From Chris Lowe, —Chris Lowe, Freelance Recruiter at Tether

Good questions and ones I deal with on a daily basis.
 
—How do you think students should contact design firms?
E-mail really is the best method. It allows the recipient to return the message – and take more time in doing so – than an out of the blue phone call. Also be direct and upfront in why you’re contacting them and use a concise and to the point subject line.
 
—What resources or forms do design firms want to be contacted with first? (Ie mailed vs emailed resume’s, pdf sample books or website)
E-mail is better because it’s much easier to forward along to multiple people. PDF is nice because it’s usually quicker to flip through the work than most websites. Also you don’t have to worry about a connection problem rendering the work impossible to view. That said, at our firm we now expect people to be able to design for both print and web mediums so it’s good to have a site in addition to a PDF and physical book. Also you can show more work on a site than you can in a PDF which can be limited by network file size issues.
 
Resumes are real pet peeve of mine and one where schools often do a terrible job. For some inexplicable reason most art/design instructors seem to think resumes should be one page and contain as little information as possible. Clearly these instructors don’t do a lot of hiring! A typical designer resume will often includes little more than title held, name of company, and duration of employment. Good info but it really doesn’t tell me a whole lot about what you’ve done with your career. “Name, rank and serial number” is fine when you’re a POW but a lousy approach to landing a job. Also bad are resumes that simply list clients with no explanation as to what they did for that specific client. At an absolute minimum a job entry on a resume should state what tasks the person did on a specific project, when they did them, and what skills they utilized. A resume isn’t supposed to get you a job but it is key to your getting an interview. Vagueness and lack of detail cause a recruiter to ask questions. If that recruiter has hundreds of resumes to review they will most likely just hit the delete key and move on to the next resume. Every job should have at least one full paragraph detailing the experience.  
 
Other resume tips:
1)       Don’t over embellish. Most recruiters will see right through such efforts. I actually saw a resume in which someone had worked at Anthropologie and described their experience as “Consulted with clients to improve their personal branding”. Ummm…..no, you sold clothes to people – and there’s nothing wrong with that. Stating you’re a janitor is far more honest and noble than saying you’re a “sanitation engineer”
2)       Don’t write about yourself in the third person. It’s not impressive sounding and leads us to suspect you might have a multiple personality disorder.
3)       If you’re working as a freelance designer don’t refer to yourself as a company and make it sound like you’re more than one person.
4)       Avoid objective/goal statements. The goal of a resume is to get you an interview. Period. No need to state the obvious.
5)       Avoid throw away statements. Prime example: “outstanding attention to detail” as a skill. Does anyone really think this elevates them above all the resumes that say “average attention to detail”?? Even worse: put this down on a resume and then have a typo somewhere on your resume! Yes, that’s the kiss of death on a resume.
6)       Have someone read your resume for you. Beyond catching typos, they can help make sure you’ve clearly explained your experience.
7)       Give credit where credit is due. If you worked with a developer to create a website then say so – don’t just say you designed a website. Being able to work and contribute as part of a team is a HUGE skill.
8)       Once you’ve begun to acquire industry specific experience eliminate any non-industry specific jobs. It’s probably good to list your job at the Gap when you’re just getting started but once you’re in the industry you need to drop it.  
9)       Resumes should be simple and free of graphics, funky fonts, and complicated formatting. Almost all major companies use applicant tracking databases and these databases typically save resumes in plain text. I always tell people to open their resume in Notepad and see if it’s still readable because that’s how many recruiters will see it. Also there is nothing you can do in terms of formatting, graphics and fonts that an experienced recruiter hasn’t already see dozens of times! Ideally, have a nice PDF copy as well as a plain text friendly Word copy.
 
—Do you think students should show all their work in electronic forms (ie pdfs/websites) or should they save some for their portfolio review?
In general, more is better than less but only if the work is good. Don’t add material for the sake of padding the portfolio.
 
In most places I’ve worked a candidate’s work will need to be reviewed by several people and electronic formats make this much easier. We will still want to see the actual work in a book should we decide to bring the person in for an interview.
 
I wouldn’t hold out on showing work. Design jobs are super competitive so you need to present your best work first.
 
—Portfolios, what do you respond to?
This is a tough one. Even within our office I get mixed signals from our design directors.
 
Students just starting out won’t have enough work to create a “greatest hits” portfolio. I would suggest students include plenty of comps and sketches. We often hire people based not just on their final work but also on how they went about their design process.
 
Diversity is also pretty important. One of the big criticisms I (and many other recruiters and design directors I’ve talked to) have of UW’s program is that too much of the work looks like an homage to the Swiss style. We look for people who can successfully design for a wide variety of clients and projects.
 
Class and taste are two words our design directors often use in describing the work of people we end up hiring. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should is a good mantra to live by (especially in the case of the web!!) Too often student work comes across as being cleverer than it needs to be. Clean and simple is always a winning approach.
 
Web specific tips:
1)       Make it easy to quickly go through the work.
2)       Keep the interface simple. Finding your work shouldn’t be the online equivalent of an Easter egg hunt.
3)       Make sure the samples you show are large enough to actually see in detail. A lot of web portfolios get this wrong.
4)       Include a link to your resume and also some means to contact you. You’d be surprised how often people forget this!
5)       Don’t forget the fundamentals – layout, color and typography still count on the web.
 
Somewhat unique to our studio is an emphasis on branding. We’re moving away from traditional campaign based design work and more towards brand strategy. This is one reason why we changed our URL to HornallAnderson.com from HADW.com. It’s an organic and gradual change and eventually we’ll purge the “Design Works” part entirely.
 
Here’s a link to a fairly junior designer we hired: //www.javaslehn.com <//www.javaslehn.com/> This site and his equally good book was strong enough that he was offered a job on the spot. Impressive considering how picky we are!!  
 
Do you respond to gimmicking promotional material?? What stands out to you?

No, if anything it tends to make me think they’re doing it to compensate for a lack of great work! I’ve been recruiting for 10 years so I’ve seen more than my share of gimmicks. I really look for clean, simple and honest work.

Regarding the actual portfolio

My advice is that you don’t want the portfolio case to detract from the work itself- it’s merely the vessel, not the message. The silver alloy box/book is quickly becoming the norm for students. It seems to have replaced the black portfolio book.
 
Personally, I prefer a book because it’s easier to flip through quickly than shuffling through a stack of boards.
 
One thing about student work is that since they all work on the same assignments they all end up looking the same. There are some portfolios I see where I can tell from the work what school they’re from without having to look at the resume. From an educator’s perspective that’s a really tough hurdle to work around.

Feedback from SPU vcd alumni

From BeckyJo Ambroso 07
Let me first talk about actual portfolios since that's the first thing on my mind. Joel had us buy (expensive) cases to put boards in. The funny thing was that we didn't even get to discuss other options. My current boss thought the case itself was nice. But when I interviewed at WONGDOODY, they said the black boards scream "student" and that a book is much more professional. They said a really great idea is to make it kind of a story, not just individual pieces. Then they get to see you and your work at the same time. (Obviously this is more difficult to achieve as a student, but something to keep in mind none-the-less.) I was just super disappointed that I didn't even get the chance to explore other options. I think Case Envy portfolios are beautiful (//www.caseenvy.com/). And on top of all that, I think it's less awkward to go through a book than to shuffle through boards. Joel said boards were good because a room full of people could pass them around. Maybe others had different experiences, but in all my interviewing, the most people I ever met with was two.

Joel was also big on leave-behinds, and I totally wanted to do one, but wanted to start interviewing right away... and I ended up getting a job without ever creating one. But my emailed pdf was totally sufficient to get interviews. I think it's acceptable especially just out of college. Plus, it wasn't just thrown together, it was well designed... like a pdf magazine. So that's better than nothing at least to get started.

I think that's all I got right now... and I think it's great you're doing it this way this year! A little jealous!! :)

If students have specific questions after Friday, please email again!! beckyjo@spu.edu

From Sarah Sullivan 07
Hey Karen!  Well since I didn't interview for design positions I don't have much advice on the portfolio side.  I do however think that the help with the resume was very important no matter what these students will be doing after they graduate!  When interviewing with Teach For America and at my school a lot of people saw my resume.  It is great to actually like what I am showing these professionals.  It not only shows all my info and accomplishments, blah blah blah, but also I feel it somehow shows other important attributes about me such as discipline, hard work, and a bit of personality.  It may sound dumb, but in a stack of non-designed word-document resumes, mine really stands out.  All of the other teacher resumes I have seen have big fonts and text filling the entire page.  It is great that these people have accomplished so much, but I think you should be able to quickly look at a resume and understand what is going on.  My resume is not a masterpiece what-so-ever, but I thought I would just share my thoughts and experiences as a non-designer.
These are my top resume hints
1. leave white space (don't be afraid to have a small font)
2. make your name the first read (but not screaming
3. add a little personality ;)

Luke Rutan 06
I agree with Becky Jo... I think the book route is much more professional and sophisticated. People like flipping through books, boards seem to be a bit cumbersome...

Recently, I was asked to show my portfolio to Belyea Design downtown Seattle because they were considering me to shoot for a client of theirs. Initially, I was like, "Oh, crap... I don't really have a portfolio!" Since I went into photography right out of school, I never really developed my portfolio in the way that I was expecting to. Fortunately though, I have a lot of images in various printed pieces from SPU and other publications I've shot for over the last year and a half. So I threw a collection of those into my steel portfolio box (same box as Becky Jo mentioned) and crossed my fingers...

At Belyea, 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. I liked my portfolio case for this instance because it looked sleek and held a good amount of printed pieces for showing. It felt more like a briefcase. But, I would have much rather preferred to have a book; maybe something that I can swap pages in and out depending on the type of client I'm meeting with...

Katie Carlson 07
I think that is a good idea not to have a portfolio class. I would much rather have done it on my own, with some tips/pointers from you.

I actually never bought a portfolio b/c he recommended (pretty much required) one that I couldn't afford, and I thought looked like every other portfolio I had seen. I ended up borrowing one for the class b/c I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. When I went on interviews for marketing positions I just bought a plain zip-up portfolio at an art store. It totally worked for the positions I was interviewing for. When I go back into the ad world, I will do something much more creative (not involving boards) but in the meantime a cheap something to hold my work worked great. Someone even complimented me on my portfolio...which I thought was strange since it was just plain, black, and cheap....but it looked professional. I guess my one piece of advice would be to tailor it to the kind of position you are looking for. If you are going to Nordstroms for some sort of office job, the sleek silver joel portfolio is very fitting. If you are going to Jones Soda for a creative position, you'll want something edgy and fun (i.e. think outside the portfolio/book).

As far as advice for resumes? Definately clean, swiss, ummm...most things they already know, and I'm sure you taught them. My resume and business card got alot of attention b/c they were different (curved top) and they matched. (both the card and resume had a curved top). I think my brand was very fitting of my personality and my work. Thats probably the most important thing-not necessarily thinking of your business card/resume as it's own entity, but as a brand....when you think of powerful brands like apple, you realize that every piece of their identity/advertising/product holds true to the basic Apple look--sleek, sophisticated, simple, cutting-edge. Figure out what your brand is. Are you organized, artsy, all-over-the-board, etc....Take that and build a brand for yourself, and hold true to it. If, for example, Matt Knezevitch were to have pulled out my business card and resume-it would be wierd. That would be my most important piece of advice as far as identity stuff goes.

Anne Pyle 05
I completely agree. The case Joel prefers is a little bulky and awkward, plus it is pretty expensive (especially on a student's budget). I personally think that a book would be much easier to handle and look a bit more professional (there are binding companies 
that give discounts to students). However, if you do choose to make a book, I think it would be advantageous to purchase a durable case or cover to protect it from getting damaged.I used the case and boards for every interview I went on and each potential employer was impressed with the "polished, professional" look that it created (I never received any negative comments about it). But, as Becky Jo said, I never interviewed with more than a couple people at once (3 at the most), so the big boards weren't 
really necessary.As for a leave behind, I created one, but never ended up using it. In 
my experience, my portfolio was more than enough to make an impression on a potential employer. If anyone is planning to create a pdf portfolio to email, I would encourage them to build a portfolio website instead (it doesn't have to be anything extravagant). It 
takes a lot less effort (and bandwidth) to email a link instead of wasting time compressing files to guarantee that the pdf is less than 1 or 2 mb so it will download quickly. Plus, I think the website looks more professional and shows that you are a multi-talented, 
technologically-minded designer (and it will eliminate the hassle of downloading and/or printing out your portfolio).

Mattie Mauseth 07
I completely agree with Becky Jo's point of veiw on the portfolio cases. I believe we had 3 options of cases to choose from. It took away all of our freedom to be creative and the point of an interview was to show ourselves and what sets us apart. Granted, it was just a class and we probably all did things different when it actually came down to the real life stuff.
 
Also, I think in Joel's class we spent a lot of time working on specific little details of our actual portfolio. I would have appreciated more "big picture" ideas and letting us think for ourselves on how to get there. This would have allowed for more individuality. I don't think EVERYONE's resume needs to have the same sections in the same order, worded the same way. I don't think EVERYONE needs a leave behind. Not EVERYONE needs the same 2 or 3 portfolio cases. Especially since a lot of us were interviewing for the same jobs.
 
Finally, I think it would have been helpful to really focus on the electronic part of our portfolios. It seemed like in Joel's class the physical portfolio took up 95% of the time and the electronic stuff was an after thought. I have found myself throwing together pdfs of my work all the time to send to people. I wish we would have spent WAY more time working on our online portfolios so I could just send employers to a site I was confident in.  A lot of times, before you even have the chance to show someone your paper portfolio in an interview, you will be sending them your work via pdf or directing them to your site. So I think that how you can digitally present your work is really important. This would be my biggest recommendation about a portfolio: make an online portfolio site that you are confident in!! Spend lots of time on this. Be proud of it. I still don't have one that I love. Now that I am busy with work and I probably won't be working on one for a while. I would encourage students to take advantage of their resources too. There are lots of people around you who can help you if you're not confident in your web-skills and they might not be around once you're on your own.

Matt Wells 07
For me, the most valuable piece of advice Joel gave was:

1. Variety: Having a well rounded portfolio with various pieces like posters, web, packaging, logos etc. helps show your range as a designer. Even if it's only one or two examples of each - it helps you stand out.

2. Detail: Paying extra attention to how your portfolio is assembled is essential. Mounting your boards correctly, and making sure they are clean! The fine details are important, but easy to overlook when rushing to get everything put together on time.

I got my portfolio from Paperhaus downtown. It's on either 1st or 2nd avenue near Belltown.

One of the most important things to have prepared before your job hunt is considering the arrangement of pieces in your portfolio. Figuring out which project should go first, and why. Followed by the rest. Joel recommended putting your strongest piece first, followed by others that are strong, then maybe some that are mediocre. Then finish with YOUR favorite.

I took this into consideration and also grouped by boards according to project type. (ex: all packaging together, all web together etc.)

Resumes are huge too. Honestly, simplicity and white space is key!

Hope this helps! My job at ZAAZ is going great! I'm loving it. Lot's of learning and growing to do, but I have a lot of support here. I'm currently working on the Converse Red Campaign and SONY. Fun stuff!

Chris Squires 07
Joel talked about the order you should put your work in and the type of portfolio we should get.  He also talked about labeling your portfolio with your name and phone number in some sort of creative thematic sort of way.  He also talked about websites.  I didn't think that making a website was that helpful.  I think that it would be good to discuss interviews.

Jon Weiss 07
Good to hear from you. The portfolio cases that Joel has us get were made by pina zangaro. He preferred the Camden model. I bought mine from dickblick but others bought locally at paper haus, etc. I haven't made use of mine for any job interviews yet, so no advice there. You might wait to see what others have to say.

The feedback that was really helpful from joel on the resumes was to eliminate clutter. If it really isn't relevant, don't put it on there. He stressed strong lines, for example flushing all job descriptions, skills, etc to the same grid line. He also really stressed using mathematical logic in layout. For example, if the horizontal spacing between contact info and content is x, then the spacing between sections should also be x or perhaps .5x or maybe 3x, etc. He also expected that resumes would be printed on a higher quality stock (70-80 on text, 28-32lb) paper. Lastly he advised us to Ise very little color. It may work nicely for just a name or as a flood on the back like beckyjo did.

I think that the best thing he 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. Concept being that if you are not confident in an interview while presenting your work. Role playing is a great way to improve on this. You also stressed a lot ofthe same concepts in the senior show workshops and in the viscom classes.

Peter Orr
 07
I guess I'll just reinforce what BeckyJo said about books — they are MUCH more important than boards in a case because it allows a lot more creative freedom. It can be a bit inhibiting to think of interviewing without the case and resume you'd expect, but design firms DON'T WANT to hire someone who can only do the expected. So GO BEYOND with your book. Come to think of it, Roger's "Ambiguity Book" is a fitting start to the program, if making your own portfolio book is the final VisCom project.

I'd also like to clarify that, from what I've seen, cases do have their place IF you freelance and specialize in one thing (like photography) and you need to rotate a lot of work constantly. Books are more appropriate for showcasing work concisely because they act as a leave behind and Creative Directors can take the time to go over your work more thoroughly.