How to Get That Interview
Four tips for creatives and what makes your job application tick
Supply > Demand
Before the pandemic, we relied on an external recruiting firm to source candidates. If we posted on our own, we didn’t get enough applicants. It wasn’t a buyer’s market.
During the pandemic and market uncertainty, we stopped hiring full-time and relied on freelancers to meet the uneven and unpredictable client demand. Hiring slowed for a couple of years.
As we head into 2025, we’re looking for full-time positions to fill. A few weeks ago, we posted a job and I shared it on LinkedIn.
By the next morning, LinkedIn had paused our post because it had reached the quota of 100 applicants. I didn’t know there was a quota. It had never happened to us.
I used to review hundreds of resumes and portfolios on a regular basis to decide whom to interview. As the Global Chief Creative Officer of AKQA, a global digital marketing agency with 14 offices and nearly 2,000 people, we needed a database of candidates for short-notice hiring.
In addition to my global role, I was the P&L owner of the New York office that grew from 50 to 250 people in eighteen months. Recruiting and hiring were constant and non-stop.
The agency’s recruiting team would send me 25 to 50 resumes and portfolios weekly. Doing that once was manageable, but doing it weekly and monthly became unbearable. I had to develop a routine and intuition.
The routine
Weekly, I’d meet with our recruiting team to review submitted resumes and portfolios. This forced me to concentrate for an hour, review many, and quickly decide which candidate to interview.
This was a volume game. If I reviewed 100 books, I’d interview about five to seven candidates. After the interviews, we’d offer one, maybe two. It was a 1% hiring rate.
The hiring demands fluctuated, so it wasn’t consistent every month. However, over almost eleven years at the agency, I must have reviewed several thousand resumes and portfolios.
Dealing with volume builds speed.
I take about fifteen to thirty seconds to decide if a candidate deserves deeper inspection. In this quick instance, I look for anything that captures my eye or piques my interest.
Understandably, that’s not a lot of time to assess a candidate. But there is logic, based on over two decades of experience, to this madness.
In this article, I will share tips to help people—particularly creatives and marketing types—prepare for future job applications.
Tip #1: Know what you are auditioning for
“5-7 years experience as a UX or digital product designer in a design, tech, or relevant industry.”
This was one of the job posting criteria.
Out of 100 applicants, only 10% fit this basic criterion. 90% didn’t, disqualifying themselves. Some were fresh out of school with less than 1 year of experience, while others had over 20. Neither matched what we needed nor justified hiring for the position.
We reviewed the remaining 90%. A few candidates acknowledged in their cover letter email that they were applying knowing they may not fit the criteria and asked to be considered or if they could be of use.
This small, obvious gesture was rare. Many seemed to be taking a shot in the dark, without being explicit about their intentions, wishing it would stick somewhere. This was understandable given the job market, but it quickly lowered their chances.
Be specific and intentional when applying for a job.
Tip #2: Specialize, don’t generalize.
Here’s the conundrum: the more experienced and skilled you become, the broader your skillset. It’s tempting to write an intro like this:
“I am an award-winning creative director with over 15 years of experience in art direction, branding, design, UI, UX, campaigns, activations, and experiential.”
That’s the opposite of specialization.
This is equivalent to saying: “I’m an experienced three-point shooter who knows how to play a midfielder on any soccer team and be an effective quarterback.”
Does that mean you need to choose a specific position in one sport to excel? Sort of.
The trickier thing is that the game we used to play isn’t the game we need to play now. Take your core strengths and position yourself for a specific role that is relevant today, not for any from yesteryear.
Tip #3: Presentation is everything
Here are a few job applications that don’t go far:
A bunch of PDF files in a Dropbox folder
A portfolio site that starts with the candidate’s photo on the homepage
Too many clicks to see the work
Over five jobs in under ten years
A subdomain URL (“___.wix.com”)
A Dribbble portfolio
“Hi ___” > “Hey ___”
Lead with your work and make it easy to see. Put care into the way you present it. Be buttoned up. A Dribbble site screams you’re a freelancer not looking for a full-time gig, which in this case wasn’t appropriate. See Tip #1.
And maybe I’m too old-school. But I find email intros and cover letters that start with “Hey ___” a little too casual if we don’t know each other. This is especially true for job applications and sales emails.
Professionalism still matters.
Tip #4: It’s not just about the work
This sounds contradictory to Tip #3, but we want to get to know the person behind the work.
If something intrigues me in the first fifteen seconds, I click on it to know more. If that’s solid, I click on two more pieces of work to check for consistency.
“About me” is what I look for next.
We want to work with people who are not just skilled but interesting as human beings. I look for qualities in candidates that make them unique, different, and peculiar.
As we head into 2025, I hope these tips help with future job applications.
Know what you are auditioning for.
Specialize, don’t generalize.
Presentation is everything.
It’s not just about the work.