Talent Talk with Kim Lovell, Creative Talent Manager at VMLY&R
Interview by Trey Alston / Working Not Working Member
Kim Lovell is the Creative Talent Manager at VMLY&R. Growing up in Portland immersed in art, she moved to Los Angeles after high school to pursue apparel design and became familiar with the creative world. After 11 years, she returned to Portland and found herself intrigued by the field of recruiting thanks to her interactions with a staffing agency. After a year stint as a Creative Recruiter at the Creative Circle, she’s brought her talents to VMLY&R and constantly works to fill its staff with the greatest creative minds that she can. Here’s her process and perspective on finding talent.
What led you to the field of creative recruiting?
I got my foot in the door at Nike through a contract with a staffing agency. The process of working with the recruiter to find myself a new role is what initially got me interested in creative recruiting. That interaction made a big impact on me and I realized that I could see myself working as a recruiter.
While at Nike, I started informally dipping my toes into that kind of work by having lots of coffee dates and informational interviews with people that were interested in working at Nike, color design or just creative careers in general. Helping people find their path was really rewarding, both personally and professionally. These experiences led me to seek a career change into creative recruiting.
It’s crazy because I was actually up for a promotion when I left Nike to become a recruiter—it just shows how much I wanted a change for myself and I'm so glad I made the jump.
Describe a day in your life in your role.
A typical day for me starts at 6:30am. I always tell folks, “I must love what I do to get up that early.” Since I’m working on roles across the country, it makes the most sense to start early, so I can have more face time with people everywhere. I usually start my day catching up on emails. We also have a touch base with our talent acquisition team every other morning that I always look forward to. I started at VMLY&R during the pandemic so staying connected to my team is super important and even though we’re not in the office together every day, I still have a great sense of belonging.
Throughout the rest of my day, I’ll source and submit people for my open roles and conduct phone screens preparing selected candidates for the interview process with our hiring teams. On a less frequent basis I’ll extend offers to candidates we'd like to hire (I wish this was every day), have meetings with hiring teams to kick off any new roles, attend portfolio reviews, and try to save time for informational interviews when I can.
Every day can be so different and there are always things that pop up or fires to put out. I try to be flexible and I always make myself available to help out my team when things pop up for them too. The talent acquisition team is growing which is super helpful for me but also a good sign for candidates. It means that we’ve got a lot of jobs to fill.
“The talent acquisition team is growing which is super helpful for me but also a good sign for candidates. It means that we’ve got a lot of jobs to fill.”
How do you think your nontraditional background helps you to find creatives for positions?
I think having a creative and design background definitely gives me a leg up when looking at portfolios. Every client team is so different in what they need for their open roles and having a better understanding of those nuances tends to serve me well.
What do you usually look for when it comes to candidates for creative positions?
Something my team and I are looking for more and more is transferable skills—not necessarily a perfect fit with someone’s experience or background. We are in the midst of ensuring that VMLY&R is more equitable and that doesn’t come from finding the same types of folks that we’ve always found. We have to look at creatives through multiple lenses to tap into and hire talent from underrepresented communities. I ask myself, “Will they add to our culture?” “Do they have potential?” “What does their full experience look like—not just their agency experience or lack of agency experience?”
“Something my team and I are looking for more and more is transferable skills—not necessarily a perfect fit with someone’s experience or background. We are in the midst of ensuring that VMLY&R is more equitable and that doesn’t come from finding the same types of folks that we’ve always found.”
How hard would you say that the job is?
It's hard but that's what makes it so rewarding. We are the connectors linking client teams to the talent who allow them to thrive, continue to do amazing work, and also push boundaries. It's a lot of pressure, but I know that I can only be as good as the teams I'm hiring for. It is a partnership and when we're in sync, collaboration happens, awesome folks are hired, and the work will speak for itself.
What do people not realize when it comes to being a creative recruiter?
There's only so much power that I have. I can submit you for a role and build a case as to why and how you'd be an amazing addition to the team, but the decision to interview you and ultimately hire you is not mine.
I think a lot of folks don't realize how many roles I'm working on at the same time. It's a lot to juggle: multiple roles at different levels, with different clients and hiring teams, and in different offices across the US. That's all part of the job but unless you have insight into my side of things, it can feel like things are moving slow; patience is definitely something I need candidates (and even hiring teams) to have.
“Please don’t assume that all recruiters are going to ghost you or that you’re just a number to us. That is 100% not the case with me. I will always try to get back to everyone who reaches out to me.”
That actually segues into what I want to mention next. Please don't assume that all recruiters are going to ghost you or that you're just a number to us. That is 100% not the case with me. I will always try to get back to everyone who reaches out to me and if for some reason I don't, it is truly an oversight and not my intention. If you're interviewing and it's been a while since we last connected, you can always ping me for an update. I might not have one but I'll let you know that I don't rather than leave you hanging.
How important is personality versus achievements when it comes to recruitment?
They both matter but personality will definitely win me over more than achievements. If you're hungry, excited, willing to learn and grow, and are open to feedback, then I can work with that—especially for more junior folks.
If you've won awards and have an impressive portfolio but a massive ego, you will not get far with me as your recruiter—but you may with someone else, somewhere else. I'm assessing if you can work well in a team. No one is an island here and every team member is essential in the success of the work.
What advice do you have for creatives who want to get a foot in the door at VMLY&R?
Apply! Everyone needs to apply for compliance reasons so if you see a role that interests you, start first by applying. Another hot take is that every role posted is different whether it seems that way or not. Roles could have the same title, description, and office but they're for different clients; that's usually the big differentiator. We won't share who the client is in the job description but will share that info in a phone screen or pre-interview.
Also, this is controversial and I really don't know why, but give some context to the work you share in your portfolio. It'll help the viewer, whether it be myself or someone from the hiring team, understand how you approach a brief and solve problems.
“Personality will definitely win me over more than achievements. If you’re hungry, excited, willing to learn and grow, and are open to feedback, then I can work with that. If you’ve won awards and have an impressive portfolio but a massive ego, you will not get far with me as your recruiter.”
Another thing I'm always looking for is variety in projects when I'm looking at a portfolio. More often than not, the creatives that I'm hiring for will be working on 360 campaigns and could work on digital, social, web, video, retail / experiential, out of home, print…the list goes on. Sharing the different aspects of the campaigns you've worked on (or pitch/spec work for more junior people) will show me that you're a well-rounded creative who adds to the dynamic of the team.
Last but not least: update your portfolio with recent work. I want to see what you've been working on in your most recent role — whether you're newly out of school or you've been in the game for many years. If the campaign hasn't launched or the work is under NDA, I definitely don't expect that work to be on your portfolio (and it shouldn't be!). There are a lot of extenuating circumstances why you may not be able to show your most recent work but use your best judgment.