I often get applicants fresh out of school and I'm always disappointed when their portfolio consists entirely of homework assignments. To me, anyway, that's an indicator that they didn't have enough interest or ambition in their field to do at least a few freelance projects (who doesn't have a cousin/friend/etc who needs a website?) and get some real-world experience. I can't stress enough the importance of internships while you're in school, or at the very least trying to do the *same kind of work* you're aspiring to get. If you're looking for a job making basic brochureware websites, and that's what's in your portfolio, great! If not, you need to re-evaluate what you're presenting and make sure it matches what they're looking for.
We often take people on as interns with no real world experience, but once we're looking at a full time, even junior, position, I want to see that the person is at least capable of producing somewhat professional quality work that's somewhere near the complexity of what we do. Too often school projects are oversimplified or academic, not focused on the things that will actually be important in real life (real clients are a big part of that!) So don't give up, but do consider using this time that you're looking to further build out your portfolio. I also recommend soliciting feedback about why you got rejected whenever possible, and asking for advice and pointers on your presentation and portfolio. You didn't get the job, so it can't hurt to at least get some decent advice out of it, right? :) k -----Original Message----- From: Jason Barbarich Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 10:54 AM A few members have mentioned that they are taxed with the job of reading resumes and interviewing applicants - is there anything in particular you look for when you see a potential junior IA/ID/UxD? Should we all have some sort of crucial skill on lock? Is there something that NEEDS to be in our sparsely populated portfolio? Or is it really just about being you, having a handle on the standard toolset, and knowing the design process? I can talk for a pretty long time about the one, EXTREMELY simple website I freelanced over the summer. Obtaining requirements from interviewing the owner, getting a feel for who the primary users of the site were, wireframing to establish design concept, etc., but again, the site is epicly simple, and I'm still left with no agency experience. ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://gamma.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://gamma.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://gamma.ixda.org/help
