Physical portfolios

Careers & Mentoring
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#1

When at art college, it was drummed in to us how important it is to have a well presented physical portfolio that must be A1 or A2 and contain plastic sleves with prints of our work. So I bought myself an expensive A2 case filled it with sleeves of sites I had designed and/or coded.

As a web designer I often found interviewers surprised at me having a big physical portfolio to present. I wondered for a long time what other web designers did but never made any effort to find out as what I was doing seemed to work. Now I have moved into UX the question of what other people present at interviews has resurfaced.

#2

This reminds me of my student days at architecture school. We had to drag around HUGE portfolios of work. It was such a drag.

I haven’t heard of or experienced it since I moved into tech though. I’d be really curious to hear if anyone else has.

What are the pros of having it in hard copy given that a lot of the functionality will be lost?

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#3

I would say it depends where you are applying, although I admit I haven’t gotten the request that much. Mostly from German companies to be honest, but that was a few years ago. Their argument was that they’d appreciate a PDF portfolio, which they then could print out, and have something tangible while they assessed my skills. Again, few years ago, now I simply don’t spend time on it anymore. My online portfolio has to do :slight_smile:

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#4

A friend who is a design lead told me once they interviewed someone who brought along their sketchbook, and nothing else. Apparently, that sketchbook was so compelling, they decided to hire the person. I guess it all depends on the content, rather than the format.

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#5

I’d love to see that sketchbook

#6

Funnily enough, I caught Ian Fenn talk last week, he’s writing a book on the subject for O’Reilly, it sounds like it will be worth a read. From my own perspective, I freelanced for a while so I would present some work I’ve done in the past, and then drill down and show a particular case study. I took this approach a couple of years ago when I went for a full-time job that I was really interested in, and it worked well (I got the job)… I think the key is to do your homework on the company and tailor your slide deck to them.

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#7

I am pretty young, so the concept of a ‘physical portfolio’ is really foreign to me! However, I have put together several online portfolios, and included the URL of the portfolio on my personal business cards, which I guess could be viewed as a physical portfolio, in a way. For interviews specifically, I bring a tablet on which to view my online portfolio. Seems to work well! :slight_smile:

#8

What a great idea!

#9

A tablet sounds like a good idea but it would have to be a big beast like this http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/samsung/11962454/Samsung-announces-giant-18.4-inch-Galaxy-View-tablet.html