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Cool, I'll dig into both those resources. Thanks!

1. Frankly, Tres Agaves once every six weeks is not nearly enough! ;) I hear you on this. I think there is plenty of this within the company. Things that prove, hey, not only do we all love solving problems together, but we actually really enjoy one another and like spending time together. Whether it's board game night, a scotch event, or trips to the exploratorium. What I'm hearing is you value knowing these things exist in a culture, and they're definitely worth communicating.

2. Makes a lot of sense... What I'm hearing is... "Look.. Tim... You guys may need design... And you may think communicating how desperately you need it will attract folks... But you're actual losing attractiveness when you take away the humanness. Be real. Cool you're going to value what a designer is doing, a lot, but it's not going to be utopia, it never its. So just be honest."

I definitely think we've erred on the side of "selling" our story... Which makes it seem fake. Instead of telling our story, like humans and not sales folk :)

1. It's encouraging to hear you have had success poaching. Maybe I just need to start going for it, and learn the art, instead of being intimidated.

You also bring up a great point with the in-house, do you have any ex-colleague esk poaching. I don't think we've totally dried our in house well, and it is something worth digging into more.

Noted on being weary of greed infused recruiting! Fortunately haven't run into any of this tension yet... But I see how if we start digging around in-house more, this is something to be very cautious of.

Benjamin, thanks a ton for everything you've been saying. Plenty of folks at the company are looking at the responses this post is getting, and it makes a world of difference to hear from actual designers like yourself!

Hey Diego, thanks for your thoughts.

1. Definitely similar values to myself. People mark a happy work place first and foremost (In my opinion) And if you can couple that with solving awesome problems, things are great :)

2. Of course. As you should and I'm sure, deserve!

3. It's cool to hear this is so high on your value list... I feel like sometimes, not all the time but sometimes, designer stray towards only meta high level thinking. Which is a very good thing. I just think it ought to be coupled with critical think, like you mentioned.

4. I think there is a bit of a spectrum here... We all value it to some degree and I think finding someone who isn't black or white about only being remote or on-site, but sees value in both, is crucial.

Aaron... Hammer on nail.

We are nerds. Absolutely. And we all love that. We are pretty big however, so I can't speak for the whole company, just us engineers :)

My biggest take away from what you're saying is to have real expectations... Not necessarily higher or lower expectations... But right ones. There is part of me, that so badly, wants Mrs. or Mr. Dribbble. I think it's cause we are so far from that, so it makes it seem like that is what we need. However, you are right, that is definitely not the case.

Basically, you're saying... We're not going to bring Lebron James to the San Antonio Spurs... ;).. That is, the right person is going to continue the design shift that's been happening, in a way thats encouraging to us engineers and the broader company. Not a clashing tension, but a healthy tension.

Thanks for your thoughts Aaron!

Hey c k. Love this idea. Not sure how many of my designer buddies would be willing to rack someones brain, but I suppose a couple might.

I definitely think someone with more expertise should do the vetting and not people who are trying to understand what needs to be vetted. Love your point there.

Dang Benjamin. You absolutely killed it. This is awesome.

1. I hear you. I can't speak to knowing what we offer pure salary wise. Only that we compete with other tech companies in SF. Vacation, location, health, all that stuff is solid. Although, I will say there aren't any extravagant benefits. Just really solid normal ones.. Ha.

2. This is the tension I keep coming back to. Obviously it is not the most designer conducive culture. Or we wouldn't be experiencing this problem. There are some seriously cool things about our company though, and some seriously awesome people. I'm more than confident in what is today, and the people there, to be enough to get people on board. However the design component still isn't there. People are 100% committed to it. We just need the head. Someone to steer the ship.

3. This is a great point, and makes it a little easier to think about the demographic we might appeal to. I'm obviously not a recruiter myself, and so how the heck I'd poach from other companies seems completely a bit scary, and actually kind of fun.

If you were the one being poached, are there any specific things that would catch your eye, that aren't annoying? Dribbble comments, or things of the like? Something like the github example I gave in the post...

Hey Jonathan,

Human to human follow up to email is so refreshing isn't it? I agree that that's a crucial step in the process.

I wish I could say I've been going to local meetups. Obviously being in SF, this seems like a go to way to recruit. However, it's been tough to find the time. Hearing your success with it is definitely encouraging and perhaps I'll make it a bit more of a priority!

Any meetups you know of in the bay area that you'd recommend?

Cheers!

Sean, I absolutely agree. It feels like the crack in the ice is there (people recognizing how desperately we need great design and how much value it adds). It just needs someone who is passionate about breaking the ice all the way through.

Until then, it is ice. Unfortunately.

Also totally hear your point about window dressing. The BS we all hear from recruiters is.. just, blehhh.

But I'm definitely learning how hard it can be to communicate honestly and transparently without making it seem like window dressing, when you have very little idea about a certain field.

Retina