Jobs in IT: Five Tips for a Successful Design Portfolio

Jobs in ITIn Eugenia’s Hottest New Careers in Tech post, she singled out User Experience (UX) Designer right at the top of her list. New JobsBlogger Scott Simmons, who recruits User Experience (UX) talent for Microsoft, is here to share his insight on creating a successful portfolio in order to land your dream design job. Take it away Scott:

UX is comprised of interaction design, user research and visual design. The reasons I love UX recruiting is seeing all of the amazing ideas created by the candidates. As a UX recruiting specialist, nothing is more inspiring than to review a great portfolio. And nothing is more disappointing than reviewing a poorly thought-out portfolio.

When applying for a UX role, the portfolio is more important than the resume itself. I have reviewed hundreds of portfolios and would like to share with you my Top Five pointers to create a portfolio that will excite us here at Microsoft:

1) Tell a story: Your portfolio should not be screen shot after screen shot of finished work. We want to see your design-thinking. Help us understand what problems you solved, how you contributed, and what other approaches you considered.

2) Share the artifacts: The artifacts are the pictures you took of the lab study, while in the field doing the ethnographic research, the different prototypes created, the ideation sessions at the white board, your sketches and the wireframes. Pictures are worth a thousand words, artifacts are worth more.

3) Design it: A hiring manager always reviews the portfolio before the resume. If you have a poorly designed portfolio you will not gain an interview. Think about white space, typography, color, links, motion and user experience. The portfolio is the summation of your design skills and should represent your best work.

4) Simple to Navigate: When looking through a portfolio, it should always be clear and intuitive as to what I am to do next. Sometimes I cannot find the links or methods for navigation because the presentation is very busy or it is assumed one knows where to go next. Design your portfolio to be user-friendly.

5) User test your portfolio: Once you have created your portfolio, have several people review the work and test your design. Too often portfolios simply do not load or work in the way the designer imagined.

Do you think you’ve got what it takes to be a UX designer at Microsoft? Follow these steps with your portfolio and you’ll have a better shot at getting your foot in the door.

3 Comments

  • JAMES WACHAI said:

    I totally agree with Simmons. Resumes are important in job hunting. But portfolios are key to being hired. I'm a user researcher who has been looking for work for the last three years. I'm not sure if I should blame hiring managers for not hiring me or myself! I pretty much appreciate that the hiring manager must recruit only the best candidate. In the event that hiring managers fail to do so, I appreciate the consequences, including losing their own jobs.

    I have a personal web site that I'm convinced is not well-designed. I designed it myself while I learned Microsoft Expression web. I'm wondering if I should hire a visual designer to spruce up my web site so that I can present my portfolio in a more presentable way. I have a visual picture of how my portfolio should be presented, but I do not have technical know-how to do it.

  • Edgylin said:

    hello, my name is Edgylin Rodriguez, I'm from Venezuela. I've always loved everything about the technology and all the technological advances! Unfortunately in my country there is very little chance to develop those skills that i want to learn to become an employee of Microsoft! I am currently studying systems engineering and each semester or year I grow more I like my career and I would like to strengthen my knowledge on Microsoft because it have many areas of my interest and I would like someday to work in one of them! Could you give me information about what I have to do to reach this goal I propose? what requirements or courses i could make? I sent many emails to workers there and never respond, I hope that this time can give me a chance to know a little more of you! thanks

  • ivan said:

    I used resume builder which seems to be the only way to build my cv for Microsoft on careers website. It doesn't allow creating nice portfolios or explaining in detail what I've done. How do I start pushing myself if I think I'm really suitable for a position?

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