Let’s chat!
We sat down with Chris Coutts, Design Recruiter here at Pixelated People to catch up.
Hear his story in our conversation below.
Hi Chris, what’s your story?
I’m a design recruitment specialist at Pixelated People. My journey in recruitment hasn’t been long, but its been incredibly exciting and rewarding. I come from the bonnie lands of Scotland and after studying chemical engineering at university, I decided I wanted to break away from engineering and venture down a career path in Product Management for a Chemical company. After spending over 4 years doing this, I felt the time was right for me to try my hand at something else.
Tech and digital design surround us every day and is an ever evolving and fascinating space. There is so much more to discover and, like a moth to a light, I was drawn towards a career in this industry. And why recruitment? I love talking to people, learning about their experiences and building trusting relationships. This is a job where I can absorb so much from causal conversations, or from reading posts from designers on LinkedIn. The learnings are limitless.
How do you want to engage with the design community?
Watch this space. I’d like to create blogs where I share insights and knowledge in the digital design industry, keeping up with current and future topics. I’d like my posts to be fun, interesting, and educational. From discussing what stands out in portfolios, to sharing experiences and learnings from design conferences. If there’s one thing I’ve learnt so far from design leaders, is that collaboration is important to building meaningful and trusting relationships. Therefore, I want to collaborate on posts with the talented design community. This will be a hub of information.
Great! So tell us about your journey in recruitment so far? What have you learnt?
Curiosity did not kill the cat. Being inquisitive and asking candidates questions about their likes and dislikes, digging deep into past experiences and their skillsets, puts me in a better place to find a rewarding position with a firm and project that excites them.
Tell me your passion and I will marry you up to it. I often feel like an interviewer! Recruitment is about building and cementing relationships too. I want to earn trust. I want you to feel like you’re in a capable pair of hands and that I’ll deliver.
The same goes for my clients. I want them to know that when I receive a UX Design or Service Design brief, I’ll get them the pitch perfect design profile, and fast.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
To get over my fear of rollercoasters. Recruitment is one big emotional rollercoaster ride. It’s key not to get too far ahead of yourself as one moment you can be as high as Ben Nevis, and the next: as low as the chance of sun in Scotland. I’ve learnt this the hard way, so the best way forward is to go with the flow and trust your hard work pays off! If it doesn’t, you learn about what went wrong and move onto the next challenge.
What are you looking forward to?
Building up my knowledge of the industry and my relationships with candidates and clients! I want to be a reputable source for information and hope my future posts can be a jam-packed hub full of interesting articles.
What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
Rugby, F1 and brewing.
Standing 5ft 9in tall, the only ever position I could slot into was scrum half but don’t be fooled by my height, I can take down much bigger and taller players. Mostly by being a trip hazard. Whenever the F1 is on you’ll find me glued to the TV, unable to socialise, and every day it’s not on, you’ll find me reading up on F1 news or watching V10 engines tear up the track on YouTube. I’m a complete part time/amateur beer brewer – i.e.. not a successful one. Nonetheless it’s incredibly rewarding and I’m looking forward to scaling up and improving my recipes!
Last question.. what’s your favourite dish?
As mentioned in my quick intro it’s my famed haggis bolognese. It gets the party going, if the party is for one and I’m the only the only guest. Here is a picture of haggis if you haven’t seen one before:
towards you.
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If you’re hiring for product design professionals or you are a product design candidate looking for the next adventure please get in touch – hello@pixelatedpeople.co.uk
