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August 2025 #17313 Page #98
Designer Hiring Blues in the Summer
Thomas McAnally TheJobLine.com Hiring-Zone.com The Advertiser
I
t’s August. The heat is relentless, the humidity unforgiving, and your design team is running as hot as a NASCAR pit crew in Alabama. Project timelines are tight, customer expectations are high, and every minute counts. So when someone suggests bringing in a new designer, it can feel like tossing another log on a blazing fire. Sure, your team needs help—but adding a new hire during peak season can create more stress before it relieves any.
Hiring a designer at any time of year comes with its own headaches. But during the summer, those headaches become migraines. First, there’s the administrative maze. You’ve got to post the job, vet resumes, schedule interviews, run reference checks, and coordinate background screenings. Some companies even require physical exams or credit checks depending on the nature of the work. HR may handle most of this, but it still takes time, attention, and coordination—resources already stretched thin when the summer rush hits. Once you’ve finally found a candidate you’re excited about, the real work begins: onboarding. Getting someone into the system is just the beginning. You’ve got to physically (or virtually) set them up. That means ordering a computer with the right specs, making sure software licenses are in place, configuring access to shared drives, setting up VPNs or remote desktop access, and getting them connected to your design software—often through complex setups tied to company-specific infrastructure. In some companies, an IT department handles this. In others, it falls to the Design Manager, an unlucky team lead, or whichever designer happens to answer the phone when the new hire calls in. None of these people have time to spare, especially during the summer production crunch. What seems like a straightforward task—getting someone a working system—can quickly become a time-sucking distraction. Let’s say the technology setup goes smoothly (though it rarely does). The next hurdle is orientation and training. Even seasoned designers need time to understand your systems, your workflows, your naming conventions, and how your team communicates. In a perfect world, you’d have a structured onboarding process with training modules, documentation, and a dedicated mentor. But many companies still rely on informal onboarding—“shadow this person for a day and ask questions when you’re stuck”—which often leaves new hires overwhelmed and disengaged. This puts pressure on your experienced team members, who are already juggling deadlines and client calls. When they’re asked to pause and mentor a new hire, productivity takes a hit. It’s not that they don’t want to help—it’s just that the timing couldn’t be worse. The summer workload doesn’t pause for onboarding.
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