The Glitch is incredibly strong as a content creation and dissemination company that uses video, tech and creativity to deliver spot-on strategic solutions for clients. They have a novel approach to employee engagement, retention and motivation that allows them to bring in passionate and top quality digital talent in the market.
Naturally, we reached out to them to understand how a graphic designer gets hired in a company as good as this. Their Associate Creative Head, Aatif Shaikh and Communication Manager, Manasi Rawal called IndieFolio to their office to speak about their hiring process and what they look for when choosing a graphic designer.
Aatif Shaikh, the Associate Creative Director who lent his time for this interview.
Among all the graphic designer’s portfolios you’ve been impressed by, is there a common facet in every portfolio that impresses you?
Innovation is a key factor now in the digital space. It depends on what kind of mediums you use, say, maybe something like motion graphics or whatever other specialisation you have. It gives us an idea into what the person thinks about innovations. If a designer is good at typography and his whole portfolio is filled with more of the same, then he has to decide if this is what he wants to be. I’ll feel like someone is limiting himself if comes up to me and says, “I just want to be an illustrator.” “I just want to be a motion graphics artist.” “I just want to do websites and apps.” But if he could say “Let me see what’s out there and I’ll make something different”, I would be willing to consider that candidate. Like, if there was an interesting mock-up brought with him or something I could see on my phone. Things like that would impress me.
Right, because this agency is all about being innovative and thinking out of the box. Do you feel like they would lose a little confidence if they did something that was good when hand drawn but you thought, “That’s great but what about their digital work?” Is that a concern?
In this current company, we don’t require illustrators as much. For me, it might be different. For another agency, the requirements might be different. So what I’m saying is show me what you’re good at but keep it based on the requirements.
What do most graphic designers get wrong in their portfolios?
Some portfolios may fit here and some may not. E.g. Pure mainline work may not fit here. That doesn’t mean a portfolio has gone universally wrong but it has gone wrong for this organization. I feel like if you edit your portfolio for different organisations that you’re applying for, it will help to reduce mistakes in your portfolio or résumé. If graphic designers did that, it would also show us that they’d be able to adapt. Recently, a person came to us with 8-10 years of experience and his portfolio was pure mainline work. He had done millions of things in his career and it really was a crazy amount of experience he had but, unfortunately, he didn’t fit into this agency. For this agency, his portfolio was wrong but, as an individual in the creative field, his portfolio was good.
What kind of interests do you think a graphic designer should have to always keep improving their skills and portfolios?
I feel like if you have your hobbies intact; if designing really is your passion then you should keep following the design trends; follow whatever is going on currently in the world or whatever is going on within your native culture. Even if you say things to yourself things like, ‘I want to experiment in After Effects’, it’s great for you. I think you should keep a habit of learning something new. Even interests like sports, it should be about design like designing jerseys or logo design; things like that. It depends on your interests, like we have a Lakme team in the office who now keeps researching about cosmetics. If you have to grow as a designer, you have to look at other fields. Researching other fields and keeping yourself up to date is important to keep improving.
So is it about whatever that interests you in design is first and then extending it in a design-centric way?
Yes. Brands are also made that way. That’s how I build up my team up and manage them. The few who have interests in a few specific things, I try to push them in that direction and they excel. For people who like sports, if we have a certain sports brand and they would like to experiment with it, I tell them to give it a shot.
What can graphic designers do to make it easier for HR professionals to examine their portfolios?
Honestly, I don’t know how to think from an HR professional’s point of view because I don’t look at them in the same hiring way. I feel like mentioning your information needs to be up to the mark. Not too much and not too little. I see certain portfolios and résumés filled with information that you can get lost in and some make you feel like there’s nothing. It should be balanced out and very well-composed. Everything I see on a page should have a proper flow of information without too much drama. Stay simple and keep to the point of what you want to say. Make anybody who’s reading it understand what you’re good at and what you’re here for.
With regards to your working environment, what kind of personality should your graphic designers have? Or is this not taken into consideration?
Well, with personality, half of the time you come to know later, you know, after you’ve hired the person (laughs). Most of the time, they behave a certain way in the interview. We don’t look at personality that much. It’s skill that we test them on. It gets more of a priority. If someone is not quite open and not prone to talking, we tend to change that and it helps the employee out in that way. We want you to speak out, say whatever problems you’re facing. Keep your basic knowledge of the designing process in place because we want to see your software skills more than your personality.
When hiring for different levels, what are the differences in the process you use for hiring a fresh graphic designer, a mid-level designer and a veteran designer?
We test them but we have different tests for different levels. We keep the easier briefs for the younger guys. For a mid-level position, you definitely should know about motion because any new-age designer has to know motion. Even an Art Director has a test but it’s more of a knowledge check to see if they’ve been managing people in their previous company and if they are good at handling pressure. We want to know things like that. At veteran levels, we’re looking at multi-skilled designers. They need to have leadership skills, management skills and a lot of knowledge about all the scenarios of design.
What is the one bad habit that impacts the work of most graphic designers?
Time management. Sometimes, I’ve seen people say, “Let me take a break.” And one break turns into two then three then four. At the end of the day, they end up saying, “Damn, I have to deliver this by tomorrow and I forgot.” Then they have to sit overtime and do it. Acting really quickly on the brief you’ve got is needed here. In scenarios like ours where deadlines are within a week, you have to be fast. You have to manage your work properly. Having a task list helps, in general, because most designers don’t write things down to follow up on.
A question specifically for The Glitch: What do most graphic designers appreciate about working here?
This is the largest digital, creative agency in the country. The most important factor about this place is that you’re given creative freedom. We create an environment which helps people work as well as play together. We even have a table tennis room and other activities to keep stress levels low. We have to work together as a team under one roof. We don’t have dedicated cubicles or allocated cabins. Everyone just sits together, all on one floor; I think that’s what designers love about it and I’m sure most of the other people like it too. It’s pretty open so you can go and talk to any person you want at any given point of time. I think that helps a lot in building up a good team with team spirit. You can’t be sitting there with your headphones on thinking, ‘I’m doing all my jobs properly.’ There’s a reason why this place is open. If anyone needs help, they can directly go to someone and say, ‘This is the client I’m working on, can I get help?’ And they figure it out on their own. It’s how they become responsible, accountable and independent. Though there are a few open cubicles and headphones for the times that you do need silence especially when we’re close to deadlines. Work is still work but we’re open and we become responsible about it. I think that’s the best part about working here.
What advice do you want to leave all the graphic designers who want a job at your firm?
Always love what you’re doing. It’s really important. You should keep yourself inspired and motivated and find your own source of inspiration and motivation. I don’t want robots, I want thinkers. If someone is going to say, ‘No, this isn’t going to work or this doesn’t look good’ then I want them to tell me what works best. I want people who can think and execute their ideas. I don’t want people who just figure out what’s wrong, they should also proactively fix what’s wrong and find a solution. We look for graphic designers who are problem solvers along with a good sense of skill and style.
Want to know what it’s like to work at The Glitch? Check out what their office looks like below.
From the team at IndieFolio, we’d like to say a big thank you to Aatif Shaikh, Manasi Rawal and The Glitch for having us over to gain helping graphic designers every where understand what they are in for if they were to apply to The Glitch and big agencies in general.
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