always specific on their needs and rarely bend them.\u201d<\/p>\n

But others in the industry do think things have changed. Craig Ward admits that asking designers for industry-specific experience \u201chas always been a thing to an extent.\u201d But, he says, \u201cIt has definitely become more pronounced over the last few years.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Daisy Crowder, the brand and marketing director at design recruitment specialists Craft<\/a>, agrees.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re definitely seeing more clients asking for specific sector experience, especially in brand and strategy briefs,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Crowder says this requirement is most commonly used for freelance roles, which seemingly makes sense. \u201cIt\u2019s usually about minimising risk; they want someone who\u2019s done it before and can hit the ground running.\u201d<\/p>\n

A tough job market<\/h5>\n

It\u2019s hard to find reliable and up-to-date information about the state of the design job market. And clearly it\u2019s not a homogenous whole \u2013 the state of UX hiring is different to graphic, industrial and interior design.<\/p>\n

In June, Fast Company published its second annual design jobs report<\/a>. Its team analysed data from 176,000 US job listings between October 2023 and February this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe clearest and perhaps most reassuring takeaway this year? Designers are still needed,\u201d Fast Company\u2019s<\/em> data editor Andrew Thompson wrote. It was a mixed picture across different disciplines \u2013 while game and urban design jobs were up, graphic and UX jobs were stable, but product design listings were down 24%.<\/p>\n

One of Fast Co\u2019s<\/em> main takeaways was that even though the design industry is under pressure from the rise of generative AI, it\u2019s not currently affecting job listings. \u201cIf an AI-driven design industry apocalypse is coming, it hasn\u2019t arrived yet,\u201d Thompson wrote.<\/p>\n

But even if the number of job listings are relatively stable, it feels like the market is more competitive than ever. Several high-profile agencies have laid people off, as have brands like Bumble, which recently cut its in-house design team.<\/p>\n

Leapers, an organisation that promotes freelancers\u2019 mental health estimates that between 25 and 30% of current freelancers didn\u2019t choose this way of working, but were forced into it. Some of them clearly take to freelance life well, but for others it\u2019s a precarious necessity.<\/p>\n

A broken system<\/h5>\n

Against this backdrop, we hear from a lot of designers about the mental toll of navigating the current job market. From ghosted applications to overly onerous design interview tasks<\/a>, there is a sense that things are broken.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just industry- or sector-specific experience that designers say they\u2019re seeing on job roles.<\/p>\n

London-based design director Harry Thornbory, who was previously brand and design lead at ITV, says job listings increasingly stipulate the names of agencies they expect applicants to have worked with.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I get sector and type of work experience as a criteria, the requirements to have worked at certain agencies or studios comes across as a \u2018closed shop\u2019 mentality,\u201d Thornbory says. \u201cSurely it\u2019s a smaller pool of talent?\u201d<\/p>\n

As different stringent requirements are added to job roles, this creates a matrix effect, says US-based creative director Prescott Perez-Fox.<\/p>\n

\u201cLately you see 2\u00d72 levels of specificity,\u201d he explains. \u201cSo not just a branding designer with experience in real estate, but an icon designer with deep sector expertise in commercial office leasing. Construction and residential experts need not apply!\u201d<\/p>\n

Many designers are similarly quick to poke fun at what they see as the ludicrous specificity of current job listings<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get requirements like \u2018must have no less than three portfolio projects for diet cannabis CPG brands that included motion principles, print campaign, and cross-platform social strategy\u2019,\u201d says freelance design director Brooks Heintzelman.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery employer seems to want a proven commodity,\u201d he adds. \u201cNo-one wants to be the one who takes a chance on a hire and it not work out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fresh eyes vs a safe pair of hands<\/h5>\n

Daniel Swann, creative director of Swann-Studios<\/a> agrees. \u201cClient-side it\u2019s risk aversion, and confirmation the candidate already gets the sector and all the nuances that come with that,\u201d he says. \u201cRisk aversion is always higher in economic downturns.\u201d<\/p>\n

But is it that simple? Some believe that because there are too many designers going for too few jobs, adding specifications to job listings \u2013 freelance or permanent \u2013 is a way of managing the deluge of applications that can feel overwhelming.<\/p>\n

Others think that there are specific nuances in some sectors and industries that require some direct previous experience. When we polled our LinkedIn community about these types of requirements, 69% said it was valid in certain sectors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you work in the drinks sector, specifically spirits for example, it has its own language,\u201d says D8 Studio<\/a> creative director, Adrian Carroll.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t understand that, it can take a while to get to grips with, and the client doesn\u2019t always have the time to make that investment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saying it\u2019s always right, and good designers can definitely learn and switch sectors, but I can understand why certain roles look for sector experience,\u201d Carroll adds.<\/p>\n

But for some designers, it\u2019s a cautious approach that compromises the creative thinking.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a misplaced risk reduction strategy,\u201d says How&How<\/a> strategy director Jack Wimmer. \u201cIn reality it just increases the odds of the work looking like other brands in that category.\u201d<\/p>\n

And interestingly Craft\u2019s Daisy Crowder says their team is starting to see push-back against the desire to hire someone with familiar experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere the studio manager might lean on known contacts with sector knowledge to get somebody in quick, we\u2019re hearing directly from the creative directors who ask us for adjacency over exactness,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cFortunately the more creative-led thinkers are still after a fresh pair of eyes, over a safe pair of hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nWhat to read next: <\/strong>Show impact and don\u2019t badmouth your old job \u2013 advice from design recruiters<\/a> | What is your earliest design memory?<\/a> | Deep impact \u2013 why design must prove its worth more than ever<\/a> | \u201cA lot of this is about rituals\u201d \u2013 An hour with Notion design chief Randy Hunt<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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