Recruiting Qualifications of the ID Profession and their Implication in Student Career Guidance

Although many studies have been done on what competencies industrial designers should have, little information shows which particular competencies are needed for the contents of different types of design work during the product development process, or for the various types of industry, such as in-house design departments or design houses. This study, mainly based on the perspective of career guidance for the ID students, aims to understand the various job titles currently relating to ID profession in Taiwan and their recruiting qualifications, and to compare the differences between in-house design departments and design houses. Instead of directly surveying design professionals' opinions, this research collects job opportunities within the ID profession from both twenty major job searching websites and the classified ads in two major newspapers in Taiwan from June 2002 to January 2003. Then content analysis was used to analyze recruiting qualifications requested by each job. Overall, 265 jobs are categorized into 3 groups: industrial design, mechanism design, and others, including 13 job titles within the ID profession. Recruiting qualifications are classified into basic requirements (education, age, gender, and others) and competency required (professional and general skills, personality and attitudes). The top five competencies are familiarity with 3D software, basic communication ability in English, fluency in English, 2D software ability, as well as creativity and imagination. Familiarity with 3D software is required by both in-house design departments (IHD) and design houses (DH). Overall, IHO place value more on general skills, and DH focus more on professional skills. Information about ID recruiting not only enables students to better understand the job market, but also helps design educators to consider whether or not design courses can satisfy different types of industry, job titles, and individual students' needs.