This is my first time posting in any kind of forum, so quick thanks in advance for your help and patience. To try and keep it brief, I was laid off (for the second time in my design career) about a year ago now, and I’ve been struggling to land a new full-time gig. I think I’ve had about 10 interviews since, and I’ve just fell short of getting the job two different times according to the hiring managers I spoke to.
A little about me, I’ve been a graphic designer for about 9 years, and have worked in marketing most of the time. My last full time job was a for a full service marketing agency, specializing in crowdfunding campaigns. The bulk of the work I did there was create graphics for Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns, and occasionally had the opportunity to do web design for landing pages and eComm websites.
Based on how people usually respond to seeing my resume and portfolio, I feel like I should be getting in for more interviews than I have. So I’d like to post it here to get some unbiased opinions and suggestions. Also, if anyone has any advice on how to position myself to get out of marketing and into a different industry, It’d be much appreciated.
As a former creative/marketing/communications director at various places, I’ve seen hundreds of portfolios from applicants. Within about 10 seconds, I can usually spot why they get passed over for jobs.
With yours, I can’t. You have some good work in a nice-looking portfolio that’s accompanied by solid writing. You even have the right degree from a real brick-and-mortar university. After applying for ten jobs, you should have gotten an offer for at least one of them. The fact that you weren’t might be simple bad luck.
If I were you, I’d probably move the Get Scizzy work from the lead spot, if not drop it altogether. It’s just my opinion, but to me it’s the weakest work. Some of the examples don’t scale well — they get awfully small at lower screen sizes. A few of them could be cut up to be repositioned on small screens (more responsive).
Since your portfolio is good, are you sure it’s not something else? Were the jobs appropriate considering your previous jobs? How are your in-person presentation and social skills? How did you dress? Did the people doing the hiring know what they needed, or were they clueless corporate marketers and MBAs? It could have been anything.
Thanks for taking a look! The interviews I’ve gotten have all been marketing related, either in-house or for agencies, I’ve dressed business casual for most of them, and I’m sure all the people I interviewed with knew what they needed, save for one who was sounded like they looking for an entire creative department in one hire (that’s a story for another day).
Based your impression of my portfolio, I probably need to work on my interview skills and how I speak about the work I’ve done. I think I’ve been battling imposter syndrome since it’s been so hard to land an interview after what feels like hundreds of applications. I’m glad to hear from someone new in the field that I’m actually creating good work.
