Design Interview Process - Studios| MNC's | Startups | Non-Design Orgs

Design interviews are the major point of concern when it comes to cracking them. Let it be freshers or let it be experienced designers who are moving up the climb, moving up the ladder and people who are really starting up from a different background into design. This is a very crucial phase. A lot of people get staggered to make it clear. This podcast is going to give you what is the process, what is the way in which you can be prepared and ready so that you can target on different industries like startups, MNCs, non design organizations and design studios. Anything. Take a lot of notes. And this podcast is going to give you completely a different perspective of how you can able to change your mindset when it comes to different Design Studios and MNCs and corporates and other startups and how we can able to win a beautiful career in it. Okay, so let's dive into this podcast. Welcome guys, welcome. So now let's go and understand how the design process is being catered in different, different industries. Okay, so first let's start with design studios. Okay, One of the favorite and a lot of people are really dreaming to get into it, let me tell you guys, the process in which they operate is actually having initial screening. Okay? Say so once you apply the resume or once you apply your like let's say your statement of purpose or maybe your curriculum vitae or any kind of a cover letter. So that's like an initial screening process, what they have. Okay. And possibly they will have a portfolio screening. Also a lot of interviewers and a lot of design studios really expect this. So the second important aspect when it comes to the process is technical assessment. Okay, so with respect to design studios we're talking the second is technical assessment. So are you having a certain design skills which is expected by them, whether it is a kind of remote design task which they'll give you or they will give you in person task whenever you're attending interview or sometimes they give something like a whiteboard challenge. They ask you to solve live, how you're able to react and solve to it. And they check your perspectives and they understand what is the thought process of you when it comes to handling the project live. And they will check for your questioning ability, they will check for your understandability, they'll check for your collaborativeness. So a lot of parameters has been understood with that technical assessment. The third important part is behavioral interviews because they wanted to really understand how you're able to fit because international design studios and national design studios, they really work with multicultural designers. How you're able to Fit there and that evaluation will be definitely there. Don't ask me a scale. How will they evaluate? It's definitely not going to work. If you memorize a scale and then you. It's like acting yourself. No, the act should not be there. It should be very honest, original. What is your culture? What is your interpersonal skills? What is your real, what do you call the behavior? Show that that's what people are looking for. And people really try to understand your past experience, your design philosophy. Because when it comes to behavioral interviews, people really understand what's your philosophy and why you wanted to become a designer. Like, let's say if you're coming from a software background, if you're coming from a sales background, or if you're a student who, who have normally not taken engineering or normally not taken any kind of a, what you call Dr. Field or any other thing, but you have come into design, why? So that philosophy needs to be very clear. Okay, this is about the behavioral interview pattern. The fourth important part of the process is panel interviews. After assessing all these things, they find that you are suitable and they will finally scrutinize you using a face to face interview or virtual interview or even phone call interview. So multiple interviews used to assess for different diverse perspectives, how you're able to communicate effectively, how you're able to fit the culture into it, how you're able to ideate when it comes to individual ideation and team collaboration. So people understand how it's a small scale project, big scale project, how you will react and do it so that collaborative and communicative capabilities they will check in the final interview. So these are all the four important aspect when it comes to international design studio. Initial screening, using your resume, portfolio and everything. Technical assessment, giving design tasks and behavioral interviews and panel interviews. Okay, so this is what is pretty much same. See guys, for all the segment of design studios and images, what I'm going to tell you, there is a commonality which I'll cover at the end of this podcast. Okay. So you can be ready with that so that you can attend different, different design studios and other places. So the second segment of this podcast is local design studios and design consulting. See, India is majorly of design consulting agency, right? We do a service economy for various different organizations, even nationally, internationally. So even they also have the first process which is called portfolio review. Okay. Because they want to directly see your portfolio. There's nothing called design resume this, that. And also they wanted to check how your thinking abilities or how your project are really reflected. Okay. And they Will wanted to really check how this is going to fit for their local design because they are designing and developing for a region specific product or region specific service. So how you are able to check and adopt to it. Let's say if you're applying for a design studio in your vernacular language, local language, it would be much comfortable for you to start your career with like let's say if you're going for a Delhi based design studio or Mumbai based design studio, it's a little what you call they expect that kind of a local fit. How you're able to do some interviews when it comes to talking in Hindi to the people. How you are able to survey the inter survey the participants when it comes to using local language. Because if you are able to understand the local language better, the kind of data you collect will be much better. Okay, so that fit they will also see. That is why I always suggest if you are a fresher start with your local design studios. That would be a best choice. If you are able to comfortably communicate with different people, no problem. You can across, you can apply across any national international studios. Okay. So the second important aspect is industry specific knowledge. So how you are able to check the local trends and challenges and are you having any kind of a relatable project to see it is very specific to that knowledge and the skill set which they will be looking at. This is one of the major, major important thing when it comes to local design studios. See guys, whenever you're applying for a local design studios, you should be more prepared and you should be having that clarity. What is their skill set, what is their projects, what is their portfolio of projects, what they're looking with clients and make sure you align your portfolio accordingly so that you can able to penetrate through that round. The third important thing is collaborative design exercises. So this is a little interesting and different guys, okay? It's not an individual task. Sometimes they give you group tasks, sometimes they give you a collaborative task with their current team members to understand how you're able to adopt, how you're able to evolve, how you're able to be uncomfortable so that they can able to take you in a longer term work. Because a lot of people expect comfort zone, right? So you need to be making sure that you should be uncomfortable working with limited resources, limited constraints and limited information. How you're able to come up with a solution out of it even. I've talked to a lot of recruiters, they said directly Jagdish, we're looking for people who can work with limited constraints, who can work with what you call limited resources and time so that they are very comfortable working in that environment. We want that kind of an adoptable student. So see, the collaborative design exercises is really, really an important factor with limited thing. Okay, and the fourth important thing is cultural fit, guys. This is same like what we discussed for international design studios and national design studios as well. So evaluating the particular candidate for how they are able to align with their studio values. That is why in my program I always suggest my students, there is a big excel sheet which we used to work on. Okay. It's, it's a very powerful tool and it's really, really a, what you call. It's a priceless tool. I would say we all collaboratively work in that sheet, guys. You know, we collect a studio's information, we collect their mission, mission value and how they're able to fit culturally, how they're able to fit in terms of compensation, how they're able to give in terms of training and assessment and what is their way forward, what is their portfolio, how we can able to network with recruiters in that particular studio. So we make a very good measure and evaluation. Before the company assesses you, you should be assessing that company. That is a major, major important thing. And that happens automatically. Cultural fit will happen. Okay, so this is the second part of it. The third important segment of this podcast is MNC's how you're able to crack multinational design studios and things. Okay. So when it comes to that, the very first important element, what they expect is global design standards. Like let's say if you are particularly. I'm a medical product designer. The very first question which comes in my interviews normally is what is the design standards and the design use? What like let's say design guidelines or, or the design ISO or IEC or what are the standards which you follow? Jakdish. How you're able to arrive human factors out of it, how you're able to check the dimensions or how you're able to check the anthropology data for it. Are you using international anthropometry or Indian anthropometry or European? So that is the kind of global expectation will be there. Okay? So whenever you're working in that project, make sure you keep that ready whenever you're going for that interview process. Okay? And also you need to be showing, showcasing that what is your experience in global context? If you have any client who are working internationally, you can able to code that. Okay. And the second important expectation of MNC is cross functional collaboration. Of course you have a Lot of different teams like engineering, testing, development, vendor, sales, marketing. Right. So you need to be very comfortable working with different people, different region. And you should be able to even work remotely. And your communication should be very effective. You should be proficient in using tools like Miro. You should be proficient in using tools like Microsoft Teams zoom so that people can able to collaboratively work with you in a more faster environment. Right. And also the third important factor what MNC check is scale of project, how you're able to work in a larger scales project and how you're able to work in a complex project managing a different resources. Right. Because when it comes to larger project, you need to work on very specific things clearly so that you move your work to the other team or the larger team so that the understandability is fast. If your work is not good, the scalability will be very, very big problem. So a lot of MNCs check for that. Also how you're able to use your design systems to use it for scaling up to different, different big projects. When it comes to larger scale impact. Okay, so that is what is the big expectation of MNCs as well. You can have one good project in your portfolio showcasing that. If you don't have it, you can right now make it. I used to teach my students how you can do project in one single day and you can able to fit it in your portfolio. So you can use this particular strategy to bring a different scale of projects. How you can able to use your design skill for larger projects and smaller projects so that you can able to cover lot many recruiters. The fourth important thing is corporate cultural assessment. Very, very important. I see, have you seen the commonality? So people are able to see how you're able to fit culturally. A lot of people are working in design skills. Design portfolio, design sketching, design beautifying, ui. Let me tell you guys, if you're not able to fit culturally, nobody is going to accept you. People do not work on this. That is why 80% of the time they get rejections, rejections, rejections. If this cultural fit you can able to showcase through your communication through your work, nobody's going to stop you. Even if you have meager design skills, they will be able to train you. Right? Every designers goes to that industry and gets trained and do the work. Yeah, they have a preliminary skills and primary skills. But on the industry specific project, what we are going to do definitely nobody will be prepared. 100% guys, it's all on job training. 90 percentage you get to learn from the project. And then you adopt and then you groom your skills and then you do it. That is why the cultural fit is very important. And lot of behavioral questions are prepared in corporate industries and they have software test which can able to assess your decision making ability, your logical thinking ability, your presence of mind, your soft skills. So this is very, very important. Okay, yes. This is the third segment of this podcast MNCs. The fourth important part is startups and small businesses. Which India has lot of startups and small businesses. Okay, so the first parameter, what they expect is adaptability and versatility. How you're able to manage certain different, different tasks. When you're working with the low resource setting, right? Sometimes you should be able to do a UI design also sometimes you able, you should be able to even test also. So how you're able to do that basic understanding. So that is in a faster paced environment, right? Because in small scale indust timeline will be a huge constraint. So that kind of adaptability jail thing. The second important aspect is entrepreneurial spirit. See guys, to work in a small scale industry, in a small business, definitely you need to own the responsibility of an entrepreneur, right? You can't imagine that you're working for a boss, this, that and that. You need to own that brand and you need to talk to that customer as if you are that brand. So people should be even thinking, hey, are you really the founder of the company? To that level of conviction? If you show as the owner of the responsibility of the brand, definitely startups and small scale industries will hire people. Really check that. That is a very important design process. Also they give you certain tasks in order to check your entrepreneurship. They give you some kind of a live questions like okay, how will you handle this question, guys, how will you handle when a problem happens? Like let's say if one person is on leave, the other person is working on a full time project and the client sits in front of you and asks for a project today, how will you manage to give the project? Before end of the day people ask you this kind of a critical questions to assess you, right? You should be able to clearly tell, okay, I can able to outsource this for time being today so that I can deliver the output. I can able to call my best teammates and then I can able to get the help of the work done. I can able to use a tool, AI tool to able to help. So you should be giving some kind of an answers which is justifiable and how you are able to take ownership. You cannot say today that person is leave and you come tomorrow. That's not the way, right? So entrepreneurial spirit is important thing and the third important thing comes with it is risk taking ability and innovation. See guys, when you're working for a startup industry, this is a beautiful ability which you can show people. Try to understand your innovation. Sometimes the big corporates and design studios, they'll be more careful in order to take some innovative ideas, very radical ideas and all. But startups, wow. It's a great opportunity to show your portfolio. If you have crazy ideas, if you have that having risk taking ability because they expect that in the interview and they also exhibit that through their interview role. How you're able to handle ambiguity and startup environment. Really expect that. The fourth important thing is passion for the company's mission, right? See guys, whatever. Four points I told about startups and small businesses which is adaptability, entrepreneurial spirit, risk taking ability, innovation and passion. Everything is aligned. You can't see really a difference in it. Okay? So make sure you project your projects, your resume, your portfolio in that way so that people can able to hire you very very carefully, okay? Because they check for your behavioral level, they check for how you can able to have the passion towards working for a mission and vision of the brand so that you own that responsibility and crack interview. Okay? This is the fourth part of it. The last segment of this podcast is non design organization. Let's say if you're working for a freelancing, you're working for any full time organization where you are the only designer. The very first quality what they expect is understanding the design needs. Are you really understanding our design needs? If you are able to understand their design needs clearly you are definitely selected guys. That is the first round they will have. That is why you need to write a cover letter whenever you are applying for a non design organization without even showing your portfolio. Show them how you can able to contribute and solve their problems and add value. This is the very first step. If you're able to use that and different industries you can able to approach. Let's say if you're working in a paint industry, if you're working for a chemical industry, if you're working for a tire manufacturers, how you can able to show show that design intent, right? See in my, in my design student in my design college when I attended interview, there was a company called Goodyear, they were a company called Apollo, right? There was a company called a chemical industry. These three industries applied for our placements and they expect designers in their organization, right? So the point is people were little skeptical how I can able to show so in that quick span of time how you're able to structure your portfolio and your project presentation pitch to recruit to understand their design needs and able to solve. One of my batchman got selected right in a chemical industry. So he said that I'm able to really innovate materials. I'm able to really innovate different different design thinking methodology when it comes to giving that experience for customer, how they can able to choose different material, different texture, different touch and feel. I can able to engineer that. So he was selected for that particular mindset and he was able to work continuously and consistently. And you know what, he's the only designer there. So that's also a positive point for him. He took it like I'm able to own a better control over design compared to any organization. See this is very very important thing guys. And when this is established, second is very important communication and education. Yeah, of course you can show your educational skills. You can explain your non design stakeholders how you can able to showcase your different design abilities. This is where your communication skill also they will check. Because when you are interfacing with different design teams and non design teams, if you're not communicating properly, people don't value you. Hey, you are just a drawing guy. Hey, you are just that interface. You make some graphics and other things. No, hey, you are just non technical kind of. You don't know coding, right? So people undervalue you. So that is why you need to showcase that communication strongly. Hey, if I come to your organization, I'll be able to talk to your non designers as well by effectively communicating. So you need to structure your interview process and your self intro and then your cover letter in a way you can show that this is what they expect. The third important thing is project management skills, right? Because definitely you will be working with different different marketing people, sales people, engineering people, testing people, development people. So how you're able to align your design creative skills with them. So assessing the ability to manage projects independently is the major important expectation. And how you're able to balance your design creativity with the final business goal. See guys, if it is a non design organization, this is a very very important thing. How you are able to solve the business need using your creativity and how you are able to add value. I always tell my students, if you are able to solve a problem for a design organization or a non design organization and add value, they'll be able to give you money for it. If you're not solving any problem, you cannot expect money. You cannot Even expect an interview chance from them. So you need to be very sure how you're able to solve the problem. If you solve a big problem, you'll be getting paid more. If you solve a small problem, you will be getting paid small. That's it. Simple. And the fourth important thing is how you're able to flexibly adopt your creative problem solving ability. Because many times it will be a very unique challenges. You need to find out how varied context customers for your non design organization will come and how you can able to use your creativity to showcase that problem and how you can able to make a very good presentation and communication skills. This is a very, very important skill which non design organization expectations. And whenever you're able to do it guys, boom. You will be able to crack non design organizations interview very very carefully. I showed you some of the case study. Also one of my friends story, right? So it is not possible or it's not like nobody will hire me. I am from a different design background. I'm from a design background or this is a non design organization. This is all complete BS for me. If you have the mindset of going and adding value and solving a problem of a design of an organization, people will be definitely interested to have you. Okay, I hope this podcast would have given you clarity on five different segments of industries. What is the interview process? Let me now tell you what is the commonality? Guys, the big commonality is cultural fit. The big commonality is your effective communication and how you're able to interface with different different teams. The third important aspect is how you are able to understand the needs of the industry and using your skills to solve it. See guys, if you are able to understand this three commonality and if you prepare your resume, if you prepare your cover letter, if you prepare your portfolio accordingly, there is no industry which you cannot crack interview with. This is the major objective of this podcast. And each and every segment and each and every industry needs a little tweaking when it comes for interview process, when it comes to understanding their needs, when it comes to tweaking your portfolio before application. And this is what I teach my students also one on one very carefully based on their case study, based on their project, based on their application, what they apply for that industry and how they can able to customize their interview process and how they can able to customize their self intro how they can able to customize their portfolio so that they can get hired. It's not a one size fit for all or you can have a template to do that. That's not how it works. Right. So this is why I recorded this podcast, so that you can understand what are the various expectations and what are the design interview process. Okay. I hope you would have understood this podcast and if you have taken notes, you would have found five different elements and you can now customize your work accordingly. Okay. And also let me tell you a very surprising thing. People are commenting on this podcast or if you're able to share your notes, what you learned. I'm going to be exchanging my powerful Excel sheet on how I use 16 parameters to teach my students how they can able to evaluate themselves and the company even before they're applying. And if you're able to fill that sheet with 16 parameters, boom. You will be able to apply every single day. Two to design two to three design interviews. You two to design two to three design studios so that in one week you should be at least able to crack one or two design interviews. Imagine guys, in next seven to ten days you will be able to crack one design interview. Whether it's a fresher, whether it's an experienced, no problem. This is the power of having that evaluation compared with you. Okay? So thank you so much, guys. If you find this podcast valuable, please hit me a subscribe button and get notified for further episodes. If you find this really valuable, give me a best star rating. I really recommend you that in Apple and Spotify. And also if you need my mentorship support to help you, please send an email so that it's given in the chat box and I'll be able to help you. Okay, thank you so much, guys. Thank you. Take care. Bye Bye. All the best.