Spotify

Screen Share Day Recap: Over 200 Conversations With Aspiring Designers

October 25, 2022

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On July 21, a gaggle of Spotify designers ran the second spherical of Screen Share Day, a program the place aspiring designers and job seekers pair up with Spotify Designers, for 30-minute one-to-one video calls and chat about issues comparable to portfolios, interviews, and design careers. We piloted the thought final fall after we paired aspiring designers from Blacks Who Design (blackswho.design) for 30-minute periods with designers from throughout Spotify. After constructive suggestions from individuals on each side of the dialog, we determined to increase this system.

We fashioned a brand new working group and wrote a recent mission assertion to make clear our targets: to assist create networks between marginalized individuals, give entry to skilled trade professionals, and construct paths to profession alternatives (at Spotify or elsewhere) for many who have been traditionally excluded.

The Screen Share pilot turned Screen Share Day. We stored it as light-weight as potential, inviting individuals from Pursuit, Where are the Black Designers?, #HIREBLACK, YSYS, and naturally, Blacks Who Design to talk with as many Spotify designers as they favored. Those who had been grabbed spots throughout a 6-hour on-line occasion with designers at Spotify from many alternative ranges and design disciplines.

42 of our designers had 219 conversations about design with individuals from Ann Arbor to Zambia at completely different phases of their design training or working life. We requested a few of these Spotify designers to share the solutions they gave to probably the most regularly requested questions.

Here’s a pattern of what they talked about:

Choosing the correct group for you

Senior Product Designer Anna Hatzisavas shared recommendation on firm measurement. Smaller firms permit extra possession of the product you’re employed on, and extra alternatives to work on the end-to-end expertise with a wider vary of obligations. Whereas bigger organizations imply a smaller slice of possession, permitting you to give attention to and nurture your half. In normal, bigger orgs imply extra alternatives to be taught from proficient designers, UX writers, and researchers.

Eileen Murphy, a Senior Product Designer, mentioned how individuals can uncover what they could need of their subsequent profession, function, or firm. Everyone is completely different and understanding and outlining private motivations, wants, and targets may help people land jobs that permit them to develop and flourish long run.

Interviewing and portfolios

People we spoke to had been curious concerning the specifics of Spotify’s interview course of. Product Designer Clara Shim pointed aspiring product designers to this text about our interview course of but in addition stated: “The recruiting process is very much like a matchmaking process. Spotify is a bigger company with a myriad of products so different teams will have different needs…To get this matchmaking process off to a good start, it’s important to read the job description and see if the role is a good fit for you.”

Another Senior Product Designer, Matthew Budelman, put his portfolio recommendation into an inventory for us:

Tailor your portfolio to your viewers. It’s apparent to say, however as designers, we get excited and neglect that the very best portfolio just isn’t the one which wins design awards, however one that really will get you a job — if that’s your aim.
Lead together with your greatest. Hiring managers are going to guage you on the primary 3 tasks they see, make them the very best.
More ≠ higher. Only present your greatest work, even when that’s two tasks.
Tell a narrative, however be transient. A portfolio case examine wants to inform the story of the mission, however hiring managers are busy and don’t have time to learn 2,000-word essays. Just give us the highlights. Leave issues to debate for the portfolio evaluate or interview.
Done > excellent. Don’t get hung up on micro-interactions or fancy animations if you happen to don’t have one thing in place. A easy PDF of an important mission can get you a job. The fancy web site can come later.

Rosie Maharjan, an Associate Product Designer, joined Spotify straight out of school with no prior design expertise. On Screen Share Day, Rosie had quite a lot of conversations about overcoming that top barrier of entry.

She broke down the recommendation into three classes:

Portfolio: “There’s a common misconception that you have to have an internship or previous experience to build out your portfolio when in reality, you can always work on personal projects — especially if it’s something you can actually ship and talk through data and insights on. Although I didn’t have previous experience before starting my role, I was able to talk about the recruiter chatbot I made (without any coding), and how I used KPIs and metrics to measure its success. Spotify, in particular, really values creative, data-driven entrepreneurial mindsets.”
Network: “Having a good portfolio is important, but so is showing your personality and passion. One effective way to do that is getting on design Twitter: There’s a huge design community on there, and it’s a more simple and effective way to personally connect with professionals than traditional networking.”
Presentation: “The “tell me about yourself” interview query may be daunting, but in addition a spot to craft your narrative (How did you get into design? What are you enthusiastic about?). To be trustworthy, quite a lot of my interview course of in Spotify felt extra like a vibe examine than the rest — which is sensible, as a result of they have an inclination to rent extremely proficient designers who’re additionally very variety, genuine, and enjoyable to work with.”

How to get into UX Writing

Becky Hirsch, Senior UX Writer, chatted with aspiring UX Writers, in addition to designers. Many wished to know the way you develop into a UX Writer within the first place.

“There are fewer clear pathways to UX writing than there are for design, so people are always asking how to get into it in the first place. I tell my story, which is one of privilege, but I also like to explain that I’ve seen UX Writers come from backgrounds or studies in journalism, poetry, marketing, customer support, teaching, and design.”

Becky shared a useful resource she’s been utilizing to collect suggestions, job alternatives, and recommendation for a 12 months — the Content + UX slack neighborhood. She additionally defined that smaller firms will typically rent a jack-or-jill-of-all-trades author. If you will discover a gig that features some product writing, you may get publicity to the craft and a few portfolio items with out having to land a UX-specific function instantly.

We had a beautiful day

Thank you to everybody who confirmed up and shared their time with us. From your suggestions, we all know that you just had been pleasantly shocked by how open and trustworthy our designers had been about their experiences. We had been thrilled to listen to our recommendation was actionable and direct. Every Spotifier walked away from these chats impressed, , and extra in contact with what it’s prefer to be beginning a design profession within the 2020s.

This continues to be solely the start of our program. If you’re a corporation with a neighborhood that may be curious about connecting with Spotify Designers, tell us. We’ll communicate concerning the coming iterations of Screen Share Day.

Hire these designers!

Some of the designers who joined us on Screen Share Day had been variety sufficient to allow us to share their data. If you’re hiring, this record is the place to start out.

Achille Perrin (He/Him) based mostly in Lyon, France

Email | LinkedIn | Instagram

Akanksha Y (She/Her) based mostly in India

Email | LinkedIn | Instagram

Alexis Ashby (She/Her) based mostly in Chicago, IL

Email | Portfolio | LinkedIn

Ammara Wasim (She/Her) based mostly in Toronto, Canada

Email | Instagram

Angela Chen (She/Her) based mostly in New York, NY

Email | LinkedIn | Instagram

Bryan Ge (He/Him) based mostly in Dallas, TX