Designer pedigree is nonsense: it’s the work, not the school

The talk

A few years ago I was speaking at a well-known NYC design school about our profession. The audience was made up mostly of students about to graduate, as well as some faculty. The topic of my talk was the laughably broad “working in design.”

There was a Q&A after my talk; most of the questions focused on how to land a first gig, interview etiquette, portfolio prep, etc.

During the Q&A, one brave student said, “This is a pretty good school, but should I be worried that I didn’t attend a top-tier design school like RISD?” At first I was a little surprised; in my opinion, this was a good design school. Certainly better than the school I attended.

My response was fairly direct: “No, the school doesn’t matter much. Just focus on your portfolio. Make sure you have interesting, well-conceived and well-executed projects to share.”

Incredulous, the student pushed back: “But when you’re looking at a bunch of résumés, don’t you filter for the best schools?”

“No, I only look at the work. I don’t care what school someone attended.”

To my surprise, a faculty member stood and said, “I appreciate your response, but are you being 100% candid? I mean, surely the quality of the school counts for something when hiring?” Wow.

At first I was a little taken aback by his challenge, but then it struck me: I’d put the faculty and, in fact, the entire school on the spot: here they are, charging a lot of money for students to attend their design program, and here I am telling them the school doesn’t really matter. Ouch.

I wasn’t going to change my answer to placate this professor, but I did soften my response a bit: “Here’s the thing: when I’m hiring a designer, I look primarily at the portfolio. If it’s good, I’ll want to know more. If it’s not, I stop looking.”

The fuller truth is that I actually try to avoid looking at many details in a candidate’s application. I worry that things like name, education, work experience, etc. might trigger some unconscious bias on my part. Again, if the work’s solid, I want to get to know the candidate as a person, not as details on a CV, and that can only happen during an…