Heads up

It’s 2024 and most people still have basic mistakes in their portfolio.

The first thing you need to do is focus the portfolio on your ideal employer. It means add case studies and descriptions that match the business you’re applying to. You can also make multiple portfolio versions with different projects for each major business category and send them out that way.

Pick your color scheme and profile picture (I talk more about it in some of my videos) and stay consistent across your portfolio and all social media. That way when someone likes your work they’ll also be able to recognize you when they see you on socials. And you should be there networking with the companies you apply to anyway.

Make your portfolio a dedicated website and use a tool like Hotjar or Beusable (or one of many others) to record HOW people use your website. Then adjust it to be better. Nobody clicks on case studies? Make the thumbnails more engaging!

Treat your portfolio like it is a design project. Use research, ask people for feedback, and think what else you can improve. It is a design too after all!

Everyone and their mum is now a human centered designer. Avoid those clichés and write why you really like to do design - using your own words. You want them to know you, not some generic template of a designer.

Community Says

• dawidswidlikiewicz: the last point is the most interesting Can you expand on it more? To steer us a little better in "the right" direction

• Michal Malewicz: I'm making a longer video (and a bunch of reels) on that with examples and there's already a lot in my "don't be boring" course but short story is that people spend literally seconds on your portfolio before they decide to close the tab so if they see 50x "human centered designer" and other BS like that they instantly think you're unoriginal and just a copy of all the other candidates. I'd suggest writing something more personal there about your real WHY.

• suzie_q3: Do you mean creating multiple portfolio sites for different industries ?

• Michal Malewicz: Yes, unless you know specifically which industry you want to work for. For example, some people don't want to work for military-industrial complex or big pharma so they can focus on other areas ;)

• mevicc: Hi, thanks for your commitment. I would like to know which free platform you recommend to use as a portfolio.

• Michal Malewicz: Any that allows you to add your own analytic scripts from stuff like hotjar.

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