In the Designers tab, you can select the “For Hire” menu line to see who is looking for a job. You can also search for companies whose design style is similar to the style used in your company to find the people who created it.

Advanced Search on Dribbble

Dribbble offers an advanced search feature for $20 annually, which helps find people by location and skills. You can select the users who have indicated that they are looking for a job. To do so check the “For Hire” box and then contact them directly on the website.

Searching the Website with Google

If you are looking for additional functionality other than a standard search option on the website but do not want to pay for the advanced search feature, use Google. Simply type site: dribbble.com at the beginning of your query to find candidates with the required skills, in the right location, and with sufficient experience.

Posting Jobs

There are several ways of posting jobs valid for 30 days on Dribbble. The posting fee starts at $400USD per ad.

How to navigate the Dribbble Profiles

User profile displays the following information: designer’s name, location, brief biography, links to social networks, and personal website. In the top left corner, you will find links to the screenshots, projects (shot collections), and subscribers. There are as well the lists of subscribed-to designers, favorite shots, tags used, and skills, indicated.

Screenshots and projects are examples of work that demonstrate the candidate’s potential. They often lead to a more detailed entry in the designer’s portfolio. After picking the candidate, look through his/her lists and who he/she is subscribed to to find similar designers. If a candidate is currently available there is a green “Hire Me” button in the top right corner of the profile.

Behance

Just like Dribbble, Behance is a place for designers to showcase their work. Acquired by Adobe for 150 million dollars in December 2012 companies like Apple and Facebook use Behance search to recruit designers. The main difference from Dribbble is a detailed description of work experience indicated by many designers. You can find this information on the left side of their profiles. Besides, Behance search provides more free filters. Here you may find many experts in the field of architecture and photography. Unlike Dribbble, which does not have that many professionals in this area.

How To Find Candidates on Behance:

Use Behance Search Parameters on the Website

To find an ideal designer, use the rich set of search parameters. Include creative fields, tags, location, tools used, education, and so on. As soon as you find a candidate who matches your criteria, subscribe and send a message.

Become a Regular on the Website

To engage the passive users on Behance, be proactive to find out who are the “most appreciated” designers according to the site terminology. You can find them in the “Featured” list of users recommended for subscription filtered by the field of art and in the lists of “Appreciated” designers of other users (via the link on the side of their profiles).

Looking through the Behance-curated galleries, you can get acquainted with collections, art schools, and organizations. Sometimes you can find the galleries of designers who are just starting out, which is an excellent opportunity to hire young professionals who are the right fit for your company.

Many recruiters subscribe to the “Best of Behance” section, which provides access not only to the latest works of designers but also to all projects they appreciate, comment on and add to their collections. Therefore, the best designers can serve you as curators for finding the best users in certain fields.

Posting Jobs

The cost of posting a job on Behance is almost the same as on Dribbble. Besides, Behance also provides discounts on job postings in bulk. It applies to both posting one job for several months and offering several designer vacancies simultaneously. Behance selects recommendations for each job you post, using the criteria you enter and searching the website for the candidates who meet your requirements. When you find the right people, you can save them as candidates, and Behance will use that data to improve future recommendations.

Navigating the Behance Profiles

A designer profile on Behance can provide the following useful information: designer’s current position, bio, the number of followers and appreciations, and, of course, the main competence areas. Designer’s position can help you determine whether it is appropriate to hire this designer. A Designer Can Indicate 10 different competence areas, while the core areas will be useful when writing a personalized letter, indicating what exactly a candidate specializes in. Behance profiles often have links to LinkedIn, Twitter, and Dribbble profiles providing additional information about designers.

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Conclusions

Instead of trying to find a qualified designer going through a pile of CVs that do not really say anything about the designer’s style, be proactive and use Dribbble and Behance to search for candidates. Or look through a detailed candidate’s card on AmazingHiring. It provides information from both resources in one place (and 50 more other resources too, to be exact). When selecting candidates from a smaller but more qualified pool of professionals, you have an opportunity to establish good relations with the candidate, which will be your advantage during recruitment.