4 Quick Takeaways from Working Not Working’s Recruiter Roundtable
WORKING NOT WORKING
As we’ve watched the creative industry continue to evolve with the pandemic, there have been plenty of reflections and insights from creatives and companies on the changes they’ve had to make. But we wanted to bridge that gap and hear directly from the recruiters who bring these creatives to those companies—to learn how they’re daily operations have changed, what they’ve learned in the process, and where they expect things to go in the future.
Working Not Working co-founder and CEO Justin Gignac hosted a roundtable conversation with two senior recruiters from highly-celebrated companies. Lauren Ranke is the Director of Creative Talent at Wieden+Kennedy and Chloe Harlig is the Senior Creative Recruiter at Squarespace. Both companies recently received some well-deserved acclaim from Ad Age, with Wieden+Kennedy winning Agency of the Year and Squarespace winning In-House Agency of the Year.
Our digital audience of creatives, many of whom submitted thoughtful questions that Justin relayed to the recruiters, left the conversation feeling better educated on the thoughts and considerations of those who bring them work. They also left more hopeful. Getting a better sense of the bigger picture is a surefire way to know how best to cater your creativity to the present climate. There’s also great relief in replacing uncertainty with knowledge and context.
Because this conversation was packed full of insights, we’ll be releasing the audio as a bonus episode of this season’s Overshare podcast. In the meantime, here are a few key takeaways to whet your appetite.
Hirers are Humans.
Hopefully this doesn’t need to be reiterated but we’re noting it here anyways because it’s a good reminder. Hirers aren’t immune to the changes in the creative industry. Just as creatives have had to navigate a new world for their work to exist in, hirers are similarly adjusting on the fly. That’s a process affected by organizational shifts within their companies, as well as the personal experiences of learning how to work from home. And even if some of your dream clients temporarily suspended new hiring, hirers aren’t taking vacations. That leads to the next point.
Hirers are Thinking about the Future. You Should Too.
Creativity doesn’t stop. And neither does creative recruiting. “Lots of projects are coming in. Our clients need our help. Recruiting doesn't slow down,” W+K’s Lauren Ranke explains. “The conversations shift, but it's like a river. You can always dip in and have conversations with people that are coming to you.”
The connections you build and the conversations you start (while other creatives sit idle) will make all the difference in your trajectory. Squarespace’s Chloe Harlig is still making connections, like always. “Much of what I do is about the long game. I’m not the type of recruiter who is here to fill a desk or chair in our office. It’s about finding the right people to join the team, whether that’s now, 3 months from now, 3 years from now. I actually hired someone recently who I had reached out to when I was at Droga a few years back. And I’m hiring them at Squarespace. It’s all about having conversations now.”
Self-Initiated Work Is As Important As Ever.
Don’t just build connections. Build a stronger portfolio. You don’t need clients to do it either. We’ve been floored by some of the projects that our creative community have built from scratch under no one’s guidance but their own. For years, we’ve been hearing from hirers that side projects are an integral part of a creative’s application. But as far as recruiters are concerned, they don’t belong off to the side. “It’s the first thing we look at,” Lauren Ranke notes. “But maybe we should just always call them from now on ‘self-initiated work.’ And even take that more seriously. ‘Side projects’ almost makes it seem like it’s this thing over there…What you do for you is how we figure out the raw material of your soul and your creative heart and what you’re going to bring to the table.”
Future Remote Work Is Under Consideration.
The topic of remote work will be central to a lot of hiring conversations going forward, even after creative offices open up again. The successful launches of creative campaigns during this time show that it’s possible to make great work remotely. But that doesn’t mean that it’s preferred. Creatives may come out of quarantine pushing for some permanence to their WFH lifestyle. But for agencies like Wieden+Kennedy, the benefits of in-person creative collaboration continues to be seen as essential. Tech companies like Squarespace, meanwhile, will likely be reviewing the existing work-from-home and remote work policies of tech giants like Facebook and Google, but similarly plan to strive for the creative alchemy that can only be conjured by a bunch of creatives solving problems in a room together.
Stay tuned for the live recording of this conversation, which launches Monday, May 18th.