The Wall Street Journal goes behind the scenes today at a very stressful job interview for the coolest job in the world: Designer at Lego world headquarters in Billund, Denmark.
Lego is now the second most profitable toy company in the world, thanks to its strategy of producing themed sets pegged to movies and shows, which means hiring hundreds of designers who can churn out these new sets. It’s not just design either — pricing out each piece, packaging, and manufacturing are also major parts of the job.
In other words, it’s a fairly unique skill set — which is why Lego holds interviews the way it does: By inviting candidates from all over the world to Billund for a shared, two-day long test. Over the course of the interview, they’re challenged to create new sets for young builders, design new minifigs, and show off their own work — and everything is timed. Fun! The WSJ describes the scene thusly:
In one exercise — creating a set that combines medieval- and space-themed Lego sets — plastic bags of Lego bricks and minifigures were distributed — and quickly ripped apart — as participants got to work sitting at tables or spreading out on the blue-carpeted floor. Some began by sketching with coloured pens, while others immediately started clicking together the plastic bricks, trying out their ideas as they worked.
The process has been fairly secretive up until today’s story, but it’s all out in the open now. So how does Lego inform its new hires? Seems like that bit is pretty traditional — but in a fun twist, company reps used today’s WSJ article to comment that they’ve hired eight of the 21 candidates from their latest interview, but they haven’t informed them all yet. To those of you who are still waiting to hear: Congratulations/better luck next time. [Wall Street Journal]
Lead image: Chris Conboy, a Model Maker, creates LEGO models for a cricket scene in the Model Making Studio at the LEGOLAND Windsor Resort on July 3, 2013 in Windsor, England. Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images.