Revealed: How Facebook hires its designers

Revealed: How Facebook hires its designers

By NewsGram Staff Writer

The social media giant Facebook is quite unique in many ways. Starting from the concept which led to its inception to the rapport the team shares, it has always been quite popular among the youth.

Not only is Facebook unique in the aforementioned matters, but it also has a different approach while hiring its team members.

Recently, Julie Zhuo, the Director of Product Design at Facebook, in an interview revealed the process which she and her team follow while hiring. Zhuo and her team follow a two-step process while hiring. Firstly, they headhunt and locate good designers, and secondly, they decide if the candidates are right for their team.

Zhuo believes that the best way to find a designer is through the products they create. She first looks at the products that she and the team admire and then work on finding out the people behind it.

"Read the small print on products with elements you like— like a particularly effective UX, or an innovative feature, or a very polished, well-done navigation system, and then hunt through Google, LinkedIn and AngelList until you find the people behind them," she says.

She also opines that tapping into the design network is also very crucial because the design community is still relatively small. After tapping in, building connections is the most important aspect.

The most important step after locating good designers is to see their work and then consider if they are fit for the team.

"I wouldn't be able to hire anyone based on a conversation about skill sets, you have to see what they've done so you can dissect it in person," Zhou says.

She believes the previous works are the most important and that is why her team scrutinizes the apps or the websites or whatever things the candidates have designed so far.

She believes big colleges aren't the only places where one should look, as there are many people who have the finesse of a polished designer without attending famous colleges or design schools.

"Great candidates take the initiative to experiment, design and build on their own," she says.

She believes informal meetings are more useful while interviewing prospective candidates. A certain degree of comfort and rapport is important. Zhuo and her team prefer it when the designers walk them through their works and what they have been doing so far. Such situations make it tougher for the candidates to give rehearsed answers as there is always an uncertainty as to where the conversation is going. The true nature and calibre of the candidates come out brilliantly, in such situations.

Knowing a person's thought process and comparing it with that of the team is essential and it is what her team follows.

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