Now that you’ve built up a solid network, the next step is getting your portfolio and resume together. For a lot of people, this is one of the most daunting parts of the hiring process.
The questions can be overwhelming if you’re new to the design field. Where do you even start? How do you format your resume? How do you get past the ATS bots? What content should you include? How do you build a website? Should you use a template? How do you write a case study?
Kristine Yuen, a design manager at LinkedIn, joins us to talk about how to craft a killer portfolio and resume to get past the ATS bots and recruiters to impress the hiring managers to get a shot at an in-person interview.
Kristine put together a list of portfolios she likes and explains a little bit about why she likes each of them:
- karindevenish.com – Kristine really likes the overall structure of Karin’s Credit Sherpa case study. It’s very thorough and visual. Her favorite section is how she shows her iterations side by side. It really helps comprehend the differences between the variations and makes it easy to follow along in her story.
- yangq.design – Yang’s portfolio is a very visual portfolio that uses motion subtly. Particularly, the home page is really well laid out. It catches the attention of the reviewer quickly and it is detailed to understand what the projects are all about.
- rbrahmwar.com – Paisool is a well-laid-out case study. It is visually balanced and clear in terms of storytelling. Ridhi mixes her process well with the content that she writes. She also uses a similar family of illustrations that blend well with her visuals in the rest of the portfolio. Also, the solution section at the end is very easy to comprehend the flows within the designed app.
- shunweiwilson.com – This portfolio has a wide range of projects that showcase Wilson’s background from UX to industrial design. She likes how he lays it out without taking away the emphasis from his UX work. Additionally, she enjoys his About page. It showcases a nice balance between his professional interests, experiences, and personal hobbies. Additionally, all his links are really easy to find.
- rajatbagga.com – Rajat’s portfolio is a visual take on dark mode. I enjoyed seeing the visuals and motion together in his case studies. In particular Vedetarian, the motion adds a lot of delight and helps me understand the intention of his app. Also, his process is light enough to comprehend the steps without going into tons of detail.
- kritikakushwaha.com/projects – Kritika’s Spark case study does a really great job of making text look extremely visual. She uses cards and blocking as techniques to balance out paragraphs of text. She also does a good job of balancing out the digital and physical solution of her project, as it emphasizes the UI more.
- rachelthinks.design – Kristine’s favorite case study from Rachel’s portfolio is the Google Buzz project. Rachel doesn’t use GIFs or videos of her solution, instead, she uses arrows in the images to show how her app works. It works really well as it’s subtle, clear, and easy to comprehend.
Topics:
• 02:20 – What makes a great first impression?
• 02:36 – Don’t forget the whole package: Resume, portfolios & LinkedIn oh my!
• 03:35 – Resumes become more important as you get more experience
• 05:38 – Use social media to show your work even if you’re not looking for work now.
• 08:44 – Even if you’re not trying to be a visual designer, visuals still matter
• 09:31 – What is the usability of your portfolio like?
• 10:05 – Tell a great story
• 11:15 – Balance out your process with visuals
• 11:41 – Where do you find case study data without experience?
• 12:33 – Make sure you differentiate your portfolio from others in your cohort or class
• 14:24 – How do people who aren’t visual designers get a beautiful portfolio?
• 19:18 – Do non-designers need portfolio websites?
• 20:43 – How much personal information should we include on our website?
• 25:01 – What’s your interesting mid-career shift story?
• 27:18 – The best portfolios tell the best stories
• 30:28 – Where do we start with writing a killer resume?
• 32:32 – Use your LinkedIn profile to manage the overflow of content
• 33:34 – How do we format to manage the resume ATS bots?
• 37:21 – Use keywords to your advantage
• 38:27 – Don’t design your resume only for the ATS bots
• 39:56 – How do we describe non-design job experience?
• 40:53 – Don’t lead with past experience, lead with what you want to do now
• 42:23 – How do we craft a great experience bullet point?
• 46:09 – How do we use LinkedIn effectively?
• 52:25 – Please avoid the silly expertise scales on resumes
Helpful Links:
• Interaction of Color by Josef Albers
• Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton
• Grid Systems in Graphic Design by Josef Müller-Brockmann
• bestfolios.com
About Kristine
Kristine is a Design Manager at LinkedIn, leading a team of designers to create the best customer experience for the Pages product. She has been at LinkedIn for 4.5 years. Before her current position, Kristine was a consultant at Deloitte Digital, working with different Fortune 500 companies on building digital products. She earned a Master’s of Design in Interaction Design from California College of Arts and before that, she obtained a Bachelor of Business in Business from the University of Notre Dame. She takes a multidisciplinary approach that encompasses the fields of design, business, and technology. Kristine enjoys mentoring and coaching aspiring UX designers and students through platforms such as Amazing Designer People List outside of her daily work. As an avid presenter and mentor, Kristine enjoys speaking about design-related topics and design career paths.
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