In the competitive architecture and design hiring landscape, candidate experience isn’t just a buzzword. How potential hires perceive and interact with your recruitment process can have a big impact on whether they want to join your firm, making the candidate experience a critical factor in the success of your hiring efforts. 

This is particularly critical for architecture firms, where a skilled, passionate workforce is a necessity to achieve the innovation and collaboration that often drive project success. Architecture recruiters can set themselves apart by understanding and optimizing the key touchpoints on the candidate journey.

What do architecture candidates look for during recruitment?

When you know what the top candidates want out of the architecture hiring process, you can better align your recruitment strategies to match these expectations. This will make you more likely to attract top professionals to your job postings, strengthening your architecture talent pipeline both for your current role and for those you need to fill in the future.

The first thing that candidates will look for in your job postings are related to the role itself and your firm’s approach to architectural talent management. At minimum, your architecture job description should be specific about the skills, experience, and specializations required. Architectural career development is another key area candidates consider, particularly those who are looking for a long-term role. Include information in your job posting about the opportunities you offer for professional development, to get involved in high-profile projects, or other ways your company supports the advancement of your employees’ careers.

Equally important is to describe the work environment and culture offered by your firm. Workplace culture in architecture is critical for many professionals, who want to find a firm and team that supports their creativity and continued growth. Showcase how you support employees’ work-life balance, as well as the values and mission that drive your organization and how you engage with your broader community. Featuring testimonials from current employees can be an excellent way to give job seekers an authentic, insider’s perspective on what it’s like to work for your company.  

Finally, don’t neglect the design recruitment process itself. Architecture professionals appreciate a company that respects their time, gives them opportunities to showcase their portfolio and unique skills, and communicates clearly and transparently. If you can demonstrate that your process checks those boxes, you’ll be well on your way to success with your architectural talent acquisition.

The challenge of recruiting architects (and how candidate experience helps)

Architecture has long been touted as a competitive profession to enter from the candidate side. This might lull companies that hire architects into a false sense of security about the availability of talent—after all, if job seekers need to compete for roles, that should mean there are plenty of people lining up to fill vacancies, right?

Unfortunately, the full story isn’t quite that straightforward. Hiring for design team building often isn’t easy. Architecture firms often need to compete with a wide variety of different companies all over the world for the same top candidates, and those challenges only compound as the range of skills required in architecture roles evolve. Here are some of the biggest challenges in architecture recruitment today and how perfecting your design candidate experience can help to overcome them.

Skilled labor gap/talent shortages

Even as early as 2019, there was a talent gap emerging in the architecture industry, with fewer students completing degrees, an increase in demand from firms, and a high number of older professionals planning to retire in the next decade. As a result, 80% of architecture firms expected to see staffing shortages intensify through the 2020s.  

This lack of available candidates creates a very competitive employment landscape, especially when it comes to hiring into niche or specialized roles. Using effective design industry recruitment strategies is critical to win the battle for job seekers’ attention in this limited talent pool. A strong employer brand can increase your visibility in the job market, attracting more of these limited professionals to your job postings. Ensuring your hiring process is efficient, meanwhile, will keep those individuals in your pipeline until your job is filled and prevent you from losing them to the competition.

Aging workforce

The average age of the workforce has been creeping upwards across professions for the past decade, and architecture is one sector that has been particularly affected. Data from the NCARB shows that a third of architects employed in 2024 are from the Baby Boomer generation, while 13% are already past retirement age. This could spell trouble for the profession in the future as these older workers retire and there are fewer young professionals earning degrees to take their place.

Adjusting your architecture firm hiring process to specifically attract new graduates and younger workers can help to safeguard you against a rise in unfilled vacancies as the aging architecture workforce retires. You can do this by showcasing the opportunities for growth and career development offered by your firm. Highlight the meaningful projects they can work on and clearly outline their potential career progression to show the long-term potential of your positions. It can also help to showcase your firm’s commitment to social responsibility and values like sustainability and diversity, things that are often important for younger workers.

Evolving skill requirements

Architects have long used a variety of technologies to support the design, visualization, and construction of their projects. Yet while most are familiar with Building Information Modeling (BIM) tools and Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software, architectural professionals today often need to use a wider variety of technology than in the past, including 3D rendering software, virtual reality and augmented reality (VR/AR) software, parametric design programs, and generative AI.

The increase in technology is only one area where the skills needed in architects have evolved. The growing emphasis on sustainability means many architects today need to have skills and certifications in green and eco-friendly building practices. Other roles call for interdisciplinary knowledge and expertise in areas like urban planning, civil engineering, MEP, material science, or human-centered design concepts based in psychology. 

In order to meet these changing skill needs, firms need to update their hiring process to make sure they’re attracting candidates who can keep up with the demands the industry will bring in the future. Effective communication in the architecture job application and through the hiring process can help with this, as can integrating more in-depth skill assessments earlier in the process, ensuring you’re focusing your time and attention on the candidates most likely to thrive in the role.  

Complex screening and architectural skills assessment

Those expanding skills mentioned in the previous section can make the screening and assessment of architecture candidates more complicated than it was in the past. It isn’t just about finding someone with experience in the field, but also identifying whether they have the right specializations and skills for your specific needs.

These increasing demands for architectural candidates can add steps to the screening and interview process. That, in turn, can mean a longer time to hire and lower candidate engagement, making it harder to find and hire the right people. Integrating automated screening and assessment tests earlier in the recruitment process can help with this, allowing you to filter out unqualified candidates so you can maintain your focus on the people most likely to be a good fit.

Representation gaps and unconscious bias

The architecture industry has long had a reputation for having a diversity issue. On the plus side, this has been improving in the last decade. In 2024, a third of new architects were people of color, while 40% were women, according to data from the NCARB. While these statistics are heartening, though, that same NCARB report shows that, across the profession, only 19% of architects are people of color, and only 27% are women. 

For firms that currently lack diversity, it’s critical to assess your talent pools, job postings, and architect interview best practices for signs of unconscious bias that could be inadvertently limiting your talent pool. Simply stating that you want to hire more diverse candidates isn’t enough to get the job done. A proactive strategy is the best way to address gaps in representation, and will have the added benefit of improving your overall talent acquisition.

5 strategies for an exceptional candidate journey

Reading through all of the challenges in design hiring makes it very clear why firms need to know how to recruit architects effectively to succeed in today’s industry landscape. The question is: how do you accomplish that? Here are five easy strategies you can employ to craft a better candidate journey and improve your hiring process.

1. Write candidate-centric job descriptions.

A job description isn’t just an informational document. This is your first chance to sell potential candidates on both the role and your company overall. How you write these postings, and what information you include, can make a big difference in both the number and type of job seekers you attract, and the experience of those candidates once they’ve turned in their application.

Making your job descriptions candidate-centric starts by including all of the information they might need to decide whether your firm is a good fit. This includes details of your firm’s mission and values, descriptions of the company culture, and some insights into the compensation and benefits that will come with the position. 

Along with this, think about the candidate’s perspective when writing the qualifications. A focus on skills over experience or credentials can make the description more inclusive, encouraging the right candidates to apply.

Finally, consider adding some information about the hiring process itself, such as how many interview rounds candidates should expect to go through, the types of skill assessments or interviews they’ll be expected to complete, and how long you expect it to be before you make a decision. Giving candidates this context from the start allows them to properly prepare, which in turn improves their overall experience.

2. Streamline your application processes.

Nobody wants to go through a complicated, confusing, or lengthy application process—and having one won’t do your hiring team any favors, either, creating more work for them as well as risking the loss of candidates before they finish the process. 

A streamlined application and hiring process will provide the best candidate experience, and improve your odds of finding and hiring the best professional. This starts with job descriptions that use straightforward, clear language rather than jargon or buzzwords. 

Consider how many steps are involved in submitting an application, as well. Make sure you only ask for information in the initial application that’s absolutely necessary, and allow candidates to auto-populate forms from sites like their LinkedIn profile. Also think about the portfolio review process and make it as easy as possible for candidates to send their portfolio along to you.

One last thing to consider is how candidates will view and fill out your application. An increasing percentage of job applicants conduct their search and apply for jobs on their phones, especially those from the younger generations. To accommodate this, make sure that your applications are mobile friendly and work seamlessly on any devices.

3. Foster transparent, effective communication.

A lack of communication is one of the biggest frustrations often cited by job seekers about the application and hiring process, so improving how you communicate with candidates can go a long way toward crafting an exceptional experience for them.

This starts from your very first interactions with the job seeker. Share details of the steps and timeline either in the job posting itself, or right in your first message to the candidate. As you go through the process, keep all candidates in the loop about their status, even those that you’ve decided not to move forward through the process. Clear, effective communication with rejected candidates can keep them in your talent pipeline for future roles.

Technology can help with your candidate communication, too. Consider setting up automated replies to acknowledge applications as soon as you receive them. You can also automate other logistical communications, like those to schedule interviews or convey basic information candidates will need about the process.

4. Leverage technology for seamless recruitment.

Speaking of technology, there are other ways that utilizing design recruitment software can help to improve the candidate experience. For instance, integrating video interviews into your process can make your candidate review process more efficient for both your hiring team and job seekers. You can also make use of emerging technology like VR and AR to give candidates previews of their workspace, or of the types of projects they’ll take on if they join your team.

Assess your current hiring processes and where you use technology currently, with an eye for places you can integrate more to streamline the process even more. The best places to integrate technology are often the areas where you encounter bottlenecks, delays, or frequent errors and issues, so those are factors you can consider as you’re evaluating your processes.

5. Standardize the assessment process.

When your hiring team has a consistent set of standards and assessments they apply to evaluate all candidates, they’re better able to compare job seekers on equal footing. This facilitates faster decision making, while also allowing more individuals to collaborate during the process without as much concern of the standards or evaluation criteria changing between individuals. 

There’s another benefit to standardized assessments, too: greater transparency about your decision making process. This can also help to prevent bias from influencing the process, helping to ensure your hiring is fair as well as streamlined.

Measuring your success: Metrics to track the candidate experience

Implementing the strategies discussed earlier in this article can improve the candidate experience—but how can you be sure that they’re functioning as intended? One way is by implementing a candidate feedback system. Whenever a candidate finishes with your process, either because you’ve hired them or because you’ve decided they’re not a good fit, don’t end the conversation there. Using candidate surveys can help you track your progress on creating an excellent candidate experience, as well as making you aware of the areas where you can still improve.

Conducting candidate surveys and reviewing candidate information can also provide you with some tangible metrics that can be helpful in assessing your progress and evaluating the current state of your candidate experience. Some of the best metrics to keep track of include:

• Net Promoter Score (NPS) – A measure of how likely a candidate is to recommend your company to others based on their experience during your hiring process. This information is best gained through candidate surveys, where you can ask this question directly.
• Time–to-hire – This is a measure of how long it takes a candidate to go from application to offer. Assessing your time to hire can give you useful insights into the efficiency of your hiring process and whether you would benefit from streamlining or eliminating steps.
• Application completion rate – The number of applicants who finish the application divided by the number who start it. A low completion rate could indicate your application is too long or complicated.
• Candidate drop-off rate – The percentage of candidates who withdraw during the hiring process. A high rate indicates there are likely issues with your candidate experience, which could be problems with communication, how your company is perceived by applicants, or the length of your hiring process.

You can gather much of this information from your Applicant Tracking System. Using that data in conjunction with the information you collect from candidate surveys can give you a comprehensive overview of your current candidate experience.

In conclusion

As you saw from the stats mentioned earlier in the article, the challenges of architecture recruitment aren’t likely to go away any time soon. Any firm that wants to improve how they engage with and hire new talent can benefit from considering the candidate experience and making use of these strategies to optimize it.