What I Didn't Know

Earlier this year I had an onsite interview at Bank of the West in San Francisco. I was very excited and did all my prep work. I built a presentation showcasing one of my favorite projects (Gobble Pro), a few "about me" slides, and some supplemental slides showing off some of my industrial design accomplishments. All-in-all, I felt confident about my prep work, my 3 hours of interviewing with members of the team, and how it wrapped up as I was leaving.

A few days later I got the email telling me that I hadn't gotten the position. I was very disappointed and began to analyze every moment of the interviewing process. Did I communicate clearly? Did I showcase all of my strong points? Did I show that I believe in growth and will work hard? Thousands of questions. 

After a few days of dwelling on the questions and feeling as though I had done everything I could have, I decided I would start asking some of the team members for feedback on my interview. Maybe I'd gain some insights into where I had made a misstep in the process. I was able to get some responses, most of which were very encouraging. I still had questions though about it all and really just needed a straight answer.

I finally sat down one afternoon and boldly wrote a LinkedIn message to Avery Oldt, SVP of Design. I was passionate and respectful, but did my best to try and convince him that I was a solid candidate for the roll. After hitting send, I began to wonder if I would get a response. After all, he's the top of the design food chain at BofW and surely had more important things to do than give feedback to a candidate they didn't hire.

Much to my surprise, he did respond. And, after every question I had asked myself about why I didn't get the job, I was wrong about all of them.

The following is his response to my interview and why I wasn't hired:

Hi Chris, thanks for the note, I’ll keep those posts coming.



Happy to give you feedback. I want to start by saying not all designers are the right designer at the right time for every design org. You are a perfect fit for a role out there, just not our team right now for the roles we need to fill.



There are many factors that go into deciding what type of soft skills and hard skills are needed to balance a team and it’s pretty difficult to determine how a candidate stacks up to our expectations. A good guide is to calibrate the candidates against our current team members and other candidates we meet with in the search process.



I also want to share that we have a pretty thorough evaluation process. Even though we move quickly we give heavy consideration to all aspects of the work a designer has on their resume, portfolio, and their presentation. You’d be surprised at the level of detailed scrutiny the interview panel discusses when we get together at the end of an interview series.



When we have a good understanding of a designer’s skill and potential our conversation often becomes one of comparison and calibration. ‘They have this skill like Joe, this other aspect we also see from Mary; but on this skill are they good enough to keep pace with Jill?’



For your evaluation I believe there were positive comments about your prior experience and what that would bring to the role. I believe there was also recognition that from a purely UX Design perspective it appeared you had the training and school projects to demonstrate decent potential in that space.



This area, UX Design, and the practice aligned to General Assembly’s training isn’t a strong need for us as a primary operating mode for designers on the team. It is one aspect of their work, but not the area we have the most need for skills. If we had a stronger need for someone with primarily those skills and we had the time and environment for them to learn other skills you would be a better fit. Given our current team that isn’t the case.



The area where we have the most need is in highly developed digital product design and the visual design skills that go with it. This in my experience is also the skill set that takes longer to learn through hundreds of projects, design systems development, and mentoring by senior designers. It shows up on every detail on every screen a top candidate presents, including their deck itself. We are looking for someone already at that level. I have zero doubts that you can get there, but it I’m afraid we aren’t the right fit for you right now.



I think you’d do great on any team where they are looking for more skills aligned to your current experience, or on a team big enough to give you the opportunity to grow and learn. Lots of super great brands have these roles open and a stint in a role like that at Google or Facebook would probably be a great move for you right now.



I know rejection is tough. And career changes are super hard b/c you can feel like you are starting over (you are! I have too, you can do it!). I myself have interviewed with some really great teams and thought I was a perfect fit, and was dismayed when it didn’t work out. What I tell myself is that I’m not on the inside, I can only see from my limited point of view. Regardless of what I think about my skills or match to the role I have near zero understanding of what they really need, and perhaps they are unable to express it. They are a better judge on what would work for them. Passing on hiring me for their role isn’t an objective judgement of me - it is a judgment of me-for-this-role. I’m still the same and still trying to get better in the way I want everyday, with a bit of feedback gained from every experience.



Good luck to you. Your next job is out there, don’t dwell on this small bump, go get it!





Best,

Avery

Reading it again, I continue to notice things that I can focus on moving forward as well as what I cannot control during the hiring process.

I am very grateful for Avery's feedback.

Cheers!