Presentation by SapientNitro

This week’s presentation was by SapientNitro (Toronto office) and was presented by David Han who is the Senior Art Director and a Sheridan graduate, Sonia Janovjak who is the Director of Human Resources (Hiring Manager), and Eiko Kawano, who recently joined the team last March, and is Associate Creative Director (UX focus) and manages a team of Information Architects.

Company Information & Work

SapientNitro has 6 thousand employees globally with a large variety of jobs. The Toronto office has around 200 employees. SapientNitro has end-to-end capabilities. For example, they have the technology and resources to build their idea of an interactive Coke machine from scratch. 

The number one reason why Eiko wanted to work with SapientNitro is that she came up with good ideas, but past firms she worked at couldn’t create them. However, SapientNitro has the resources to technology to make any idea come to life. There is a great diversity of people who can make ideas come to life because of their vast variety of skills sets. SapientNitro prides itself on going beyond expectations and delivering amazing results. As well, the company doesn’t have to outsource many design projects.

SapientNitro focuses on big end projects, print, TV ads, digital, and more. The focus in Toronto is digital. The New York office is full production.

SapientNitro has amazing work and is currently working with Target (huge budget in the millions). Some of their clients include: Nike, Sprint, Sony, Healthy Choice, Talbots, Logitech, Coke, Twix, Foot Locker, Powerade, and more.

Check out SapientNitro's work on YouTube

What are your hours like?

• Employees work all the time, but still have a very balanced lifestyle and value workforce balance.
• You are also given ownership over your work.
• Great ownership = great responsibilities.
• 9 to 5, unless you are out of balance if there is poor time management. What matters is meeting your deadlines.

What is the culture?

• Transparent culture.
• Very collaborative group environment.
• Many employees (junior to senior) are an important part of design projects.
• Opportunity to move office to office.
• On boarding, which are training one-week sessions with global hires (Atlanta, Miami, Toronto, etc). There are workshops and team building exercises where employees have opportunity to meet other people in the company from different offices.

Wanting to work for SapientNitro?

• Need to demonstrate that you are good at talking to people and there is a ton of opportunity to step up and do different things.
• Great experience to build your portfolio and learn as much as you can.
• Lots of opportunity to relocate and work on projects in different states and countries (ex. Germany).
• Many sessions and courses provided in order to grow as a designer. 
• A lot of lifers at SapientNitro, great place to work and currently will have it's 20^th anniversary this year. People like to stay for the growth and positive change.
• Employees always have a voice and can impact change.
• Employees don’t stop growing.
• People want to see you promoted.
• Being a team player is the number one most important.
• Be able to work with all types of personalities and build strong relationships, along with high quality work. 
• Get to work on amazing design projects.

What do you look for?

• Do you fit with the personality of the company.
• Want to see detailed wireframes and the thought process.
• Design fundamentals.
• Strong typography.
• Talk about constraints of the project.
• Some agencies want to see big brands, but SapientNitro is more about its work itself.
• Interested in thinking, discipline, and attention to detail.
• Hobby section in websites (creative expression important).
• Creativity, refreshing, personality, surprising, tangible, passion (ex. If you are from a fine arts background  you should add one or two pieces in your portfolio book).
• Research and prepared, but not aggressive.
• Book portfolio, progress portfolio (they love seeing the process), and a strong portfolio website. 
• The Wow factor.

What attributes are they looking for?

• Ownership and transparencies (it is a collaborative world and if you worked with a group, make sure to tell your exact role. Honesty is key).
• Acknowledge weakness, but talk about how you plan to improve upon it.
• Enthusiasm, passion, and interested in hearing your story.

How do you hire?

• Juniors - target certain recognized academic programs.
• Seniors - target work experience with brands (networking).
• Build network through LinkedIn, Twitter, referrals, and online portfolio.
• Who you know is key. Up to you to build a strong network (ex. past classmates) and go to networking events. 
• Be part of the “art” community. 
• Prepare great questions.
• simplyhired.ca (where SapientNitro puts their ads).

What is the interview process like?

• Typically 4 to 9 interviews.
• Like a very big conversation where you tell your story and show your passion.
• SapientNitro sends you Linkedin profiles of all the people that will be interviewing you.
• The resume has to be an amazing design piece (clean 1 page resume, doesn’t look at cover letters, amazing typography, bullets 60% black compared to type).

About the speakers:

David Han  
Sonia Janovjak 
Eiko Kawano

About the company:

Website
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129 Spadina Ave.

Suite 500
Toronto, Ontario Canada
M5V 2L3 

Tel: +1 (416) 645 1500
Fax: +1 (416) 645 1501