Finding the right architect for a role or project isn’t easy. Many firms were operating short-staffed in 2023, and with 60% of firms in the AIA’s Work-on-the-Boards survey expecting to take on more projects this year, it’s likely that hiring architects will continue to be a challenge through 2024.

The BLS predicts the industry will grow by about 5% over the next decade, slightly faster than the economy at large, but this doesn’t quite tell the whole picture. Architecture professionals with skills in areas like sustainable design, integrated design, and cross-disciplinary expertise in areas like healthcare construction, construction management, and urban planning will likely be in particularly high demand. For the companies recruiting architecture and design talent, this will mean having solid hiring strategies in place to find people with the experience and skills you need on your team.

Integrating digital platforms into your recruitment strategy can be one potential solution to this challenge. Online job marketplaces, social media outreach, and strong employer branding are just some of the ways employers can leverage the power of technology to fill open roles in their organization. Here is some advice on how to utilize these technologies to hire the best talent for your business.

The value of digital platforms for talent acquisition

Integrating digital platforms into your talent acquisition strategy can have a number of benefits. The most obvious of these is that it’s a way to expand your access to candidates. In a field like architecture and design, where there are several niche specializations and associated skill sets you may need for a role, this can be a huge help in sourcing the right candidates.

Another major benefit of using digital platforms is that they provide opportunities for potential candidates and your company to get to know each other before the interview. Hiring teams can see job seekers’ past work, resume, and design philosophy and aesthetic from their social media pages, online portfolio, or other content they have available. Similarly, potential applicants can learn about your firm’s culture, niche, leadership structure, and other key details that can help them decide if that’s somewhere they want to work. This helps both sides find an ideal fit more easily, speeding up their search.

Online job marketplaces

Also known as job boards, job marketplace websites are very helpful resources for both candidates and companies that need to hire them. On these websites, companies list their open positions, with all the details of the job, its qualifications, and how to submit an application. Candidates can then search these roles to find one that meets their career needs.

There are several different marketplaces to choose from, and not all of them will be equally helpful for all businesses. These generally fall into two broad categories: general job marketplaces and niche job boards. General marketplaces will typically have more users and a broader reach, which can make them useful for entry-level or general types of roles. Niche job boards will have fewer users but all within a specific profession or industry, which can be useful for filling more specialized roles.

Top marketplaces for architecture talent

While you may find designers and architects on a platform like LinkedIn or Indeed, there are also a number of job boards that let you focus on just the industry talent that you’re seeking. Using a niche job board can improve the efficiency of your hiring process. For one thing, since these sites have a smaller user base, you’ll likely spend less time reviewing resumes from unqualified candidates. In addition, there is a higher probability that candidates on industry-specific sites meet your qualifications for the role, allowing organizations to connect with skilled candidates faster.

Some of the best job marketplaces to connect with design and architecture professionals include:

• AIA Career Center – The job board connected to the American Institute of Architects website, this listing is a great way to connect with members of this highly regarded professional organization.
• AIAS Career Center – Affiliated with the American Institute of Architecture Students, this job board is an excellent source of young talent.
• Archinect –  Developed with the goal of making architecture more connected, the job listings here include a variety of niches, including landscape design, interior design, and project management, as well as architects at all levels.
• Archipro Job Board – The recruiters at Archipro have worked with firms to help them fill jobs in architecture, landscape architecture, and interior design since 1992, building a strong reputation in the process. Posting to their job board gives you access to that network of skilled professionals.
• Architizer – More than 500,000 architects, designers, and students are members of Architizer, which also features member projects and a database of companies.

Crafting effective job descriptions

Once you find the right job board for your position, the next step to taking full advantage of it is to write a job posting that accurately describes the role, as well as conveying your company and what you want from an ideal candidate. This article has some more in-depth advice on how to write job descriptions that attract the right professionals to your posting. Here are a few ideas and tips to get you started:

• Ensure that the qualifications for the position make sense for the role. Having too few requirements could result in getting a large number of low-quality applications, while too many could prevent qualified candidates from applying, so it’s really about striking a balance.
• Include details about the company, your mission, and the work environment employees with your firm can expect. This is crucial information for applicants to decide whether your role is a good fit.
• Similarly, include information about the working hours and typical schedule of employees at your firm. Roles that offer schedule flexibility or work-from-home options are particularly desirable.
• Provide salary and benefits information in the job posting, especially if you offer any unique or desirable benefits like profit sharing or professional development and continuing education opportunities.

Professional networking and online portfolio sites

Many of the job search platforms mentioned above also have forums, member directories, and other tools to help architects connect with other professionals. These are far from the only online resources to help people in design-related industries grow their career.

Websites that provide architects with knowledge, community, and networking opportunities can also be a great way for employers to connect with passive talent, or individuals who aren’t actively looking for a job but would be open to the right opportunity. They also allow you to see examples of the individual’s work and insights into their design philosophy before you even reach out to them about a role.

The approach to utilizing a networking or portfolio site for recruitment can be a bit different than with a job marketplace. To get the most benefit from these platforms, it’s often best to create an account and start engaging with the community on the site before you need to hire. Establishing your reputation and authority on the platform will let you build organic relationships with skilled professionals, creating a talent pipeline you can draw on when you have an opening.

Here are some of the most popular portfolio and networking sites to connect with an architecture or design workforce:

• Coroflot – This site is a bit of a hybrid that could also go on the list above, because it features a job board, as well. Other designers use it primarily to host their portfolio, and you can browse designer portfolios in a range of specialties.
• Behance – Created by Adobe, Behance is a social media and portfolio hosting platform for creative professionals, including designers. As the world’s largest network specifically focused on showcasing creative work, it’s an excellent place to identify and connect with skilled talent.
• Dribbble – Similar to Behance, this is a combination portfolio hosting and social platform for designers. Its job board is more designed for freelancers and agencies to attract clients than firms seeking employees, but it’s an excellent place to browse and search for skilled talent in a range of design niches.
• Carbonmade – Designers use Carbonmade to host online portfolios, and there are more than 2 million live portfolios hosted on the site. Granted, these are from a range of creative fields, but there are many architects and designers recommended among them. Employers can search portfolios on the “Talent Pool” page.

Leveraging social media for talent acquisition

By this point, most people have a profile on some kind of social media platform–and use this online presence for more than just browsing memes or talking to friends. Social media has become one of the most accessible and powerful professional networking tools available, and they can also be very valuable for employers in the architecture and design industries.

There are a few different ways you can use social media in recruitment:

• To share and publicize open positions in your firm and get them more attention from professionals
• To directly engage with potential candidates as a way to build your talent pipeline
• To establish and grow your reputation as an employer

Ideally, a well-managed social media presence will accomplish all three of these goals at once. By doing so, it becomes a very efficient and effective way to not just connect with customers, but also to show other architects why they should join your team.

Which social media platforms are the most useful?

There are a huge variety of social media platforms, and like job boards they vary widely in terms of their target audience and number of users. Most firms likely already have a presence on one of the big platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and X/Twitter, all of which have millions of users around the world. This is both a benefit and a potential challenge. It means access to a lot of different individuals, including a lot of those who work in the architecture or design industries. On the other hand, finding and connecting with those individuals can be difficult because of the sheer volume of content on these sites.

Complementing these large sites with a presence on smaller, more targeted social media platforms can be a smart move because of this. Here are some of the top social media sites for architecture and design:

• Archilovers – You can think of Archilovers like Facebook for designers. It has an international network of users, all of whom are in the design industry. Users can create portfolios and profiles, along with exchanging messages with other users, joining groups, and posting updates on their latest work.
• Houzz – Founded in 2009, Houzz is mostly focused on connecting clients who need design services with skilled professionals. This also makes it an ideal place to find those professionals, however, and there are more than 130,000 architecture and design firms and freelancers registered on the site.
• Pinterest – While this is a general rather than a niche site, it’s the top all-purpose platform for designers because of its visual focus. Many architects and designers use Pinterest to share their work, which makes it a useful place for firms to find high-quality talent.

Building a strong employer brand on social media

Whichever social media platforms you use, carefully curating your profile and the content that you post will help you to establish a strong presence for your business. This isn’t just important for reaching customers but can also have an impact on your hiring efforts.

The best architects and designers often have their choice of employers when they’re seeking a new role. They can afford to be picky about things like the work environment, level of flexibility, and other details of the employer, in addition to being selective with the type of work that they take on. Having a strong employer brand on social media can show these candidates that you offer what they’re seeking, making the top talent more likely to apply for your openings.

Here are some tips for how to effectively create your employer brand:

• Involve and feature current employees. It’s one thing to have a company tell you they’re a great place to work. Hearing this straight from an employee has a much bigger impact, and can help add another level of authenticity to your branding efforts.
• Use media to show your workplace behind the scenes. Examples of this could include video walk-throughs of your studio or a virtual tour of a worksite. This will not only show potential employees what it’s like in your office on a day-to-day basis, but will likely also be of interest to potential clients and customers, who will appreciate the transparency, too.
• Incentivize employees sharing your firm’s news or current openings. Employer branding doesn’t only have to come from your firm’s official pages. Reinforcing this messaging with posts from employees’ personal pages can both expand their reach into new audiences and show that the content on your company page is honest and authentic.

How to choose the right platforms to solve your hiring challenges

The abundance of digital platforms that can be used to find and hire architecture talent is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand it means that, no matter what your needs, you can likely find a platform to meet them. That said, it can also make it difficult to decide which platforms will provide the most benefits for your business.

Understanding exactly what your hiring needs are is the first step to making this decision. Consider what level and type of professional you need to hire, and check out some of the platforms linked in this article to see which has the most members who meet those requirements. Many firms find it beneficial to utilize multiple platforms when seeking new hires, especially if you need to find talent in areas like sustainable design, integrated design, digital modeling, and other in-demand, hard-to-hire skill sets.

The bottom line is that digital platforms can unlock a whole world of potential talent for any employer in the architecture and design world. Taking advantage of the tips and resources in this article can help you put those tools to work to grow your team.