I was a hiring manager at a large agency for more than 10 years, and in that time I did hundreds of interviews and saw every conceivable sort of portfolio. A few thoughts on what I expected to see:
- From my experience, there is no "standard" for interaction design, as compared to what students in graphic design or other fields are taught to present. Because the interview is often more about process than end product, people present their work in a variety of ways. - That said, having a nicely organized and designed book does reflect well on the candidate. I have seen both a spiral bound book and a loose-leaf binder with clear plastic pockets for documents work well when presented. - Bring samples of the full range of deliverables you're experienced in producing. If it's a very large document (like a spec), you can bring just a section. Pick out a representative page that you can highlight and talk about. - Many deliverables (wireframes, sitemaps, inventories) are really quite dull to look at without some context, and they all tend to look the same after a while. Being able to tell an engaging story about the "why" and the "how" is crucial. (This sounds obvious but many people are not prepared with this.) - Showing multiple iterations of a design is also a nice way to illustrate your thinking; I always enjoyed seeing this but did not see it that often. - I always ask to see more strategic documents, illustrating how decisions got made based on user research and business goals. Many candidates did not have examples of this nature. - I believe that having a printed portfolio to bring to the interview is an absolute requirement, even if one also has an online portfolio. It is frustrating to want to review work samples in the interview and be told that "it's only online" which often means having to go fetch a laptop. (Also, always bring a printed resume to the interview as a courtesy.) - Never leave work samples with the interviewer that you expect to get back. If it's your only copy of a document, consider using a photocopier. Asking for things to be returned will result at best in the interviewer being annoyed and at worst in tears and recriminations. - YOU CAN edit your documents to be appropriate for your portfolio. They don't have to be exactly what you showed the client. For example, you can add a cover page that explains the goals of the project, and rearrange the structure of the document if that seems more appropriate. Per Scott's point on getting the candidate actively engaged in problem solving -- I have used a variety of approaches like this over the years. The ideal interview for me is when the candidate is so engaging that I don't feel the need to resort to exercises. Conversely, sometimes I will jump to a portfolio review or a design exercise when I feel the interview is going badly and I want to give the candidate a chance to shift gears. One of my favorite exercises is to ask the candidate for a review of our own corporate website. It puts the person on the spot a bit and I can see how well they can offer constructive feedback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=37179 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
