This has [mostly] been my situation for most of my career, as
well...especially since I do a lot of work for start-ups, where the
*existance of the company* is also under NDA.
On the one hand, I've been lucky to have a couple of Big Name clients
that I worked for, and, most recently, a major head-to-toe
redevelopment of an entire strategy plus execution, but for the most
part, the Big Name stuff is....er....not my best work (usually, I've
heard the mantra "just do it the way we've always done it. And yes,
all the body text has to be grey" waaaaay too often.) The stuff that's
interesting and good and represents a substantial contribution to a
business is hidden away under wraps.
What do I do about it? I tell people the work is under wraps...and
they wouldn't want me to show their stuff, so they'll have to deal
with the fact that other people have lawyers too. I do now carve out
an exception in my contract and consulting work that I can show
printed-out color samples of X instances of that work to prospective
clients who are past a certain point in the process of hiring me.
And I have a portfolio that emphasizes the process of the sites that I
wish I never had to admit I worked on (but hey, the landlord is picky
about his rent), rather than emphasizing the product. I also say
things when asked about my experience like "I addressed [This Kind of
Problem] for [This Kind of Company] by doing this or recommending
this..." or whatever.
But even so, I basically have 15 years for which I can't show my best
work and the work I can show is fairly pedestrian and basically
illustrates my ability to wireframe or usability test or develop a use
case rather than applying a full-range of User Experience tools.
On the other hand, when I interview, I ask people to sketch out how
they would go about working a particular business issue -- They can
use post-its, white boards, sketch pads, computer...whatever, I'm not
interested in their tools, I want to see how they think, and saying
"I'd have to do some serious work over in this area because of..." is
okay, as long as they know they're skipping something to follow their
main narrative.
kt
Katie Albers
Founder & Principal Consultant
FirstThought
User Experience Strategy & Project Management
310 356 7550
[email protected]
On Jan 15, 2009, at 10:35 AM, Will Evans wrote:
Along these lines, this discussion came up a lot this morning on
Twitter -
Imagine a world in which you work full time creating a lot of
deliverables,
sketches, wireframes, sitemaps, task flows, user stories, but
because of the
NDA and various work product ownership things signed - you can
never show
any work - none of your portfolio. Technically, having done this for
14
years now, ever single deliverable I have ever done is locked up
behind some
legal contract, and I am pretty sure that is true for most IxDers
out there.
So how do you walk into an interview - legally - when we can't show
anything
we've ever done. There is no "you can't show any of this proprietary
work
unless you are applying for another job," - clause - and we are all
guilty
of this because sitting on the other side of the table - we all expect
candidates to show a portfolio (even though we know they legally
can't - so
we are asking them to break a contract to get a job), and then
before we
give them a job, we say "We know we wanted to see your portfolio to
get this
job - but if you ever leave here, you can't show any work done here
to
anyone else - ever" It seems insane, hyprocritical, legally
precarious if
not bordering on pathalogical. Yet we all perpetuate this little
"don't ask
don't tell" policy as if everything is hunky dorey.
~ will
"Where you innovate, how you innovate,
and what you innovate are design problems"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Will Evans | User Experience Architect
tel: +1.617.281.1281 | [email protected]
aim: semanticwill
gtalk: semanticwill
twitter: semanticwill
skype: semanticwill
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 1:21 PM, Jen Randolph <[email protected]>
wrote:
Scott:
Thanks for your detailed reply! I too feel much better about the
interview when the interviewer has me design something on the spot. I
can talk about my work until I'm blue in the face, but I feel like I
can really *show* the interviewer my strengths if I'm sketching
something out for them.
As an interviewer, though, I'd like to ask you this question: when a
candidate for a job has come to your office for the interview, how do
you like to see them present their work samples to you? Maybe a
sketchbook, maybe a nice binder full of work, or something along my
method - loose pages that can be spread out? Or maybe has there been
any in-person presentation of work that has stood out to you in the
past, and that you wish more candidates did?
I'm sort of trying to find out if there happens to be any sort of
"standard" for this when it comes to the IxD field. Many of my
graphic design friends bring a book to their interviews, and leave
some samples and a business card behind; my motion graphics friends
bring a demo reel. I want to know if something like this exists for
IxD interviews.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=37179
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