career

Why Are Online Portfolios Suddenly Vanishing?

March 21, 2020 Design

Nothing personal but it’s worth observing this recent phenomenon of certain designers maintaining online portfolios in private, and it’s a question that has baffled me the most. Until I meet someone who has kept the ‘daggers’ hidden under a cloak of secrecy I will never get conclusive evidence. I was reading an interesting and highly insightful article on Medium from a UI/UX designer talking about grid systems for mobile/desktop UI designs. There was no doubt in my mind that this individual had done immense research to validate an approach of using a grid system, and I was impressed enough to look at his body of work. His online portfolio link had been provided but my eagerness soon turned into despair when I found everything except for the design work was public! After creating an impression with your writing and intellect why would you want to hide your designs? And this isn’t the only instance where I found the portfolio ‘locked up’ for a private viewing it’s become a trend.

It defeats the entire purpose of maintaining an online portfolio that is meant to be accessible 24/7 and aimed at like-minded designers, peers, and most of all, recruiters and employers who might be looking for a talent like yours. Online portfolios can be a great way to project your individual talent not just for exploring job opportunities, and for the industry at large to comprehend what a design process resembles in an individual’s capacity! But the core question still remains unanswered – why are designers turning secretive all at once?

  • I believe there are a couple of factors and the most important one feels like the designer’s work for an organization is covered by an IP or a non-disclosure agreement. Designers aren’t allowed to showcase their visual thinking process in public without breaking the law and it’s a precarious situation they find themselves in all the time. So it’s only inevitable that they strictly make their work ‘on-demand’ to skillfully dodge the scrupulous eyes of the employer. So this applies to specific client work, but what about side projects which are independent of an employer’s discretion?
  • Another version could be to prevent employers, recruiters, and peers or colleagues from unfairly judging their work. UX is a pretty subjective domain having a nuanced process that’s dictated by the culture of the company. For instance, designing a ‘persona’ could end up within multiple formats across the industry and could still make sense in their individual capacities. If employers or recruiters were seeking to judge the designer on the basis of the perception they carry about a standardized ‘persona’ format they might well be disappointed. In such a case, candidates may prefer discussing the portfolio on a personal level by blocking access to the portfolio.
  • In relation to my previous point, some designers may also have a misguided personal view about their own work, finding it archaic and unfit for public viewing.
  • And lastly, some designers, in general, might be scared their work is at risk of getting plagiarized.

Be as it may, portfolios in any form are actually articles to be judged. They’re also seen as a ‘gateway’ to your innermost beliefs and design thinking processes, and might largely differ with an individual’s mindset. But it’s critical that that difference should be presented boldly and to position your unique qualities in the market. Aiming to build a career in design I miss the point and find no logic or prudence in keeping your talent confidential. The mantra should always be to stay open-minded, invite diverse opinions, and spreading the knowledge of design.

That Magical Tool For Facing Deadlines

June 28, 2018 General Notes

It’s time to acknowledge a permanent and a frequently visited attribute of my professional career otherwise known as ‘meeting deadlines’, and who could better express that emotion visually other than a Calvin & Hobbes. That sense of accomplishment is briefly trounced by an uncanny nervousness with sticking to timelines, on whether it’s a strategic design proposal or preparing slides for an upcoming discussion on a creative project. And although the groundwork had truthfully commenced the minute all information was rounded up it wasn’t until the eleventh hour that the conception magically began taking shape! Yes, magically. But how? Much like most things today that are easily derived using a mobile app or other similar contraptions at the click of a button, that one ethereal tool which I use in filtering the surge of my creativity and delivering within deadlines is called the ‘panic button’.

Meeting Deadlines - Calvin & Hobbes

Source: Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Watterson

Canadian Tech and IT Jobs in 2018 from Randstad

January 23, 2018 Happenings

Randstad Canada sent me an email update today titled “Boost your job search in 2018”, in which they included data on Tech and IT related jobs within Canada. Randstad is one of the many staffing agencies in Toronto and they share this data every year, along with the salary range for different roles categorized by Canadian cities which helps job-seekers in tweaking your job search outlook. What surprised me was the absence of any designer/creative role in software development, so where did they go wrong? They have information for UX/UI job seekers on their website which is not part of the 2018 report though, and I have blogged about my hiring methodology to stress upon the importance of getting creative designers onboard for any product development lifecycle.

The UX Design Collective released The State of the UX in 2018 survey in which they have spoken widely about various global UX career trends and one of the key lessons was the rightful transformation of the UX Designer into ‘Product Designer’ in 2018.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]This shift from UX Design to Product Design is only accelerating in 2018. As our role and responsibilities grow inside our companies, understanding more about business and design strategy becomes inevitable.[/perfectpullquote]

Could it be that Randstad ignored this trend of UX Design vs Product Design? If the report mentions tech as “one of Canada’s best job sectors” then digital products could be the driving force behind it and generally, creative design skills should rank higher in demand on par with programmers. I believe it’s a matter of perspectives, and that Randstad got too involved in pursuing “IT/Tech” as an exclusive developer’s domain while keeping the strategic/creative angle outside its purview. Only they could tell why, but 2018 is the time to give the creative (product) designers a fair handshake!

Source: Best Tech and IT Jobs in Canada in 2018 by Randstad Canada

Can I Have Your Honest Feedback Please?

December 21, 2015 General

As someone constantly lurking in the space for personal improvement, I have always valued and fallen back on critical feedback from recruiters and customers. This has helped me immensely to calibrate and improve my response to future job opportunities. Take the case of designing a simple résumé. I have lost count of the number of versions I have designed in order to meet market expectations and I still can’t say if I am completely satisfied. There’s always room for improvement in everything that I do, where the journey is to reach the epicenter of the issue. After all it’s a learning experience just like anything else and I enjoy every moment of it. In the recent spate of job interviews where I faced rejection I have received “positive” feedback from customers but it has been so vaguely reported to me that I can’t plan on making enhancements to anything, let alone the résumé. It only gets tougher and tougher on the mind to figure out why I wasn’t selected for the position despite meeting all the qualifications and acing the interviews.

I’m just playing a small part in the advancement of the UX/UI/Design Thinking community which isn’t particularly renowned for measuring and benchmarking peer performance in design deliverables. So a designer’s reputation is analogous to what you see in the portfolio. It’s also one of those rare fields where a person’s design knowledge on the CV or portfolio sometimes belies his/her industry experience. For example, I once proposed to hire a person whose CV was top class, but as I later found out on an interview this designer hadn’t provided a true reflection of the work experience. I brought that point across vividly in my discussions by pointing out the serious gaps in the CV, and hopefully, the individual would have taken my comments with utmost seriousness. On the other hand in this volatile UX/UI market companies would be finding it tough to weigh in on a designer’s value proposition despite conducting the personal interviews, evaluating the portfolio, etc., and the scale somehow always seems to tip in the favour of that someone special who seems to be more attuned to the company’s requirements. Is there a logic behind choosing A from B? Mostly I hear feedback for the refusal as not being a “cultural fit” for the company. But what exactly does that mean and how does one work to improve his/her chances in the market? Why was the strong candidate overlooked for a “better” one? What has made the other person more promising than me? It’s almost difficult to get any straight answers from recruiters later once the rejection call has been made.

For a multitude of corporations the painful job of sifting through the CVs culminates with finding the perfect candidate but what’s also needed is to provide a strong and honest feedback to the ones who did not make it to the finishing line after the interview round. The uphill task for a candidate to find gainful employment unfortunately does not end with the selection process. Particularly in today’s IT world where software designing has become so complex that each company has specific goals for individual UX positions, this is where I believe an honest exchange of critical insights is very crucial for not only designing better products but also for sustaining in-house design talent. From my experience I can tell you that designers thrive on honest feedback, it’s their bread and butter. So again, what are your thoughts on why the candidate did not make it? Was it the individual’s work or lack of communication skills or something more pertinent? There’s a need for a mechanism to voice your opinion on a personal level.

As far as hiring decisions are concerned, how about developing an HCM sytem to better judge the (design) capabilities in conjunction with the actual effort by combining a person’s inherent characteristics with the company objectives, and presenting a true personality account of the individual. You might have a ‘Yes/No’ answer right there. While nothing’s written in stone so far as humans are concerned and there will be gray areas from software analysis which can be evaluated independently by the SMEs. But connecting the dots by introducing rationale into the hiring process may allay fears within the industry to engage with the wrong talent in the first place, encourage recruiters to contribute with their feedback honestly and dynamically, help job seekers to gain valuable insights into their causes of rejection, and so on. Let’s hope we can continue with this debate until we find the answers.

Goodbye 2005

December 29, 2005 General

Phew! the year is over before I could imagine it would but I am not complaining here. Personally 2005 has been a good year for me where I gained a lot of good things. The positives far outweighed the negatives like never before and that has thrilled me beyond comparison. The last time that I remember it happened to me was in 1995 – when I was in my 4th year in art college. I made quite a few friends and roamed the country too. That was also a good year in all respects because I scored some good marks as well.

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