UX job hunting with little to no portfolio
June 30, 2017 7:59 AM Subscribe
I need a new UX job as soon as possible. I'm in the interaction design/information architecture track. I've been doing this for about 6 years. Because of reasons, I don't have a portfolio. I got the job I have now through connections I don't have anymore. How am I gonna get another job?
So this is a question about making myself look as hire-able as I think I am.
The type of work I've done is more in the realm of interactive prototypes (in Axure, which I'm pretty good at) & a lot of talking, sketching, whiteboarding, & research. In my current job I've done a lot of writing articles in our team wiki, including reports I wrote on the self-directed user research I did. But I tried exporting those to Word but they look bad, and don't really make a lot of sense out of context. I don't really know how to make a decent-looking portfolio out of them.
And I feel so weird about walking up saying "Here take all of my company's IP." In the past I have gotten around that by just taking the logos & stuff out of my work, but that was back when I was doing more traditional wireframe PDFs and it was very easy to do. And my work from those days is very old and probably not good enough to show anymore. I think when I was interviewing for this job I just got over myself and showed them the stuff I was working on at the time but I don't have those materials anymore.
I do have some Axure prototypes that I think would show off both my interaction design skills & my skills at Axure:
1. One of them is for a product my company isn't pursuing, or might not pursue. There is already no mention of my company on there anywhere so that's pretty simple.
2. The other is a game I made based off a description I saw online that I credit within the game.
3. The third one will take some work to fix up and strip out the product-specific stuff but it demos a complex addition to the product that I designed & shipped. I know that having shipped stuff is a big deal. I don't have documentation for any of the other stuff I've worked on that has shipped, such as a well-known consumer-facing interface I was a big part of.
I can demo these in an interview but, do I put them online too? I don't really want to? Is that normal? I have a personal domain that doesn't have anything on it anymore. Do I get that going again? Is two or three things enough? I have reached out to some of the recruiters who spam me on LinkedIn and they all want me to send portfolios. To me a portfolio seems like such an old-fashioned thing, like a throwback to Mad Men days.
Background details: I have a BS in media studies and a Masters (2010) in Human Computer Interaction (UX degree for career changers basically). I live in the San Francisco Bay area but too far from Silicon Valley for a job down there to be feasible; San Francisco would be better. I'm looking for job security & I'd prefer a job at an established, stable company rather than a start up. But honestly I'm happy to live anywhere other than here and that's another difficult point that's tripping me up. I moved here a few years ago and don't really know anyone else around here to help me network and I'm not very good at that anyway.
My throwaway email is anonh2629@gmail.com.
So this is a question about making myself look as hire-able as I think I am.
The type of work I've done is more in the realm of interactive prototypes (in Axure, which I'm pretty good at) & a lot of talking, sketching, whiteboarding, & research. In my current job I've done a lot of writing articles in our team wiki, including reports I wrote on the self-directed user research I did. But I tried exporting those to Word but they look bad, and don't really make a lot of sense out of context. I don't really know how to make a decent-looking portfolio out of them.
And I feel so weird about walking up saying "Here take all of my company's IP." In the past I have gotten around that by just taking the logos & stuff out of my work, but that was back when I was doing more traditional wireframe PDFs and it was very easy to do. And my work from those days is very old and probably not good enough to show anymore. I think when I was interviewing for this job I just got over myself and showed them the stuff I was working on at the time but I don't have those materials anymore.
I do have some Axure prototypes that I think would show off both my interaction design skills & my skills at Axure:
1. One of them is for a product my company isn't pursuing, or might not pursue. There is already no mention of my company on there anywhere so that's pretty simple.
2. The other is a game I made based off a description I saw online that I credit within the game.
3. The third one will take some work to fix up and strip out the product-specific stuff but it demos a complex addition to the product that I designed & shipped. I know that having shipped stuff is a big deal. I don't have documentation for any of the other stuff I've worked on that has shipped, such as a well-known consumer-facing interface I was a big part of.
I can demo these in an interview but, do I put them online too? I don't really want to? Is that normal? I have a personal domain that doesn't have anything on it anymore. Do I get that going again? Is two or three things enough? I have reached out to some of the recruiters who spam me on LinkedIn and they all want me to send portfolios. To me a portfolio seems like such an old-fashioned thing, like a throwback to Mad Men days.
Background details: I have a BS in media studies and a Masters (2010) in Human Computer Interaction (UX degree for career changers basically). I live in the San Francisco Bay area but too far from Silicon Valley for a job down there to be feasible; San Francisco would be better. I'm looking for job security & I'd prefer a job at an established, stable company rather than a start up. But honestly I'm happy to live anywhere other than here and that's another difficult point that's tripping me up. I moved here a few years ago and don't really know anyone else around here to help me network and I'm not very good at that anyway.
My throwaway email is anonh2629@gmail.com.
You're overthinking this. I've been in the same industry as you for over fifteen years and have never had to show a portfolio. I work for big companies in the Bay Area (think Google, Facebook) and these companies know you can't share IP from current/past jobs. Their interviews are based on what you can talk about and design on the spot.
posted by joan_holloway at 9:37 AM on June 30, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by joan_holloway at 9:37 AM on June 30, 2017 [6 favorites]
Don't bother putting anything online.
You have the right idea. Create prototypes that demonstrate solutions to problems you solved, scrubbed of identifying info. Set it up like a case study you can talk through. A few good examples of different domains is all you need.
You can do the same thing for non-prototype work. It's all about showing how you approach and solve problems.
posted by canine epigram at 9:49 AM on June 30, 2017 [2 favorites]
You have the right idea. Create prototypes that demonstrate solutions to problems you solved, scrubbed of identifying info. Set it up like a case study you can talk through. A few good examples of different domains is all you need.
You can do the same thing for non-prototype work. It's all about showing how you approach and solve problems.
posted by canine epigram at 9:49 AM on June 30, 2017 [2 favorites]
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On your website, you can always describe the projects and your responsibility, and say "portfolio available on request."
posted by beyond_pink at 9:13 AM on June 30, 2017 [1 favorite]