195: UX Hiring Insights: Steve Durgin, From Candidate to Hiring Manager, on Trust & Networking

UX hiring decisions are less scientific than most job seekers assume. Steve Durgin found that out firsthand, first as a candidate, now as the one doing the hiring. Steve is the founder of affinityUX, a research led innovation and product studio that helps companies find friction in their products and build experiences people actually care about, using methods like jobs to be done and outcome driven innovation. Steve came from a background in social work and human services, went through Career Strategy Lab to make his pivot into UX, got hired, and eventually built his own agency. He's since hired six CSL alumni himself, so this conversation covers hiring from both sides of the table, not just theory. Steve used to think hiring was a logical process based on qualifications. Now he describes it as a psychological decision to trust someone under uncertainty and time pressure.  The conversation walks through what that actually looks like in practice: why a single clear, non-cringe pitch beat out a stack of cold applications, why posting inside a community instead of a public job board changes everything about speed and quality, and what he's actually trying to learn in a 30 minute screening call that never shows up in a resume. It closes with a practical framework for turning any conversation into more opportunities, plus a portfolio structure Steve says makes the difference between getting skimmed and getting remembered. Topics Discussed✅ Why hiring is more of a psychological trust decision than the logical, checklist based process Steve assumed before he started hiring himself✅ The exact type of pitch that got a candidate a same-day response, and what made it different from every cold pitch Steve normally gets✅ Why posting inside a community instead of a public job board can cut time to hire dramatically, and what that means for where you should be spending your energy✅ The specific question Steve asks every candidate to surface things that never show up in a resume or portfolio✅ A real example of a candidate whose most valuable skill only became obvious once Steve actually talked to her, not from anything on paper✅ What Steve looks for that goes beyond hard skills, from comfort with ambiguity to the ability to connect a task back to the business outcome it serves✅ How to structure a portfolio case study into three slides so it survives someone with almost no time to look at it✅ Steve's three part framework for turning a single conversation into new opportunities: asking for favors, offering favors, and proactively expanding your network Links & Resources🔗 Join the affinityUX Contractor PoolThis 10-15 minute form allows you to join affinityUX's pool of contractors. If they land a project that seems like a great fit for you, they will reach out!🔗 Listen to Steve's earlier interview on the Career Strategy Podcast🔗 Connect with Steve on LinkedIn🔗 Book: Traction by Gino Wickman🎯 How I can help with your UX job search📋 Get my UX case study template👋 Follow me, on LinkedIn, Instagram, & YouTube