You’re a designer who leans heavily on the UX side of the “product designer” title. The other side, the “UI” half of the old “UI/UX” forward slash (now uncool to use) are things you find tedious and unimportant. You love design sprints, user flow diagrams, and user journey maps. You like design systems because they’re made up of millions of decisions you don’t have strong opinions on.

Some days, you miss Balsamiq.

Over the past couple years, you’ve heard non-stop talk about “craft.” You like the word, but it’s intimidating. You want to solve real user needs, not hand-chisel an Amish rocking chair.

Your skills served you well in your previous roles, but now you’re looking for a job, and you’re worried you may be unprepared for or simply philosophically misaligned with the current era of designer expectations.

What do you do about it?

I’m a hiring manager. I’ve worked in some companies that care about craft and worked in some that don’t. Based on my own experience as a designer and someone hiring designers, I see three valid options for you.

Option 1: Apply to companies where craft isn’t important

Despite what we hear every day on LinkedIn, there are still tons of companies that don’t care about the aesthetic details of visual design.

If you like the way you’ve been working, then the good news is that these companies are often in large organizations that have robust design systems and really meaty problems to solve. Think: healthcare, public services, later stage B2B SaaS used by millions of people and holding up critical infrastructure. You can focus on solving interesting UX problems, and leave craft alone.

These aren’t flashy places with designs going viral on Twitter, but they can be wonderful places to make a big impact with the type of work you like doing.

Option 2: Learn new skills

If applying for those types of companies sounds boring to you, then maybe take it as a sign that you’re ready to grow in new ways.

Someone once tried to tell me that “craft” isn’t something you can learn—it’s an art that you either have or don’t. I don’t buy that. Most designers have taken some classes to learn aesthetic judgement. Many of us didn’t go to art school or study graphic design. Most designers hone their taste by absorbing tons of designs daily and by reverse engineering drop shadows or animations from designs they love to figure out how they work.

Maybe this is your sign that you got more comfortable than you ever meant to. That you’ve been avoiding the hard work that comes from following your curiosity. That you need to take apart a few toys to bring back the joy and amazement in how you make them.

It takes tons of time and repeated commitment to learn craft skills. In a world where you need a job now, that might sound awful. But know that it’ll probably be rewarding (spiritually sure, but hopefully also financially).

In the meantime, my best advice is to simplify your portfolio. Focus on a nice, simple typeface and good spacing and sizing. Minimalism can certainly be boring, but boy, it’s really useful when you know you don’t have the craft skills yet. In the eye of a hiring manager, simple is better than bad.

Option 3: Consider another role

Do you feel like design has lost the plot? Maybe this era of heavy focus on craft is a great time for you to consider a career pivot. Please don’t take this as anyone saying, “You can’t sit with us”, but rather, “We believe in you—You can do so much more than this!”

Now more than ever our roles are blending across Engineering, Product, and Design. If you couldn’t care less about visual design, what sounds really fun to you?

Is it solving bugs and fixing customer issues? Engineering or customer support could use more designers! I’ve worked with some incredible engineers and CS folks who know design well and it always makes the product better.

Is it driving business revenue and shaping product direction without pushing pixels? Then shadow your favorite Product Manager to see if their work sounds like a good fit for you. PMs with solid design foundations are the best to work with.

I really believe that people with great design skills are going to run the world in the next few years, and you can be part of our quest for world domination by trying out something new.

Off the table

Of course, you may be currently doing some things that are a huge waste of your energy. Don’t do that. The world is already an exhausting place. Here are the things that you should really accept are inadvisable:

• You can’t convince a company mid-hiring process to change their POV on craft.

• You can’t get a job at a high craft startup without craft shining in your portfolio.

• You can’t hide behind the excuse that your past companies didn’t care about craft. Your portfolio and side projects are always options to showcase your craft if it’s something you care about.

Remember, this is just one perspective. I could have honestly started this post “Dear past self” because as any of my former colleagues know, this was me! You see how minimal my site is? You see what I chose to make time for and what I didn’t when I redid this blog over winter break. ;)