The Interview
Research—Spend time getting to know who you are visiting with. With the ability to research on the web there is little excuse and no bigger put-off to the person you are interviewing with, they expect you to know who they are!
Interview—You will bring your hard copy portfolio, a couple of resumés and business cards (you may meet with more than one person). At times persons have even left a leave-behind piece (this could be a CD of your pdf portfolio or a printed copy in a booklet form).
Be courteous, dress appropriately (do research on this), tailor portfolio peices for the interview (ie more print pieces for a print job, interactive for interactive company)
In the interview be planned to discuss your work (in detail, what was the project, the goals, the audience, and what did you do to respond, communicate and resolve the design challenge.
Be prepared at the end to ask questions. This is impressive!
Tips:
—Don't be afraid to ask if they are hiring or when they might hire.
—Ask if they have any suggestions for your portfolio
—Ask if for leads of other designers to meet with (remember people love to help!)
—Do research prior to interiew regarding current payscales, you don't want to be in a position in which you negotiate too low.
—If you take on a job that is not an advantage to your design career make sure you have at least one 8am-6pm day in your week available to interview.
Top Interview Questions (link)
—Jon Weiss 07
I think that the best thing Joel did for us (and probably could have stressed more) was presentation skills and being comfortable with your work regardless of how it compares to others' work. The concept being that if you are not confident in an interview while presenting your work then role play, it is a great way to improve on this.
—Luke Rutan 06
I met with two people as well... I talked about myself first and then got into the work, but we didn't really look at very much. I think the most important thing was probably whether or not they felt like I was confident to do the job