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Why Web Design is a Good Career Choice for Students

Design JobsUX / UIUX/UI

If you’re trying to become a Visual Designer, you probably already know that your portfolio is the most important tool in your arsenal as you get ready to apply to jobs or look for clients. But when you’re just starting to build up your portfolio, it can be difficult to know exactly what sorts of projects you should be including in your portfolio. And once you do come up with ideas for projects, how do you build them into comprehensive case studies that will impress any potential employers checking out your site?

We chatted with hiring managers across the creative industry to find out what sort of projects they’d like to see in the portfolios of new junior designers applying for jobs. Keep reading for more info about the exact projects that you should work on to build up your design skills and show that you are capable of executing all the types of design work you’d likely be working on as a junior designer. And for all of these projects, we’ve created step-by-step project guides that will help you build up detailed projects in each of these categories and craft an amazing portfolio.

One note – we’re recommending a variety of Visual Design projects to help you get experience building different types of design projects from scratch, but when you’re actually getting ready to apply to jobs, it’s generally a good idea to decide what area of design you’re most passionate about and focus most of your portfolio site on those types of projects. Employers want to know that you have a deep expertise in your chosen field!

Solve real problems with your projects

Before we dive into the specific types of projects you should be working on, it’s important to note that recruiters across the board told us that they want to see projects based on real problems that exist in the world rather than just seeing pretty visuals. They want to know that you can solve problems with your designs. Here are two ways to start solving real problems with your designs, even early in your career.

Find real clients

It might seem daunting to approach real clients early in your career, but even if you’re not being paid for the work, reaching out to local businesses and nonprofits offering your design services is an amazing way to build your skills and impress employers. It’s as simple as walking into local businesses asking if they need help with marketing campaigns or branding, or emailing nonprofits to ask if they need any design support. Employers want to know you can work within real world constraints, so this is a great way to show that you can incorporate constraints!

Come up with ideas for problems you want to solve

Even if you’re not doing “real client” projects, it’s important to ensure that all of your project ideas attempt to solve real problems that exist in a particular industry or field. So when you come up with high level project ideas (e.g. doing a branding project), spend some time thinking about the industries you want to work in. Then look at a few companies in those industries and see how their brand or business could be positively impacted by a redesign. You could even come up with your own business or brand from scratch based on a gap you think exists in your target industry, and design a project for them from scratch. As long as you are trying to solve real problems and test your designs against mentors and peers, you’ll be good to go.

Finally, be sure that instead of diving straight into Illustrator or Photoshop, you spend time following the proper design processes for each project – research the industry and problem, come up with personas, ideate and sketch, and validate your designs with someone else.

Alright, let’s dive into the 7 projects every aspiring designer should work on!

Personal Branding

When you’re getting ready to apply to jobs or reach out to clients, a strong personal brand can help make you more memorable, showcase your style and tone of work, and convince anyone looking at your portfolio site that you’re truly passionate about design outside of your 9-5 job. It also shows that you have an opinion or point of view about design and are willing to boldly attach that opinion to yourself for everyone to see!

Assume for a moment that you are an employer looking through hundreds of design portfolios every day, looking for the perfect candidate to add to your design team. You decide whether or not to pass on most portfolios within about 10 seconds of landing on their homepage. Your personal branding, just like any other strong design project in your portfolio, should follow a design process — the same process that you go through when completing a Branding and Identity project for any client. You need to spend time ideating about what you want your branding to say about you, sketching ideas, refining a few of them, and then choosing typography and a color palette that matches.

Branding and Logo Design

If you’re interested in branding design, then it’s a no-brainer that you’d want to include at least a few branding and identity projects in your portfolio. For this branding project, you should come up with a totally new company in an industry you’d like to work in, or find a company in that industry whose branding you think might be holding it back from greater success. You should go through the entire research → moodboard → ideation → sketching phase before diving into Illustrator. For your final project, include a new logo, typography, colors, and overall look and feel. You can present all of these deliverables in a Style Guide for the brand.

Iconography

Being able to develop iconography with a consistent look and feel is an important skill for most designers to have. Even though there are tons of incredible icon services out there, like Noun Project, you should feel comfortable developing your own icons from scratch if you want to work on the design team for a larger company (or even a smaller studio). For this project, focus on building out a full set of iconography for a digital product or website of your choosing.

Before you dive into research, you should decide where in the client’s product or website these icons will be used and what they’ll be used for. Are they going to be used to accompanying text and information or are they more navigational icons? Write down details about what types of icons you’re going to be designing and where they’ll show up in the product or website. This is a necessary step to take prior to conducting research or sketching.

Marketing Campaign

Being able to create effective marketing collateral for employers and clients is an incredibly valuable skill and something you will definitely be involved in at various stages of your career. For this project, come up with a theoretical product or find an existing product that you like and design a digital and print marketing campaign for the client. In your final deliverables, include 2 Facebook ads, 1 Instagram ad, one print poster (24×36”), 4 display banners (sized at 300×250, 300×600, 728×90, and 970×250), and one 4×6” postcard. Be sure to include copy and strong calls to action. For your final presentation, mock them onto relevant platforms.

Packaging Design

If you want to focus primarily on digital products, this project might not be for you. But if you’re interested in working at a company that sells physical products, being able to design packaging and a label for the products is a great way to stand out from the crowd. For this, you’ll help a client create compelling packaging that speaks to their brand identity while also informing consumers about relevant aspects of their products. Your final presentation should include dielines of your designs as well as the final label design in vector format. You can also include a style guide with things like color, typography, and overall look and feel.

Print Collateral

For this project, you’ll identify a client and develop a set of print collateral for their business, ranging from business cards to posters to postcards. Being able to create effective marketing collateral for employers and clients in a variety of print formats is an incredibly valuable skill and something you will likely be doing at some point in your Visual Design career. For the final deliverables, include on set of business cards (front and back), two print posters (24×36”), two 4×6” postcards, and one additional 4×4’ sign to be used in an outdoor marketing campaign.

Typographic Poster or Album Art

For this final project, you’ll be focusing on showing your ability to generate unique typographic layouts and improving your familiarity with typography in general. You can create a typographic poster for a film or cover for an album, with a strong emphasis on using typography and type lockup to create a mood and visual look. You should only use very minimal photography or graphic elements in your design. This project will focus on helping you become familiar with typography in design and is designed to show you the broad range of emotion that type can elicit. Recruiters love to see well-rounded designers, so even if you’re focus is on web design or product design, showing that you can use typography to create a more emotional response in viewers is incredibly important!

What next?

Working on those 7 projects will give you amazing exposure to the 7 types of projects that recruiters have told us they’d want to see in most junior portfolios. You don’t need to include all of these in your portfolio (in fact, you probably shouldn’t), but working on these projects should help you broaden your design skills and identify the areas of Visual Design you want to focus on in your career. From there, you can start to specialize and deepen your skillsets in one or two of these areas. If you want a more comprehensive step-by-step guide to building out each of these projects, check out our Portfolio Starter Kit, and if you’d like to build up your portfolio with a mentor, check out our Career Bootcamps!

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Launching Your Design Career – Tips for getting started

Design JobsGraphic DesignPortfolio

If you are the kind of individual that sees aesthetics as a problem to be solved through the creative use of modern technology, becoming a professional designer can be a fulfilling career choice. Anyone can learn how to do design work provided they study hard and practice often, but the difficulty lies in knowing where to start.

Designed by Peoplecreations

Design is a diverse field, and in many instances it converges with other areas of human endeavor such as art, business, marketing, psychology, software development, and others. In other words, there are multiple entrances to the labyrinth that is design, and your initial choice on how to approach the subject matter will determine whether you will reach the goal in a reasonable amount of time, or get sidetracked and delayed along the way.

In order to help you on your journey towards becoming a professional designer, we offer a curated list of tips that you ought to keep in the back of your head while working on your first designs.

 

1. Explore the Design Landscape

It might seem counter-intuitive, but the best way to get started with design is to begin at the end, and work backwards. In other words, you should first try to determine what would be your end-game as designer, and then connect that with where you are now.

There are numerous kinds of design work available, and not all of them necessarily involve visual aesthetics. Designers work on user interfaces for software applications, they create user experiences for websites, they research how color influences perception, and everything in between.

You should try to get acquainted with these kinds of work, and decide which involve problems you would enjoy solving. After you narrow down your choice a bit, move on to examining what kind of design services are being offered on the market.

For example, if you have an interest in web design, you can check out portfolios of professional design companies to see what will be expected of you when working for one.

 

2. Start Working on a Project

Once you get comfortable with things like design lingo, the big names in the field, and the technologies commonly used, you should try you hand at creating a design. Nothing builds skill faster than using it to solve problems, and the sooner you start, the more experience you will have under your belt down the line. However, creating something from scratch for the first time can be a daunting task – where do you even begin?

We feel that the best approach would be to come up with a specific challenge for yourself, such as creating a simple logo, editing a photo, or making a simple web page, and then browse online for articles and tutorials that will walk you through the process on the technical side. Alternatively, you can enroll in a course that includes practical projects which you can work on while you study.

 

3. Learn to Think Like a Designer

After you get comfortable with creating simple designs, you can start to reflect more on what makes a particular design effective. Ask yourself the following:

  • Which of your designs do you like the best, and what are your least favorite ones?
  • How would you improve a design you don’t like?
  • What are the common elements you find in the designs you like?
  • What is the first thing you notice when trying to evaluate a design?

By getting into the habit of asking questions such as these, you will slowly prime your mind to think in terms of design. Once you get comfortable with doing this, you can try to read up more on design theory.

Having a solid theoretical foundation on design won’t automatically make your designs better, but it will give you a wide perspective on the field as a whole, which is a valuable skill to have for finding work.

 

4. Understand Consumer Psychology

If you wish to pursue a career in design, you need to be aware that what you will be creating is ultimately a product meant to be sold to consumers. And since this is the case, it is essential to something about the psychology associated with both.

Getting into the mind of your intended audience will enable you to tailor your designs to their particular needs and desires, which is crucial if you wish to find and maintain employment in the design industry. There are two principal ways to approach design psychology:

  • One is to start from the top and examine the demographic characteristics of your customers such as age, gender, cultural region, etc., and progressively narrow down your focus.
  • The other is to start from specific customers, and then try to establish commonalities and patterns in their preferences and behaviors related to your designs.

 

5. Reach Out to Other Designers

As with any kind of work, design is a collective effort. Without there being a community of designers beforehand, it would be next to impossible to have any sort of progress in the field as a whole, and each individual designer would have to discover everything from scratch.

Fortunately, the networking potential of modern communication technologies, especially the internet, has enabled designers to connect with each other and share knowledge. As a prospective designer, you should leverage this fact to its full extent.

Whenever you have doubts, questions, suggestions, or criticisms related to design, try getting in touch with other designers and start a conversation. Not only will this help you solve design related problems, but it will also give you a fresh perspective on your own designs, which is invaluable for all creative endeavors.

 

6. Enroll in a Design Class

To take the previous tip a step further, you can enroll in a professional design school if your free time and budget allow for it.

High-profile design schools such as Aalto University, Politecnico di Milano, or the School of the Art Institute of Chicago will give you holistic design education which will enable you to confidently pursue your career goals.

Smaller local schools and colleges lack the prestige of these institutions, but don’t underestimate what they can offer either – being surrounded by knowledge-hungry students and an enthusiastic teaching staff is often all it takes to get one motivated to learn.

You can also apply for an internship at design company, if you prefer a more hands-on approach to learning design. Being an intern has other benefits as well, such as learning how to work within a team, a skill that is highly sought after no matter what kind of design work you plan on doing in the future.

 

7. Present Your Work

Cheerful diverse people showing pie chart on a tablet

Designed by Rawpixel.com

As with most jobs on today’s market, in order to succeed as a designer you will need to promote yourself and your work. After all, if no one is aware of your designs, why would they hire you for a project or approach you with a job offer?

Promotion can take on many forms, from explicit marketing, to simply having your portfolio hosted online, but the idea is always the same – show your work to as many people as possible. Presenting your designs to the public is also a great way to solicit criticism, which is crucial for becoming a better designer.

If you are shy about present people half-baked products, ask your family and friends for opinions. Even if they don’t match the profile of your intended audience, they can still give you valuable clues regarding which parts of your design work well, and which don’t.

 

Conclusion

Few areas of modern business are as exciting as that of design. The ability to earn a living from doing creative work is attractive to a lot of people, and for good reason. But in order to get there, you have put in the effort, and we hope that our tips will be of use to you on your journey.

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5 Interview Tips for Creatives

Design JobsUX / UIVisual Design

Interviewing for a position is an anxiety-inducing experience in any industry. For those working in the creative sector, it can be hard to translate their experiences, artistic point of view, and career aspirations across the other side of the desk.

The interview process doesn’t have to be an insurmountable challenge! Keeping tips like the ones below in mind helps to avoid a frustratingly poor interview experience.

Do your research

Being prepared is a familiar adage espoused by career coaches, but it rings especially true for creative candidates such as graphic or UX designers. This is your opportunity to show exactly why you’re interviewing for the position. Creative Bloq recommends searching creative press for mentions of the company. Are they doing anything that aligns with your creative interests or that you can tie into your professional core competencies? Showing initiative goes a long way in an interview.

Let your work speak for itself

Tech recruiter Dan Garriott told Monster in an interview centered around advice for job-hunting creatives that it’s important not to be overly fussy with the exterior presentation of your portfolio. Don’t be too elaborate with your portfolio,” Garriott said. “You should let your work speak to how creative you are, not the packaging. There’s no amount of packaging you can do that’s going to trick them into thinking your work is better than it is.”

It’s important to showcase your best work as well, with a focus on quality over quantity. Also, providing a print and digital portfolio gives interviewers an opportunity to peruse a larger collection of your work at their leisure.

Sell skills appropriately

Today’s job market encompasses a broad spectrum of different digital skills and job descriptions, but that shouldn’t mean you should stretch the truth in order to get a foot in the door by promising a skillset you can’t quite execute on.

Conversely, don’t be too humble, because the interview is certainly a place where it’s appropriate to brag about your abilities. Feeling too self-conscious about your accolades might be a wasted opportunity to play to your strengths and position yourself as a strong candidate. Additionally, make sure to relate back to the particular needs of the position/organization you’re interviewing for. It shows that you understand the nuances of the job, and would be prepared to take on the day-to-day.

Avoid novelty resume designs

Creative Bloq also recommends that prospective candidates stay away from novelty resume formats, which run the gamut from inflatable resumes (yes, they literally inflate) to intricate paper folding techniques. While being zany is a surefire way to stand out, it doesn’t necessarily guarantee that you’ll be remembered for the strength of your design principles, which is what really counts.

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t use resume formats that are creative, however. An impactful resume for a design, content or UX position is one that is visually appealing, references clients or brands you’ve worked with, and clearly highlights unique skills.

Ask thoughtful, pertinent questions

At the end of every interview, comes the opportunity to turn the tables on your interviewer and ask questions of your own. Make them count! Asking comprehensive, role-specific questions will ensure that you get a clearer understanding of what the job entails, and prove to a prospective employer that you’re serious. Garriott comments that “A lot of people go on interviews thinking that they have to impress these people to try to get the job and no matter what, don’t disrupt the apple cart. But at the same time, you want to figure out what you’re getting into. You want to go in with half a dozen good questions that you can try to get answers from that paint a picture of what the job is really like.”

Creatives are emotionally intelligent, sensitive individuals with a unique and valuable skill set. It’s important to remember that a job interview is as much a test of a potential fit with an organization or agency as it is about a person’s suitability for a position. Even if an interview doesn’t go as well as you’d hope, it’s still ultimately a learning experience.

 

About the Author: Sara Carter is the Co-Founder of Enlightened-Digital, an online technology publication. She writes about emerging themes in technology and business, and their potential to disrupt industries and change lives. 

 

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What It’s Like to Work in Tech Without a Tech Background

Design Jobs

By Haele Wolfe, Skillcrush

A version of this article previously appeared on Skillcrush, an online education program for creatives, thinkers, and makers that gives total tech newbies the tools to make major career changes.

I’m a Junior Editor here at Skillcrush—my job is to work with our editorial team to edit this website you’re reading at this very moment. When you picture editing, you probably think about someone staring at long blocks of text on a computer and making cuts or even marking up a manuscript with a big red pen. And you’re not wrong—a lot of editing does look like that. It can be super low-tech and there are certainly editing jobs that don’t require any tech skills. But those are becoming fewer and farther between, and as someone who doesn’t come from a tech background, it was clear that my career wasn’t moving in any positive direction taking the analog approach. I just knew I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the changing media landscape if I were only to rely on my red pen. I never expected this, but if I wanted to keep editing with any type of job security, I’d need to start applying my tech skills—and up skill—to my career as an editor.

When I started at Skillcrush, I had just the basics of HTML under my belt and a solid background in tech skills like video production and sound editing. There was still a learning curve with the amount of skills I needed to gain to be a digital editor, but luckily, picking up things on the fly is kind of my favorite thing, and learning tech skills isn’t exactly a huge time investment.

In addition to more job security, moving from media to tech gives me flexibility I couldn’t have imagined—especially in the form of remote work. Since I began this position seven months ago, I’ve logged in everywhere from Ohio, to Chicago, to Dallas, to Martha’s Vineyard! A typical day for me is filled with equal parts chatting with coworkers, organizing marketing strategies, adding to my growing tech skills, and of course, a lot of writing! Here’s a breakdown of how I spend my time.

 

7:30 a.m.
On a good day, I like to get up, start the coffee, and prioritize my to-do list before jumping on the computer. I’m currently based in Brooklyn and live with roommates—three human, one feline—who all work outside the home (except aforementioned feline, who is my daily co-worker). Mornings can be quite busy at our place, with people vying for bathroom and kitchen space. I like to avoid the cluster and sip my coffee while plotting out the day or catching up on reading for one of my book clubs. (Right now, I’m very behind in three of the book clubs, but doing okay in one. Making a mental note to carve out some extra reading time this week.) Taking time to assess what I need and want to get done for the day has been critical while adjusting to my position with Skillcrush. I also have a background in the arts, and enjoy having several side projects going in addition to my day job, so its vital that I create at least two—usually three—daily to-do lists to address the separate needs of each facet of my life.

 

9:00 a.m.
Time to log on! Depending on the day of the week and what projects I’m helping facilitate, I may get on a little earlier to make sure things are running smoothly. Skillcrush was my introduction to many tech tools, but the one that has most dramatically reshaped my thinking is SCRUM.

My day runs on the principles of SCRUM—a project management strategy that began in the software industry and is now widely used to track projects and help keep team members connected. We use a program called JIRA to track our SCRUM progress, which allows us to break projects down into smaller tasks and move them from To Do, to In Progress, to Done. I love this system because—as I mentioned above—I love checklists! SCRUM also bakes in time to check in daily, to have hard and fast deadlines, and to spend time looking back over the last working period (these are called sprints) to see what went well and what needs to change. In fact, I’ve just finished implementing SCRUM to every facet of my personal, creative, and professional lives and use free online tools to manage my own projects. (Airtable and Trello, I love you.) I’ve been SCRUM-ing my life for about a month now, and I’m already seeing improved results. So first thing in the morning, I’m likely looking at our JIRA dashboard to see what tasks I need to do today, see if there’s anything I need to run by my co-workers, and make a plan for what I hope to move to the Done column by the end of the day.

Oftentimes, the first thing on my agenda is to build posts in our content management system, WordPress. Sometimes I think of WordPress as the coworker with whom I spend the most time. WordPress is a staple for any editor—tech or otherwise—since so many sites run on the platform. Every story that appears on our site has to be formatted and scheduled through WordPress, which requires some HTML know-how. One of my big goals right now is to dive deeper into HTML and to finish learning PHP, the coding language associated with WordPress.

In the last minutes before I start our big meeting bloc, I spend a few minutes every morning checking in on our social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. This ends up being one the most fulfilling aspects of my day, since the Skillcrush community is so active, funny, and supportive. Getting to celebrate goals with students, check out the work they’re posting, and laugh at the latest corgi gif being passed around is a pretty perfect way to start the day.

 

11:00 a.m.—1:00 p.m.
The Marketing Team works across several time zones, and 11 a.m. is our sweet spot for daily check-ins, planning, weekly reviews, and the hottest gossip about everything from goat yoga to paragliding. We use Google Hangouts to connect with each other, as well as the chat program HipChat to talk throughout the day. Though it was weird only connecting on video at first, I now absolutely love the balance between facetime and digital chatting. Having focused meeting time makes it easier to concentrate on hitting goals, and makes my workday way more efficient—and we use this time for my favorite thing: SCRUM! Every day we have a 15 minute daily check in where we provide updates, resolve blockers, or ask for support, and then we either have a planning session for our next sprint, a presentation of the sprint that’s just ended, or a review of how we think the sprint went. There’s also one-on-one meetings with my boss or worksessions with other coworkers where we collaborate on projects.

 

1:00 p.m.—2:00 p.m.
Lunchtime! Stepping away from the computer for a bit helps me to refocus after a block of meetings, so I try to force myself to take this break. It can be tempting to just keep going, but I need the down time so that I can shift into writing or editing—which for me requires more uninterrupted concentration.

Since I have chronic back pain and often have trouble sitting for long periods, I also use my lunch break to do yoga or go to a class at a local studio around the corner from my apartment. I feel super strongly about how the flexibility of remote work helps me to accommodate my physical needs—which change day to day—and have often been difficult to work around at other jobs. Although this daily exercise may seem insignificant, it has radically improved my physical and mental well-being.

 

3:00 p.m.—5:00 p.m.
The second half of my day is reserved for writing and editing, since it’s usually not as meeting-filled as the morning. I start by checking in with the Editorial team about what stories we’re working on, what stage my teammates are in, and what we need to plan for in the coming weeks. Then it’s knocking out edits, fact checking, telling our writers what changes I need from their articles, marking the stories as done and ready to be built in WordPress the following morning. I also write a fair amount of articles for the site, so that means researching, interviewing experts, and then—of course—the actual writing. My favorite editorial task is interviewing Skillcrushers—both current students and alumni—for articles we run about learning to code, remote life, or their winding career paths. I’ve picked up so many new tips and tricks just from having to do research for this position, everything from how to timebox my day like a pro, to the smartest ways to gain clients as a freelancer.

 

6:00 p.m.—10:00 p.m.
After work I like to cook dinner, look at my personal and creative to-do lists, and start knocking some things out before I have to hit the hay. In a perfect world I get to roll into bed around ten, read for a bit, and the turn out the lights. But living in Brooklyn, there always seem to be events, creative meet-ups, dinners, or other fun things to attend, that often keep me out later—what a great problem to have! Depending on what kinds of artistic projects I’m working on that are most pressing, I’ll look for events that sound like they’ll help me network or will add to my skill set. Often, I’m working on deadline and am stuck drawing or editing right up till bedtime, but the satisfaction of finishing something I love is totally worth the late nights. And, having a packed schedule forces me to be more conscious of my time and more organized at the beginning of every day. So whether I’m logging in from my house or the highway, I know what I need to do and how long it should take me. In another seven months, I’ll be moving onto new coding languages, video calling in from even crazier places, and still touting the magic of SCRUM—watch out.

 

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How to Fake It Till You Make It in Tech

Design JobsFront-end CodingWeb Development

By Scott Morris, Skillcrush

A version of this article previously appeared on Skillcrush, an online education program for creatives, thinkers, and makers that gives total tech newbies the tools to make major career changes.

One minute you’re chatting confidently with your coworkers—throwing around jargon left and right—and the next, you feel like you’ve jumped into the deep end of the proverbial pool. Sheer panic. But don’t worry: It’s okay not to know everything, and—in fact—knowing what you don’t know is crucial for success in a tech career. So how can you navigate conversations about new tech or industry changes without sounding like you’re totally out of the loop—or pulling our editor’s move of hearing unfamiliar terms in meetings and frantically googling them on her phone?

I asked four tech professionals to weigh in on faking it, making it, and how the two relate in a professional setting—and right from the jump, one thing’s clear: whether you’re a bootstrapping entrepreneur or working your way up the ranks of an established company, everyone has moments at work when they feel like they’re totally pulling things out of thin air. But it turns out, faking it can be traded in for making it with just a little bit of outlook adjustment.

Mark Cook, Director of Marketing at ApplinSkinner, says that some of the most skilled tech professionals he knows still suffer from imposter syndrome. Since tech has so many specialized fields, even if you’re an expert in one field (or many), it’s a given that you’ll find yourself out of your depth at some point, he says. A UX designer doesn’t necessarily know the same things a front end developer does, and vice versa.

Cook’s advice in these situations is to be proactive and treat them as learning experiences. If you find yourself in a meeting or conversation that’s straying into unknown territory, be up front about it and move into question mode. “[People are talking to you] for a reason,” says Cook. “You’re there…because you [do] know about something.” No matter how out of place or unprepared you might feel, you’re still being asked to participate in that meeting,. interview, or chat. Lean on your own expertise in the conversation.

One way in is to ask about the comparative pros and cons between the new tech being discussed and the tech you’re already comfortable with. That way, you can get information about what they’re talking about while still contributing your own knowledge. It’s also a way to be honest—asking questions instead of pretending to be an expert avoids the risk of coming off as disingenuous, Cook says.

Ask away, and remember that engaging in these conversations is also a career win. You’ll always be learning, especially in the tech industry, and the sooner you become comfortable with that, the more successful you’ll be.

Lest you think that this feeling only happens to beginners, Ellen Butler, UX Director at Happy Boards, says that sometimes it’s career success itself—and the changes that come with it—that brings on those creeping feelings of faking it. At a past job, Butler found herself moving from Account Manager to a member of the UX team overnight. Because of her sudden position change and feelings of insecurity in a new field, Butler says she found client interactions particularly terrifying—it’s hard enough to be in a new environment and feeling like an imposter among colleagues, but those feeling are more magnified and intimidating when you’re expected to deliver for a customer.

Eventually, Butler says, being open with her team and trusting them allowed her to realize it was okay to tell clients, “Let me check on that and get back to you.” Butler credits her co-workers with accommodating her newness to the field, and says they had no problem jumping in to answer questions until she got her bearings. In fact, Butler says it might be better to skip the notion of faking it all together. “Honesty is refreshing,” says Butler. “So many of us in the tech world are entering from all kinds of different places: different backgrounds, different career paths, different educations. To assume we all know the same things is frustrating and short-sighted. The only way we’ll all learn from our communal knowledge is by being unafraid to ask questions.”

If asking questions doesn’t feel like the right fit for you, you can try the approach that Jan Bednar, CEO of ShipMonk, takes. He does what you might call a strategic form of winging it. Take, for example, a moment when a client asked about his company’s ability to integrate with the client’s platform. “I knew that we could integrate with the platform, but I honestly didn’t understand the mechanism that allowed [us to do it].” At a loss, Bednar started drawing a diagram on a whiteboard to walk his client through the process, and by the end, Bednar was able to articulate the mystery integration mechanism. The lesson here, says Bednar, is to recognize and accept those moments when you don’t know something, and allow the things you do know to help fill in the gaps. Your path to understanding may be half-built, but it’s also all you need.

Fake? You’re as real as it gets, so if you’re ready to put your hopefully newfound confidence to the test and hit the job search, download our free Ultimate Guide to the Perfect Resume. Just remember: Take a breath, don’t be afraid to be honest, ask questions, or rely on the knowledge you already have to wing it.

 

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Want help building your design portfolio so you can land a job?

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15 of the Most Careless Interview Mistakes People Make

Design Jobs

A version of this article previously appeared on Skillcrush, an online education program for creatives, thinkers, and makers that gives total tech newbies the tools to make major career changes.

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of opening an email that says: “You got an interview!”

But that sense of elation melts away when you start to think about the interview. It’s the kind of dread you only feel when you’re afraid you won’t get something you really really want.

I’ve been there! Interviews are nerve-wracking, especially if you haven’t done one for awhile. It had been almost a decade since I’d had an interview when I started looking for a more traditional job after years of freelancing. And I’d never even done a video job interview before I started interviewing with tech companies last summer. Extra scary.

Below, I pulled out some of our top tips from our Ultimate Guide to Interviewing for Your First Tech Job, so that you won’t blow your tech job interview with any of these common mistakes. Get the full ebook here for even more great advice on nailing your interview—it’s free!

1. BEING UNPREPARED FOR A CODE TEST

Putting your coding skills to the test in front of a potential employer is nerve-wracking. There’s no doubt about it. But if you’re applying for any kind of developer job, you’re almost certainly going to be asked to do some kind of code test, likely at the interview. How else will prospective employers be able to tell if your real-life skills match those you listed on your resume?

2. PANICKING WHEN YOU DON’T KNOW THE ANSWER TO SOMETHING

Whether it’s on the code test or during the interview itself, there’s a chance you won’t know the answer to a question you’re asked. That’s okay. Employers don’t expect you to know everything. What they do expect is that you’ll keep cool under pressure and you won’t freak out. So remember, when you don’t know the answer, just stay calm, take a deep breath, and then deal with it rationally. In some cases, interviewers ask you things you’re unlikely to know just to see how you cope.

3. NOT RESEARCHING THE COMPANY

Before you step into any interview, be sure you’ve researched the company you’re interviewing with. Find out exactly what the company’s mission is and how you can help them.

4. NOT BEING FAMILIAR WITH THE JOB DESCRIPTION

Make sure you know exactly what the original job description said. Re-read it before the interview, and mark any areas that you have questions about so you remember to ask in the interview.

5. HAVING AN OUTDATED PORTFOLIO OR WEBSITE

Your portfolio and website both need to be up to date before your interview (they should really be up to date before you start applying for jobs, but definitely before the interview). Make sure all your projects are prominently displayed in your portfolio, and check that your site looks great on different screens and devices and is free from glitches or missing links.

6. BEING UNPROFESSIONAL

The impression you make at your interview can make or break whether you get the job. Showing up late, being dressed sloppily, or otherwise coming across as not being professional (or not taking the job seriously) are going to seriously hurt your chances of getting hired.

7. NOT ASKING ANY QUESTIONS

I’ll admit, I’m guilty of this one. Sometimes an interviewer is so thorough about explaining the job and the company that you can’t think of any questions to ask. But you should think up some questions ahead of time so that when the interviewer asks if you have any questions, you’ll have some ready to go.

8. NOT BEING FAMILIAR WITH THE COMPANY CULTURE

This ties into first impressions, but if you want to work for a company, you should have an idea of what the company culture is like. After all, if you show up to a casual startup office wearing a suit, you may come across as not understanding what the company is like, and also looking very out of place (the reverse is also true).

9. NEGATIVITY

Being negative is a buzzkill. Talking down about yourself, your past work, or anything else during an interview is a really bad idea. It will make the interviewer question whether you’re going to say negative things about them down the road. Besides, no one wants to work with someone who’s always negative.

10. NOT PREPPING BEFORE THE INTERVIEW

I already talked about researching the company and familiarizing yourself with the company’s culture. But prepping also includes more basic things. Make sure you know where you’re going, how to get there, and where to park (there’s nothing worse than showing up early and then spending 15 minutes trying to find parking).

Be sure you eat something, too! You don’t want to listen to your stomach rumbling during an interview and wonder if the interviewer can hear it, too. You might want to avoid the onion bagel, though.

11. NOT BEING FAMILAR WITH TECH TERMS THAT MIGHT POP UP

Especially if you’re new to tech, be sure to familiarize yourself with common terms that might pop up in the interview. Things like agile, scope, lean, and MVP, among tons of others. Read Kelli Orrela’s 99 Terms You Need To Know When You’re New To Tech for a comprehensive list of terms that might come up.

12. DOWNPLAYING YOUR GOALS AND POTENTIAL

Companies want to know that you have career goals and ambition. People who have career goals work harder and do more for the companies they work for than those who are happy to stay put in the first job they get.

That said, if your big goal is to become a tour boat captain in the Bahamas and you’re applying for a web developer job, you might want to keep those plans under wraps.

13. GIVING “STOCK” ANSWERS TO COMMON INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

In most cases, the person interviewing you has interviewed quite a few people before you, for the position you’re applying for or for others in the past. They’ve heard all the stock answers to the questions you’re most likely to be asked.

You need to come up with something different. When they ask you something like, “what’s your biggest weakness?” don’t answer with, “I’m a perfectionist.”

14. NOT FOLLOWING UP AFTER THE INTERVIEW

You HAVE to follow up after a job interview. Send a thank you email after the interview, and include any questions you may have thought of. Not following up can make the difference between you and another candidate if the interviewer is having a hard time deciding. Just keep it short and sweet, and don’t suck up.

15. NOT BEING PREPARED FOR A VIDEO INTERVIEW

Since so many tech jobs are remote, you may find yourself doing some interviews via video chat. There are some special considerations you need to think about before your video interview, including making sure you’re familiar with the the software you’ll be using (likely either Google Hangouts or Skype), and making sure that you’ve found a good place to actually have the interview. Make sure you check out these 11 Tech Tips for a Stress-Free Video Interview.

If you want even more great tips for nailing the interview for your first tech job, be sure to download our FREE Ultimate Guide to Interviewing for Your First Tech Job!

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7 Visual Design Project Ideas For Your Design Portfolio

Design JobsGraphic DesignPortfolioVisual Design

If you’re trying to become a Visual Designer, you probably already know that your portfolio is the most important tool in your arsenal as you get ready to apply to jobs or look for clients. But when you’re just starting to build up your portfolio, it can be difficult to know exactly what sorts of projects you should be including in your portfolio. And once you do come up with ideas for projects, how do you build them into comprehensive case studies that will impress any potential employers checking out your site?

Pro-tip: We recently launched the ultimate short-term (and super affordable) mentorship-driven bootcamp to help you build an amazing design portfolio that will land you a job. Read about it and sign up right here!

We chatted with hiring managers across the creative industry to find out what sort of projects they’d like to see in the portfolios of new junior designers applying for jobs. Keep reading for more info about the exact projects that you should work on to build up your design skills and show that you are capable of executing all the types of design work you’d likely be working on as a junior designer. And for all of these projects, we’ve created step-by-step project guides that will help you build up detailed projects in each of these categories and craft an amazing portfolio.

One note – we’re recommending a variety of Visual Design projects to help you get experience building different types of design projects from scratch, but when you’re actually getting ready to apply to jobs, it’s generally a good idea to decide what area of design you’re most passionate about and focus most of your portfolio site on those types of projects. Employers want to know that you have a deep expertise in your chosen field!

Solve real problems with your projects

Before we dive into the specific types of projects you should be working on, it’s important to note that recruiters across the board told us that they want to see projects based on real problems that exist in the world rather than just seeing pretty visuals. They want to know that you can solve problems with your designs. Here are two ways to start solving real problems with your designs, even early in your career.

Find real clients

It might seem daunting to approach real clients early in your career, but even if you’re not being paid for the work, reaching out to local businesses and nonprofits offering your design services is an amazing way to build your skills and impress employers. It’s as simple as walking into local businesses asking if they need help with marketing campaigns or branding, or emailing nonprofits to ask if they need any design support. Employers want to know you can work within real world constraints, so this is a great way to show that you can incorporate constraints!

Come up with ideas for problems you want to solve

Even if you’re not doing “real client” projects, it’s important to ensure that all of your project ideas attempt to solve real problems that exist in a particular industry or field. So when you come up with high level project ideas (e.g. doing a branding project), spend some time thinking about the industries you want to work in. Then look at a few companies in those industries and see how their brand or business could be positively impacted by a redesign. You could even come up with your own business or brand from scratch based on a gap you think exists in your target industry, and design a project for them from scratch. As long as you are trying to solve real problems and test your designs against mentors and peers, you’ll be good to go.

Finally, be sure that instead of diving straight into Illustrator or Photoshop, you spend time following the proper design processes for each project – research the industry and problem, come up with personas, ideate and sketch, and validate your designs with someone else.

Alright, let’s dive into the 7 projects every aspiring designer should work on!

Personal Branding

When you’re getting ready to apply to jobs or reach out to clients, a strong personal brand can help make you more memorable, showcase your style and tone of work, and convince anyone looking at your portfolio site that you’re truly passionate about design outside of your 9-5 job. It also shows that you have an opinion or point of view about design and are willing to boldly attach that opinion to yourself for everyone to see!

Assume for a moment that you are an employer looking through hundreds of design portfolios every day, looking for the perfect candidate to add to your design team. You decide whether or not to pass on most portfolios within about 10 seconds of landing on their homepage. Your personal branding, just like any other strong design project in your portfolio, should follow a design process — the same process that you go through when completing a Branding and Identity project for any client. You need to spend time ideating about what you want your branding to say about you, sketching ideas, refining a few of them, and then choosing typography and a color palette that matches.

Branding and Logo Design

If you’re interested in branding design, then it’s a no-brainer that you’d want to include at least a few branding and identity projects in your portfolio. For this branding project, you should come up with a totally new company in an industry you’d like to work in, or find a company in that industry whose branding you think might be holding it back from greater success. You should go through the entire research → moodboard → ideation → sketching phase before diving into Illustrator. For your final project, include a new logo, typography, colors, and overall look and feel. You can present all of these deliverables in a Style Guide for the brand.

Iconography

Being able to develop iconography with a consistent look and feel is an important skill for most designers to have. Even though there are tons of incredible icon services out there, like Noun Project, you should feel comfortable developing your own icons from scratch if you want to work on the design team for a larger company (or even a smaller studio). For this project, focus on building out a full set of iconography for a digital product or website of your choosing.

Before you dive into research, you should decide where in the client’s product or website these icons will be used and what they’ll be used for. Are they going to be used to accompanying text and information or are they more navigational icons? Write down details about what types of icons you’re going to be designing and where they’ll show up in the product or website. This is a necessary step to take prior to conducting research or sketching.

Marketing Campaign

Being able to create effective marketing collateral for employers and clients is an incredibly valuable skill and something you will definitely be involved in at various stages of your career. For this project, come up with a theoretical product or find an existing product that you like and design a digital and print marketing campaign for the client. In your final deliverables, include 2 Facebook ads, 1 Instagram ad, one print poster (24×36”), 4 display banners (sized at 300×250, 300×600, 728×90, and 970×250), and one 4×6” postcard. Be sure to include copy and strong calls to action. For your final presentation, mock them onto relevant platforms.

Packaging Design

If you want to focus primarily on digital products, this project might not be for you. But if you’re interested in working at a company that sells physical products, being able to design packaging and a label for the products is a great way to stand out from the crowd. For this, you’ll help a client create compelling packaging that speaks to their brand identity while also informing consumers about relevant aspects of their products. Your final presentation should include dielines of your designs as well as the final label design in vector format. You can also include a style guide with things like color, typography, and overall look and feel.

Print Collateral

For this project, you’ll identify a client and develop a set of print collateral for their business, ranging from business cards to posters to postcards. Being able to create effective marketing collateral for employers and clients in a variety of print formats is an incredibly valuable skill and something you will likely be doing at some point in your Visual Design career. For the final deliverables, include on set of business cards (front and back), two print posters (24×36”), two 4×6” postcards, and one additional 4×4’ sign to be used in an outdoor marketing campaign.

Typographic Poster or Album Art

For this final project, you’ll be focusing on showing your ability to generate unique typographic layouts and improving your familiarity with typography in general. You can create a typographic poster for a film or cover for an album, with a strong emphasis on using typography and type lockup to create a mood and visual look. You should only use very minimal photography or graphic elements in your design. This project will focus on helping you become familiar with typography in design and is designed to show you the broad range of emotion that type can elicit. Recruiters love to see well-rounded designers, so even if you’re focus is on web design or product design, showing that you can use typography to create a more emotional response in viewers is incredibly important!

What next?

Working on those 7 projects will give you amazing exposure to the 7 types of projects that recruiters have told us they’d want to see in most junior portfolios. You don’t need to include all of these in your portfolio (in fact, you probably shouldn’t), but working on these projects should help you broaden your design skills and identify the areas of Visual Design you want to focus on in your career. From there, you can start to specialize and deepen your skillsets in one or two of these areas. If you want a more comprehensive step-by-step guide to building out each of these projects, check out our Portfolio Starter Kit, and if you’d like to build up your portfolio with a mentor, check out our Career Bootcamps!