It appears there is a theme amongst entrepreneurs who have engineering or business-related backgrounds: it is currently difficult to find a solid designer. After reading this repeatedly on Hacker News and other random blogs, I assumed it was simply a supply problem.

It’s not.

I interviewed with one of the entrepreneurs who claimed this was an issue. The interview was a disaster. His procedure was to show me his company’s website, and demand to know how I would improve it. When I tried to explain that it doesn’t work that way, he ignored my claim and continued to ask for changes. Pushing and pushing.

I gave in. “Make that smaller. Move that. This doesn’t make sense. I’d try this.”

Then I had to watch him make the changes live. I endured an inexplicably awkward silence while code was modified. The interview finally ended, and we parted ways. You can imagine why neither of us called the other back. I would never work for someone like that, and he wants someone who will constantly give in to his unrealistic demands. Well, not I.

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If you hear an entrepreneur complaining that she can’t find engineers or designers, it might be because she doesn’t know how to properly interview or recruit people.