If you didn't need a portfolio to get a job, would you bother making one?
I’ve spoken to many UX hopefuls as well as experienced pros who are unclear about the content of their design portfolio. Concerns about how much to include, should it have personal interests or graphic design work, should it be super creative to catch people’s attention.
Think of this question: If you didn’t need to have that portfolio to get a job in UX or product design, would you even bother going through all the trouble to make it?
My guess is most would say no.
Your portfolio is not for you. It’s for the people you’re trying to convince to offer you a job.
This should also answer the question of how many projects you need to showcase and how expressive it should be. Your portfolio is for the hiring manager and their team. How much time do you think they’re going to have to evaluate portfolios? The answer is, very little.
How likely is it that the hiring manager shares your same taste for visual flair and expressiveness? There’s no way to know for sure, but I would err on the side of very unlikely again.
Scale it back. Tone it down. Focus on telling stories with your work through visuals instead of being overly expressive or detailed to the nth degree. Of course injecting a small bit of your personality is fine. A small bit.
Not convinced? Take a look at my bonk ass portfolio: www.coreynelson.design
Recruiters and hiring managers compliment it all the time as one of the best they’ve seen.
I’ll say that again…one of the BEST THEY’VE SEEN.
I’ve even had some THANK me for having such a well organized website with info that is so easy for them to find.
Other designers look at it and are like 🤨 . And yet, other designers aren’t my audience. They certainly aren’t paying my rent.
Would my portfolio find itself on cofolios or bestfolios? No. It’s basic as hell. (Plus I happen to care about function over form, and the accessibility of my website so I don’t think I’d qualify for them anyway).
But I get calls because of that portfolio.
I get jobs because of the VERY SHORT stories I tell about the work in that portfolio.
