What is Wrong with Hiring

What is Wrong with Hiring

The podcast where we try to understand why hiring and getting hired in tech are both absolute nightmares. Hosted by Laura Klein and Amy Santee.

Episodes

March 3, 2024 33 mins

Today we answer some great questions from our fabulous listeners! Hope it helps!

  • Is it worth applying to jobs on LinkedIn and Indeed?
  • We're supposed to network to find a job, but what do you do when no one you know has an open role? 
  • When hundreds or thousands of people apply to a job in just a few days, should you even bother?
  • Why does it seem like companies are hiring more UX contractors these days? What does it mean for the ...
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What can job seekers, hiring managers, and companies do to mitigate bias in hiring? In this conversation with writer, speaker, consultant, and all around awesome guy David Dylan Thomas, we discuss the individual and collective actions we can take to alleviate the burden on candidates who just want to get a damn job.

Buckle your seatbelts for an adventurous exploration of cognitive biases in hiring, how to address common concerns li...

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February 11, 2024 44 mins

Amy chats with coach, trainer, speaker, and founder of The Early Manager, Joe Cardillo (they/them), about how we can use research and emotional intelligence to "read the room" when interviewing—i.e., figuring out the context of the organization, team, and manager to ascertain fit and effectively position ourselves to land the role.

We cover:

  • Asking specific questions to get specific answers

     

  • Questions as a form of positioni...

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Feeling slightly depressed, Amy talks about the state of the UX and tech job market in the US, which is complete shit show right now. She tries her darnedest to make sense of what's going on and what we might expect in the near-term, based on existing data sources and job seeker sentiment.  

Original post

Episode transcript

Support our work:

Spread the word about our show, leave a rating and review, or hit us up with a lil donation...

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December 18, 2023 34 mins

Laura and Amy discuss the really unpleasant topic of "professional branding" (ew!), and try to make a bit more palatable and relevant. As awful as it sounds, putting a bit of effort into how you show up in the world and tell your story can be beneficial for a job search, career development, networking, and professional opportunities. And don't worry, it doesn't mean you need to become a Thoughtfluencer TM with a massive following...

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December 11, 2023 45 mins

Amy chats with Hang Xu, a former UX designer and the founder of Collective Supply, an independent design talent firm, about assessing organizational design/UX maturity during job interviews, and whether or not it matters. 

We cover:

  • Hang's backstory, how he got into talent management, and his excellent satirical LinkedIn content
  • The state of design & tech hiring today
  • The philosophical, historical, cultural, and practical o...
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For this episode, we answer some listener-submitted questions, including

  • How do I answer those annoying questions like "tell me about a time when you had a difficult stakeholder" or "a challenge with a teammate", especially when I don't have a good example?
  • How do we deal with the farce of companies expecting everyone to have a cogently designed professional brand and career when sometimes we choose...
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We're wrapping up our Hiring Horror Stories series with more spine chilling anecdotes from hiring managers who, like their job seeker counterparts, must also regularly deal with unacceptable levels of hiring clusterfuckery. 

In Part 3, we share some terrible tales from our listeners featuring major organizational incompetence, pompous candidates, frustratingly fickle decision-makers, and more. We like to think that a couple of th...

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October 22, 2023 37 mins

Today for Part 2 of our Hiring Horror Stories series, we continue with more terrible tales from job candidates. 

 

Episode transcript

 

Got a hiring topic request? Reach out to Amy on LinkedIn and we can cover it in a future episode.

If you're so inclined, we'd love your help in spreading the word about our show with a rating and review on your favorite podcast app.

And if you're feeling extra generous, we would appreciate a f...

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October 14, 2023 42 mins
In honor of Spooky Season, Amy and Laura share some hiring horror stories sent in by listeners (thank you!). This episode features spine tingling tales of candidates getting ghosted (see what we did there?), tricked (like trick or treat, get it?!), and treated ghoulishly by ghastly beings and businesses (ok, look, they can't all be winners).   Also, there's one involving a hot tub. Seriously, what is wrong with people?   

Episode ...

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September 25, 2023 32 mins

For this episode, we "randomly" select five questions from Listeners Like You (thanks!) and attempt to give quick (well, as quick as Laura ever gets) answers to each of them. 

  • What's up with unpaid take-home assignments as part of the interview process?
  • How many rounds of interviews and assignments is actually reasonable?
  • Should I apply to a job if I don't meet all the qualifications?
  • What the heck is going on right now with hu...
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August 28, 2023 33 mins

In this episode, Amy and Laura discuss the awful state of job postings—even the best ones are a bit confusing, and the worst are pretty much just bad fiction. If you are baffled by the different titles, levels, code words, and meaningless jargon, tune in for some tips for how to figure out what you're even applying for, and how to identify the red, green, yellow, and checkered flags. Plus a special cameo from our producer, Adonis!

...

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August 8, 2023 28 mins

In this episode, Laura and Amy talk about who you should listen to when looking for career advice. Besides Laura and Amy, obvs. The answer is pretty straightforward, except it sort of isn't.

Also, sorry about the audio on this one. Technology is hard. 

  Episode Transcript  

Got a hiring topic request? Reach out to Amy on LinkedIn and we can cover it in a future episode.

If you're so inclined, we'd love your help in spreading the ...

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In this episode, Amy and Laura talk about their experiences as freelancers, consultants, coaches, trainers, and everything else in tech. They explain which business models to use when and how to not get screwed by red flag clients. 

Some useful links for more information after you listen to the show: 

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June 26, 2023 36 mins

In this episode, Laura and Amy chat about the pros and cons of becoming a freelancer, consultant, contractor or some other form of self employed person. After all, it's tough to get hired these days! Maybe you should hire you! 

Episode Transcript

Got a hiring topic request? Reach out to Amy on LinkedIn and we can cover it in a future episode.

If you're so inclined, we'd love your help in spreading the word about our show with a rat...

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June 6, 2023 32 mins

In this episode, Amy and Laura talk about a few key ways to help other folks get jobs, even in a bad market. Based on Amy's blog post, which you can check out here.

 

Got a hiring topic request? Reach out to Amy on LinkedIn and we can cover it in a future episode.

If you're so inclined, we'd love your help in spreading the word about our show with a rating and review on your favorite podcast app.

And if you're feeling extra generou...

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May 16, 2023 38 mins

Amy Santee and Laura Klein kick off a whole new season of ranting about hiring! In this episode, Amy and Laura talk about what's been going on in tech over the last 9 months or so (spoiler: it's not great!) and what this means for folks looking for jobs. They also tease some future podcast episodes that they'll probably get around to recording in the future. 

 

Got a hiring topic request? Reach out to Amy on LinkedIn and we can cov...

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September 27, 2022 33 mins

In this episode, Laura talks to Mary Lukanuski about how to tell whether a candidate is right for the job. They discuss the pros and cons (mostly cons) of design exercises of various sorts and the things that actually do help you hire better. 

Drink Pairing: Mezcal Negroni

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In this episode, Laura talks to Cindy Alvarez, Director of UX for Powerpoint, about how to figure out what sort of hire you really need and write a job description targeted to the right folks. 

Drink pairing: Sparkling Rose

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In this episode, Laura talks to Bryan Cantrill, CTO of Oxide, about a wildly different approach to recruiting and hiring. 

Drink Pairing: Diet Dr. Pepper

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