Besides working directly with clients, I work for other design, pr, communications, and marketing agencies; large businesses that need an in-house designer (or think they do); etc. So I subscribe to a few RSS job feeds. For the most part, this is depressing. A lot of agencies really, really don’t get it. I don’t know if the designer walked off the job and the person writing the ad has no idea what they were doing, or if the creative director is so out of touch with modern day design standards that they don’t have a clue, or people are just tools, but there are a few pet peeves that keep coming up.

• Pay people what they’re worth. If you can’t afford it, you shouldn’t be hiring.
• Similarly, don’t tell people to give you their salary requirements. We all know that’s code for “How cheap will you work?”, because — like the government — this job is going to go to the lowest bidder (which explains the Boulder County website).
• Never, ever, ever hire on spec. See this cartoon for a good analogy (or this video). It’s insulting and unprofessional. Even if you don’t mind being insulting and unprofessional, it’s a great way to ensure you never get a good employee.
• Have a clue what you’re hiring for. If you list .asp and .php in your requirements you’re confused. They’re competing technologies. You’re either good at one or the other. Quark and InDesign are two I see most. A lot of people apparently want someone who knows both programs. 1) No one uses Quark anymore; 2) even 10 years ago when people did use both programs, people would either use one or the other; but most of all, 3) please, for the love of god, if you’re going to advertise that an applicant needs to know X software, know how to spell the title of that software — it’s not Qwark, Quark Express, or In Design.
• One job = one position. If you want an employee to fill the roles of developer, designer, IT, photographer, copywriter, UI expert, javascripter, ActionScripter, video editor, and illustrator, then you might as well expect the ideal employee to show up riding a flying unicorn. More specifically, someone is not going to be good at both PHP and design, let alone another long list of related (or unrelated) jobs.

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I saw the best help-wanted ad today. Thought I’d pick out my favorite parts.

Location: Venice, CA or Anywhere

One more plug for Rework. To paraphrase (badly), hire the best person, not the best local person. There is no reason for people in our industry to have to be in the same room. Face time is important, but not every day.

We have one main product called Shotgun.  It is a flexible web-based “production tracking and collaboration” application…

Tell them what you do. If you are so ashamed of your ad that you have to hire anonymously, that’s a big red flag.

Our dev team understands your role is critical to making great software, and they welcome you into their process to make constant improvements (no throwing stuff over the wall here!).

Address common problems in the industry and explain how you’re dealing with it. In this case: Developers and designers typically chafe personalities because designers will tweak until you force us to sit on our hands, which makes life suck for developers, it’d be like an architect rethinking his designs halfway through a construction project. Shotgun saw the problem and explained how they work around it.

4+ years of interaction design experience, with wireframes, data flows, and other stuff to show off and talk about.

You’ll note that they didn’t list educational requirements. If I had a degree in design, it would have been a bunch of classes without computers. And I’ve audited a college that teaches design as well as worked with more than my fair share of fresh graduates, school is good for junior designers, not so much for senior designers.

This is a cool place to work.  Most of us are foodies, we love good wine, and we’re becoming obsessed with coffee.  We have a strict no-asshole rule, and are trying to build a dream team of people who inspire us every day.

This made me want to work there. Tell me about you, not your business, you. And save the fluffy marketing copy for your bank.

We’ll pay you what you are worth, give you lots of flexibility and challenges, and although we’re all passionate and work hard, we insist that you have a healthy work/life balance.

Wow. Good job guys!

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Part Two: Tips on hiring a designer.