Too many steps, too much free work.

Respondents told us that the typical interview process can have anywhere from three to seven rounds, which requires a significant time investment that exhausts candidates.

Companies ask candidates for case studies and/or writing exercises, which can take days to complete, making it unfair on people with caring responsibilities or limited free time. If writing exercises are related to the company’s product, there is the added issue that companies are essentially asking people to do unpaid work for them.

Portfolios are also a massive time-suck to keep up to date, which again hurt those with caring responsibilities and limited free time. Jobseekers are also frustrated that companies are asking for both a portfolio and an exercise, rather than one or the other.

Requiring 3+ interviews and take-home assignments. I once went through six rounds of interviews and didn’t get the job, plus I had to do a three-hour panel interview with them and take a ridiculous IQ test.

—Senior content designer, USA

The process is sooo time-consuming and often requires extra design work outside of the case studies submitted. This heavily favors people who are single, well-off financially, childfree, have flexible schedules, etc. (i.e. people with privilege).

—Content designer, USA

If you have a family, it’s really hard to find the time to create a portfolio, network, upskill (in my spare time), write applications, interview, etc… It feels out of range to me.

—Content designer, Sweden

Companies and recruiters don’t understand what they’re hiring for. 

A frequent complaint was that companies are hiring content roles, but don’t actually know what the content role they are hiring for is, what content professionals do on a daily basis, or what value they bring.

Recruiters also seem to confuse content- and design-related roles when seeking out applicants, leading to hiring teams getting sent job applicants that aren’t the right fit for the role.

Recruiters still don’t know what we do. They still believe we’re: a. designers b. copywriters with coding skills c. magicians who can transform their poorly designed product into a unicorn.

—Lead content strategist, Italy

Many recruiters do not *get* what content design is. We’re actively recruiting for a mid- to senior-level content designer, and recruiters keep sending me marketing copywriters. I’ve met with each recruiter to go over the specifics in detail, but it’s not clicking.

—Senior manager of content design, USA

Experience and skill requirements are unrealistic.

We also heard that companies are not hiring entry-level content designers, or are asking for too many years of experience in a field that’s relatively young. They’re expecting candidates to be at a senior level, but not putting the investment into training and upskilling entry-level content professionals so they get to a senior level.

Respondents told us that companies are skipping over candidates because they haven’t used the exact tools used in the job they are applying to, or they haven’t done the exact same type of work in their current or previous roles. There seems to be a lack of trust in a candidate’s potential to succeed in a role, in favor of marking jobseekers against an unrealistic checklist of skills and experience.

Very few entry-level/early-career opportunities. Hard to get interviews when you don’t have 5+ years experience in the field. Would love to have companies interested in hiring for my potential, not just experience.

—Design writer, USA

The people hiring for content designers too often have little to no idea what the day-to-day work is like, and end up focusing too much on particular details or skills that can be honed or taught on the job, and missing what’s really important and much harder to learn. For example: it doesn’t matter if someone made a spelling mistake on their CV, or they haven’t used Figma before—it’s a tool and they’ll learn if they practice and get support from their team.

—Content design lead, Finland

Too much focus on portfolio content having the exact right experience fit for the new role. Just because I didn’t write for your specific flow type doesn’t mean I can’t!

—Senior UX writer, USA 

Just tell us the salary, please. 

It wastes people’s time to put effort into an application only to find out the role doesn’t meet their salary expectations, and respondents told us this was a common problem. We also heard concerns about pay parity and how content roles are paid in comparison to other roles in a design team.

A majority of recruiters still don’t list the salary up front and so you have to waste a lot of time making sure a position is a match for your skills.

—UX copywriter, USA

Lack of transparency around compensation. Even if a company posts a salary range, I want to know that the salary they advertise is equivalent to any designer at the same level.

—Principal UX writer, USA

Getting ghosted is common, and feels terrible. 

Applicants also shared that they put so much effort into a multi-round recruitment process, only to never hear back with any feedback as to why they didn’t get the role.

Ghosting is also bad. Always bad. Give feedback to people. Value the effort they put into multiple-step, sometimes months-long recruitment processes.

—Senior content designer, Netherlands

Having at least 5 steps INCLUDING HOMEWORK in every. SINGLE. interview process, and being ghosted consistently.

—Manager, content design, Canada