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You may think your online portfolio is great. Is it really? How do amazing designers fail to get their jobs? Find out how even the best designers can fail with their online portfolios.

Talking Too Much About Yourself

It may sound obvious, but many portfolios fail because of this. When including a biography of yourself, stick to the points that people care about and keep it short. Nobody likes to read an essay about your life. This isn’t just a common mistake in the usual “About Me” page, it’s also a common mistake in the descriptions of the projects.

When describing a project, instead of describing why you did what you did, describe why what was done was effective for the project. The key to this is to not use the word “I”. Remember that the viewer care more about what you can create than what you think. Below is an example of describing a project in two different methods. Which one sounds better?

I used orange as the main color for this brochure because I wanted to let people know that this hair product is unisex.

Orange was used as the main color for this brochure because the color describes this hair product as a unisex product

The second line sounds more professional because it’s talking about the project rather than the designer. This was done simply by removing the “I”’s from the sentence.

Difficult Menus

Menus are a great way to present your capabilities. Many designers create an exceptionally creative navigation system, but fail to make it functional. The purpose of menus is to let the viewer browse to different parts of the website. While it is a great idea to show off your abilities using menus, make sure that it’s easy to use.

Overly Abstract Artworks

A major problem with portfolios is that their artwork only shows that the designer can create something creative, but not useful. I’ve seen many portfolios with random geometric shapes with a modern duotone effect. Does anyone really want to pay you to create this? While this abstract effect may express your creativity, it does not show what use the designer could be to the viewer and certainly doesn’t show much skill. The best artwork to include are the ones that display a unique skill that’s usable in the real world.

Lacking Contact Information

So a prestigious design firm thinks your portfolio is great and they want to invite you to an interview. The problem? It’s too difficult to contact you. Either you don’t have any contact information, your contact information is hidden, or there’s not enough options to contact you. Make sure that the contact information can be easily found with at least a phone number and email. Many designers make the mistake of only including their email. It’s important to include a phone number because some people prefer to have instant replies via telephone than delayed replies via emails.

Too Many Faux Projects

When starting, many designers create work for fake companies. These are great for practicing, but shows little experience in the real world. Employers looking for designers always prefer hiring designers who have real world experience. If you can’t find any real companies to create work for, simply volunteer to do free work. Even a simple listing on a popular classifieds website will bring many potential companies for you to create projects for.