# Snap hires designers based on work, not credentials

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/snap-hires-designers-based-on-work-not-credentials/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Evan Spiegel](https://realalpha.app/people/evan-spiegel/) · Co-founder & CEO, Snap Inc. · Co-founded Snapchat at Stanford and has led Snap as CEO since 2011, building Stories and the Specs AR glasses.
- Host: [Joubin Mirzadegan](https://realalpha.app/people/joubin-mirzadegan/) · Partner, Kleiner Perkins · Took Palo Alto Networks' cloud business from $2M to $50M+ ARR in a year.
- Show: Grit
- Episode: [How Snap Plans to Win the AR Race | Evan Spiegel on Spectacles](https://realalpha.app/v/Xkc5XOpbAq8/), Dec 15, 2025
- Moment: 1:08:10 to 1:10:34 of the episode (2 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/snap-hires-designers-based-on-work-not-credentials/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/Xkc5XOpbAq8/?t=4090

## Quote

> “for the design team, we make our hiring decisions **only on the portfolio**, only on your work.”
> — [Evan Spiegel](https://realalpha.app/people/evan-spiegel/) at [1:09:43](https://realalpha.app/v/Xkc5XOpbAq8/?t=4183) · Grit

## Takeaways

1. Snap evaluates designers on their portfolio and work.
2. Spiegel asks candidates to explain specific design choices.
3. The team hired one designer per 1,000 candidates reviewed.

## About this segment

Evan Spiegel says Snap judges design candidates on their portfolios, not their school or past employers, and asks how they made specific choices. The team hired one designer for every 1,000 candidates reviewed.

From “How Snap Plans to Win the AR Race | Evan Spiegel on Spectacles”, Dec 15, 2025. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/Xkc5XOpbAq8/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[1:08:17](https://realalpha.app/v/Xkc5XOpbAq8/?t=4097) Are you hiring? It's funny. I like, this is whatever, five plus years on this show, okay? I always ask the same two closing questions. The first is, are you hiring? And the second is, when you hear the word grit, what do you think of? Until like the last year and a half, it was basically, I just assumed if I asked the hiring question to a growing tech company, the answer was, yeah, we're hiring for basically everything.

[1:08:38](https://realalpha.app/v/Xkc5XOpbAq8/?t=4118) Now, I'm not totally sure I'm going to get that answer anymore, which is a little bit weird. So maybe with that caveat, are you hiring? We are hiring. Okay. Are there anything specific you were hiring for? Not designers, clearly. Or if there is, it's one. One every couple of years. It was so funny. We got this escalation, I guess, because our people team was very concerned that our hiring process was broken for design because for every 1,000 candidates we reviewed, we hired one.

[1:09:06](https://realalpha.app/v/Xkc5XOpbAq8/?t=4146) So they were like, this is a huge disaster. Do we have the spec wrong? What's going on? Out of 1,000 candidates, you all review, you hire one person. We were like, no, no, it's working. Like, it's definitely working, I think. So I think, yeah, we are always hiring for designers and always trying to find great people. It's just, you know, we're looking for one in a thousand, I guess. Are you in all the design hiring?

[1:09:27](https://realalpha.app/v/Xkc5XOpbAq8/?t=4167) I meet every single. You meet every single candidate? Not a thousand. No, not a thousand. But like everyone that filters through. Yeah. You're meeting them all. Now our team's pretty good at saying, I think we got somebody special, you should meet them. And how much are you selling in that interview versus how much are you interviewing? I'm usually trying to talk them out of the job. if anything, but you know, I'm really just trying to assess one thing because we own, we make our, for the design team, we make our hiring decisions only on the portfolio, only on your work. Like we don't care where you study this, that, or the other thing, where you worked, whatever.

[1:09:59](https://realalpha.app/v/Xkc5XOpbAq8/?t=4199) What did you, what have you made? And then I want to, I want to hear from you. How did you think about making it? Why did you make something the way that you did? Why did you make this choice? And I really just want to hear, like, pick a couple of things you made and tell me how and why you made them. Doesn't sound like a filter for laughter. Well, I think... Where does the laughter come from if not in the...

[1:10:19](https://realalpha.app/v/Xkc5XOpbAq8/?t=4219) You know why? Because they're stoked. Because they're one of ten that made it through the gauntlet. So they're laughing their way through the system. Let me tell you about that 90 to 99. Yeah, exactly. That's what they're laughing about.