3rd
How You Fight..
Ran across a great post relating how someone behaves under pressure in a fight (in this case in World of Warcraft) reveals a lot about them as a professional and a person.
While I agree, it made me wonder if there’s some unexplored methods for assessing people for new roles. Could it be more than questions like “what’s your greatest weakness” and “tell me when you had to address a crisis”?
For me, assessing talent exists primarily in the portfolio. Or even the resume. If someone puts in the effort to make their resume, a vessel of information, look good and say what it needs to, that’s some points. Got a typographic sense to you? Even better. You can see a ton in the portfolio, of course; not just the work itself, but how its presented. Sometimes I become more interested in the canvas than the paint, especially if its cleverly done.
Anyhow, once I interview said designer, it usually involves identifying their role, as usually designers fail to provide detail on their projects. You see for those of us evaluating you for our needs, we need to know what you did in each piece. Websites are often team efforts, so unless you really did the whole thing, make sure you get into that.
But beyond hearing how a designer operates within a team, and what they’re in to, there’s not a lot else to talk about. By then I’d know if I was interested at all; but what if there was a way to measure intangibles?
Intangibles like drive, ambition, flexibility, and improvisation? A lot of what we do is being in pressurized situations. Where you have to figure out a fix in a pinch. Not quite like fights, but if you can keep your cool while being attacked, then that’s an intangible, and probably translatable in a professional environment.
Does this mean I can start playing WoW in the name of recruiting? Hmm.
