In this episode, Meg, Mel and Cam discuss the benefits of hiring junior designers, drawing from Jared Spool's appearance on the Design Hires podcast and his corresponding Medium article. Meg breaks down how to assess a candidates “learnability” and how to sell this from the perspective of a junior and Mel contrasts it with their own experiences with hiring, particularly with take home design challenges. Cam highlights the need to create a workplace where learning on the job is inherent to the job and proposes a pipeline for hiring and training juniors. The hosts explain Spool’s “Achiever Pattern” and how it can be used to assess the viability of junior talent to thrive within this environment. The hosts also explore the top reasons for hiring junior designers, including introducing new design practices, building a diverse team, and the return on investment from juniors supporting production work and the reallocation of senior resources to strategic, larger projects. They hosts also offer advice for other junior designers, particularly the importance of transferrable side hustles/skills. They provide stats that speak to the ROI for supporting hiring UX designers at diverse talent levels within an organization. The episode concludes with takeaways, including the qualities that employers look for in junior designers and how to stand out as a junior designer.**Sources Mentioned:** Jared Spool Design Hires episode: [https://spotify.link/OsttefOjbzb](https://spotify.link/OsttefOjbzb)Jared Spool Medium Article: [Medium, 2020, Jared Spool - UX Strategy Playbook](https://medium.com/creating-a-ux-strategy-playbook/the-ux-strategy-of-hiring-juniors-over-seniors-6cf52220ae72)