Recruiting creative talent, bringing a humane lens to people & purpose

Recruiting built on trust, not transactions.

Hiring and team-building across brand and product design, engineering, product management, strategy, content, and more — both leadership and ICs. I can help you hire your first & founding designer, then plan a road map for future hires.

Clients include early and seed-stage startups (Automat, InScope, Yuni), Series A/B companies (Regrello, Sigma Computing, Syniverse), and VC (Sutter Hill Ventures).

Candidates placed include strategists, founding designers, design leadership, staff engineer, and one fabulous CTO.

My differentiated offerings include:

• 30 years of building relationships across design and tech
• coaching new hires in their role for the first 90 days, included with placement fee
• rebalancing responsibility for a successful match, based on candidate and company profile

Current interests in the practice: authoring and open-sourcing a rubric for candidate self-assessment, peer/manager assessment, and hiring-manager planning; temp-to-perm work trials and trial project scoping; coursework for non-design recruiters on how to read a portfolio, and more.

“Josh from PeopleWork is an ideal recruiting partner — he understands our needs, nurtures qualified leads, and advocates on all sides for a successful match. Any CEO looking for a design-savvy recruiter with a high quality bar should work with him.” – Lucas Ochoa, CEO, Automat

“Josh connected me with Bunsen Studio, and with his guidance I transitioned into a full-time role there — five years later, I’m now Partner and Creative Director. As Bunsen grew, we brought him on as our recruiter; he’s helped us find talented designers, strategists, and project managers, many of whom became key members of our team. He’s a natural connector of people and opportunities in the design world.” – Emily VanderMey, Partner, Bunsen Studio

“Josh is an exceptional recruiter and mentor who leads with genuine care for people. He reads people well, sets a high bar, and turns connections into a lasting talent network. He generously guided me into my first role post-grad, connecting me to his network and freely sharing resources. He has a talent for building community, organizing networking events, and sustaining relationships long-term. I trust him completely as a career partner and as a leader. – Julie Ramsey

“Career therapy with you came at a time that I really needed it. You encouraged me to find my center, which meant reaching out to my network and having conversations with past peers, mangers, and collaborators who’ve witnessed me in my prime. It was a reminder to focus on how and when it felt to be in alignment. This serendipitously lead me to my current role — which is deeply aligned to my life’s purpose. – Neil Torrefiel

“When I decided to shift from self-employment to an in-house role, I knew I needed help taking the right steps. Josh & Arianna went out of their way and challenged me to rethink my perspective and reframe my presentation. Their experience, guidance, and encouragement helped me gain more confidence in preparing for the role I’m striving for, and I don’t think I would’ve landed it without their help.” – Russel Quadros