Know-How Exchange : Career/Training

Bring both hardcopy and softcopy. Show hardcopy face-to-face. Leave softcopy behind (if there's interest).

Pick your best projects in your portfolio, ideally that show a diverse set of skills. If you have a creative brief for each project, add it as well (if not, create one to show the goals that you were aiming to solve).

Dear Hannah,

First, hearty congratulations on getting an interview.
This is an achievement all on its own. Well done.

If all else fails, you could always call the person you'll be meeting with and ask them what format they prefer in terms of viewing your work.

Generally, there may be no easy answer here I'm afraid.
You could take a hard copy with you (which I'd do anyway).

The downside to this is that while the person you're meeting with is flipping through it, you could be sitting there in silence. You may be tempted to explain every piece of work, but on the whole, this ought not to be necessary.

Many design managers and creative directors prefer that the work speaks for itself—which is what ought to happen anyway.

The theory here is that if the work needs its hand held by the creative in order to get the point of the work across, the point of the work probably isn't that strong. So as a piece of visual communication, it may not be doing its job.

This then rather begs the question "Why are you showing off something that may not be doing what it's meant to be doing?"

With me?

You could send a PDF in advance (or a link to an online portfolio). But with this you've no guarantee that it will arrived, be deleted, or be opened and read.

Or, you may want to think about burning the whole thing to a disc, AND printing it out and leaving the disc and your printed version behind, as an aide-mémoire.

As for your book? Less is always more. Think quality, not quantity.

How many pages? Twelve to 15 (or 15 to 20) is a good average.
But, and this is VITAL—12 to 15 pages of your very best work EVER.

The work itself must be anything BUT average. Read that again.

Kick off with your best piece.

End with your second best piece.

And make darn sure every other piece between your first and last piece ROCKS! "If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out!"

The work that is, not your eye.

Any piece—and that's ANY PIECE of work you are not 110 percent happy with, remove it and replace it with something better. If this means you working into the wee small hours for days on end and nixing your weekend, then that's what it's going to take. The question is that this job? How badly do you want it?

Go through your book and be RUTHLESS.

This is NOT easy, but the pruning WILL pay off. Assess every piece of work and look at its elements, and at its overall clout.

Ask yourself these questions:

Is every element is pulling its weight?

Is every element earning its keep visually?

How can each individual piece be better?

If an element or piece is not making you look great, remove it and replace it with something better.

Whatever you see that's not adding to the whole—either as a single piece of work, as a campaign, or to the look of your book in total—has got to go.

Why?

Because if you're not sure, whatever it is that irks you will stand out like a sore thumb to the person looking at your work on the big day. Not good.

The other thing is that you can use this to your advantage in your meeting. You can tell the person you're meeting with that you re-did this or that in this amount of time. This shows you can hustle with the best of them, and that you can work you ass off when the need arises. But use good judgement here. Don't spout this TOO much because it might make you sound desperate.

And about your interview? Look at it as a business meeting, NOT as an interview.

This subtle shift in perception is small, but mighty.

An interview often feels or looks like an interrogation:

INTERVIEWER: (Slamming her knuckle duster gnarled fist down on desk) "Where were you on the night of the 5th?"

YOU: (Failing to see the relevance of the question) "Um, er, ah?"

INTERVIEWER: (Turning to her short, foul-breathed colleague who is leaning over strange box attached to the nearest outlet) "Hodgkins, turn up the electrodes!"

Not pretty.

On the other hand, a business meeting implies that each party has something to offer, to give, and to trade—for the benefit of each: "Mr. Smith, this is how I, Hannah, can help you with X,Y, and Z"

See the difference?

You can help yourself here by doing some homework on the company, its main clients, and who its main movers and shakers are. This will put you ahead of at least 50 percent of the other people they'll be seeing. So you'll be remembered for having put in even more effort.

I hope this helps.

Good luck to you, Hannah. And if you feel the urge, let me know how things turned out for you.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA
Follow me on www.twitter.com @GaryBloomer

Jay is right again....unless

The soft copy requires a program you don't think they'll have on their computers. Don't make them work to view it later. If they do, make sure it's protected and labeled so it can't be used.

Michael