I got a reply on a job app with a small questionnaire and one of the questions was about my hand-off process. I want to make sure I’m not stumbling around my words or missing the question all together cause I’ve never fielded this question before and I have a lot riding on this possible job seeing as I’m currently unemployed. Please let me know what you think and any improvements I can make.
In this role you will work with designers, copywriters, creative directors, art directors, and production artists. Tell me about your final hand-off process.
At my previous job, the hand-off process consisted of the designers uploading their completed account to a shared Google Drive folder. I’d export them on the correct wallpaper for viewing and upload them to another folder. Then I’d make an entry in our schedule on Google Sheets and mark it a specific color as well as send a quick message to our coder letting her know I had stuff waiting for upload. When finished, she’d respond and mark the entry a different color.
I’m not sure of the context from where the question is coming from — for example, handing of finished files to a printer is far different from handing off files to a web developer.
If it were me, I’d probably not spell out the exact hand-off routine from your last job since it’s unlikely to be the same for whatever job you’re applying for.
Lots of companies view things from inside their boxes and fail to recognize that not everyone does things the same way everywhere or uses the same terminology. I wouldn’t be surprised if this whole hand-off thing is something where they’ve had problems for some reason, which is why they’re asking about it. If that’s true, it sort of leaves the answer up in the air since there’s no way to find out what issues are behind the question. I’ve never run into this question before either, which is also something that makes me think it’s specific to their situation. The upside is that you’re on a level playing field with every other applicant since no one else will know for sure how to answer it either.
I’d likely be a bit more general about the answer and concentrate on mentions of quality checks and making sure that everything is there, well-organized, and that all the instructions are clear for whatever and whomever is next down the line, whether that’s a web developer, a printer or something else. I’d likely also mention checking in with the person in charge of the next step before and after to make sure everything is done efficiently and with no surprises or oversights.
I just did a Google search on Designer handoff. There are several links there that head off into various articles and discussions about the subject. I didn’t bother looking at anything but a couple, but it might be worth looking through what’s written and using that to develop a good, solid, broad, all-encompassing generic answer to the question.
From the earlier questions I’m guessing it’s in reference to digital ads and email not sure if it’s a program like informz or Illustrator/Photoshop. I did a little research too and that’s what I was kind of basing my response on. Thanks for the tips!