Since we started building teams at both Davey & Krista and Till Agency in 2018, we’ve done quite a few rounds of hiring. We actually just added another team member to the Davey & Krista team – welcome Kaila!
After looking through hundreds of resumes and conducting dozens of interviews, we’ve narrowed down what we look for in candidates and noticed a few similarities among candidates that really makes them stand out.
Whether you’re planning to apply for a position in the future or you’re working on building your own team, we hope these tips are helpful.
Key Traits we Look for When Hiring:
- Dependability and trustworthiness
- Proficiency in the job we’re hiring for
- Fit: for the team, for their own lives, etc.
Whether we’re emailing a candidate, reading a resume or conducting an interview, we’re always focused on those key traits. How they are assessed might vary a bit based on the position, but in general, they’re going to show up in the areas we list below.
What We Care About When Hiring
1. Email Etiquette
The first communication we have with candidates is often via email. We pay close attention to their ability to reply promptly, their use of proper grammar in responses, whether they confirm interviews via email ahead of time and whether they follow up via email after an interview. Their etiquette often shows us how seriously they take the position.
2. The Message Included with their Application (formerly called a “cover letter”)
Our job applications ask for answers to a few questions – including “how did you hear about this position” and “why do you want to work for Davey & Krista”. We spend a LOT more time reading through these responses than we do their resume. I’ll go so far as to say that if someone doesn’t wow us with the answers to these questions, we may never even open their resume.
Whether an employer is asking questions on an application form or you’re emailing a resume with a note, make your message personal. Make it very clear that you understand both the position and values of the company posting the position. Use their language. Show them you understand their goals and that your particular skillset can help them reach those goals.
Don’t be afraid to show off your personality here. Personality is what makes you stand out from others and it helps potential employers understand whether you’ll fit well with the existing dynamic of the team.
3. Be Teachable
Show you’re willing to go the extra mile to learn how to do the requirements of the job – especially if there are aspects of the job that are new to you. For most of the positions at both DK & Till, we care more about finding the right person for the team than hiring someone with all necessary skills. This is especially true at Till where a lot of the positions we hire for are newer in general and candidates are unlikely to have experience doing something like writing copy for TikTok ad campaigns.
If someone is teachable and willing to do the necessary research to learn new skills for their role, they’re going to stand out.
4. Tailor Your Portfolio
If you’re applying for a design position or a job that requires a portfolio, make sure that the work you send a potential employer matches own aesthetic and that it’s easy to view. Someone who applied for one of our positions sent us several large PDF print ads from an industry very different from our own. While I’m sure those ads were great for that particular industry, they didn’t show us that this person would have success designing websites for us.
Curate your portfolio to match the position. So if you’re applying for a position as a Showit website designer, your portfolio should be a Showit website. And it should be filled with other Showit websites that match the genre or aesthetic of the company you’re hoping will hire you.
If you’re applying for a Squarespace website design position, your portfolio should be a Squarespace website filled with examples of other Squarespace designs.
You get the idea. It’s okay to have multiple portfolios that you tailor for different organizations.
And while we’re talking about design positions, if you’re applying for a job at a creative agency, in most cases, a basic Word Doc isn’t going to cut it. Even if you’re not a designer, check out the resume templates Canva offers. Most are free and super easy to customize.
5. Clean Up Your Social Media
It’s 2022 and if you haven’t realized this by now, let us enlighten you: what you post on social media matters. Potential employers are going to look for you on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and TikTok. We want to see what you’re sharing and how you present yourself to the world.
This doesn’t mean that all of your social accounts need to be private (we actually really appreciate seeing public accounts,) but you want to make sure that these accounts are representative of the company you want to work for.
What We Don’t Care About When Hiring
1. Where you went to college, your GPA or your major.
When I was applying for colleges in 2005, it felt like the school our degree came from was going to be such a big deal. And maybe for some positions it is, but at this point in my life, I have no idea where most of our team members went to college, if they graduated or what they studied. I don’t believe most of the designers on our team even majored in design. I don’t necessarily think you need to skip listing your college and major on a resume, but just keep in mind that most employers care very little about them.
And I don’t believe that this is only true for the creative industry. I can’t tell you where most of my doctors went to school or what our attorney studied in undergrad.
Success in life (and the job market) doesn’t come down to a degree from a prestigious university. Being kind, teachable, trustworthy and dependable will get you SO much father in life then a perfect 4.0 GPA.
2. Long, detailed resumes.
You can skip the long, detailed resumes. Make them easy to skim. Only share the information that is relevant to the position you’re applying for. So if you’re applying for a position as a website designer and you’ve held several jobs post-college, the employer likely doesn’t need to know that you worked as a receptionist at a gym in college. Listing skills that are complimentary to your position is always helpful (such as listing video skills when applying for a job as a website designer), but make sure they’re relevant.
Find it Quickly (In the Episode):
00:00 Intro
1:21 Hiring to build a team, applying for a job within DK or Till or a job in general
3:30 Key traits we look for when hiring
3:54 Trait: Dependability and Trustworthiness
4:15 Trait: Proficiency
4:24 Trait: Teachable
4:50 Trait: Good fit for team, their lives
7:03 What we care about when hiring
7:12 Email etiquette
8:55 Does their personality fit with the job? – job dependent for some positions
9:33 Familiarity with the company, understand values, ideal clients, etc
11:14 Social media, reflects your personality
12:55 Proficiency – teachable, show your work in a portfolio, experience, resume
13:13 Tailor your portfolio or resume – job dependent
16:53 Know your values as a business owner when hiring, design application process around that
17:53 What we don’t value when hiring
18:18 Where you went to college, GPA, major
22:22 Long, detailed resumes
Previous Podcast Episodes Mentioned
BTB Episode 22: Building a Team
BTB Episode 33: Hiring a Virtual Assistant or Administrative Assistant
BTB Episode 124: Reflections on Building a Team
Resources Mentioned in the Episode
Till Agency
Davey and Krista
Showit
Squarespace
Canva
Instagram
Facebook
Twitter
TikTok
LinkedIn
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