The job market for creatives is booming -- here's how to get ahead

This week we meet Haris Silic, a former graphic designer who is now the managing director of a recruitment company specializing in creative talent.

Who: Haris Silic, managing director, Artisan Talent

Why: After moving to New York to attend Pratt's design management graduate program, he connected with Artisan to see if they could represent him and find him work. To his surprise, they asked him if he wanted to join their team as a recruiter. “Recruitment gives me this ability to still be in touch with the industry that I love, but also apply strategic insights that I have learned over the years,” he says.

Feast or famine: When Silic joined Artisan eight years ago, the U.S. economy was in recession and jobs were scarce. Today, there’s significantly more work for creatives and competition between recruiters for quality candidates is fierce. “It's interesting to contrast where we are today to where we were then,” he says. “We are in a midst of almost I feel like a pandemonium where we are getting calls left and right from companies to help them hire creatives, and it's challenging to find candidates that are engaged, that are interested, or even that will take the job and stay at it. We are incredibly busy. I have never seen it like this before.”

Silic shares his experience as a recruiter in the creative world, outlines the most in demand roles for designers and offers tips for those who have been unable to find work as a creative.

I don't know how much more the market can heat up. There isn't an infinite number of people in the city to fill the jobs, so I think there's going to be corrections. I'm really looking forward to employers being more competitive themselves and offering more perks and (higher) salaries. I do hope the market corrects soon and there's a more evened supply and demand. We tend to focus on placing creatives in roles that pay between $60,000 and $100K. That's our sweet spot and is highly in demand. We also take on more senior level roles, $120k to $170; however, that market is okay now. When we get a job that's, let's say, your typical senior branding designer, those talents are highly tough to engage, to get them to move and to keep them interested in the job. UX design and UI design will always be in demand. It is a very particular skill set.

There are a few things holding people back from landing work even though there’s so many jobs out there. The creative industry is ever evolving. Everyone wants the newest look, the hottest trend. They want their creative to look current, and designers and creatives have a responsibility to deliver on that. When your portfolio perhaps isn't as current, then you may have a harder time finding something that really aligns to what you're looking for. If you can’t find work now, try to understand why and talk to as many people as possible. Talk to recruiters from various agencies and hiring managers from different companies to get their perspectives, maybe help you pivot, and move on to something you may excel at.

Of all the clients we've met over the years, I can probably count on one hand those that wanted to see credentials from a school. It's great to have that obviously (as a candidate). You build a great network by attending those schools, and a sense of discipline. I definitely think academia plays a role; however, when it comes to a hiring decision, I don't think it plays a huge role. What really makes you stand out is the ability to walk through a portfolio, explain to your hiring manager or hiring person why you made the choices that you did, what makes them current, what makes them interesting, and what you contributed to the project. Also, your look: what is your point of view when it comes to creative? That combination plays a much more important role than a school that you came from.

Ghosting has become a huge issue in the industry. It is all about relationships. The people that ghost on both ends are clearly willing to destroy those relationships, or do not care about them. When it comes from the recruiter's standpoint, if you ghost a candidate that just interviewed for a client of yours, that candidate most likely will never call you again, and they most likely will never trust you again for you to work with them. But it goes the other way around. I just went through a hiring exercise, and we've decided to hire two additional people. Through the entire process, I was ghosted by candidates even to the point where I had a phone screen with someone, set up an in-person interview, and they never showed up. Without any explanation. That happened in exponential numbers.

We used to be in a space where most of the clients were not willing to pull the trigger on full-time employment. Recently we're getting a lot more demand from the companies to find them full-time talent. However, a lot of creatives are not willing to do that immediately, so they do the temp to perm thing where they actually want to try out the client. I think what's difficult for us is that we'll place someone on a temp to perm assignment, and by the time they figure out if this is the right company for them, they'll get something else and they'll move on.

If you’re a designer thinking of changing jobs in the next few months, first get a grasp of what is going on in the market. Start speaking to your peers. You should develop a professional network that you can rely on and can give you insight into market rates, market skillset demands, and the design aesthetics that are currently in. Then, I’d start preparing your portfolio. Your portfolio needs to look current, and use layouts that are clean and clear and also showcase aesthetics currently in demand. Really know what is current, and showcase that up front. Your resume is an important piece of the puzzle, so make sure that it's laid out nicely, that it's using current typography, that it follows some standard hierarchy, and that it's easy to digest. I can't tell you how many resumes I see with wrong links, websites that no longer work, or they're hosted on servers that are no longer available.

I get asked a lot if I miss working as a designer. I don't, because I still feel like I'm designing. When we get approached by a client to help with their hiring challenges, I look at that as a design challenge. We're helping them find puzzle pieces to put into their organization, and the way that I follow a process is the same way that I follow a process when I was designing. I may not be spending my time Photoshopping, but I'm spending my time on LinkedIn, and I find that I'm using the same skillset, just applying it in a different industry. Your skillset goes along with you, it's just that you're applying it in a different space.