Portfolios and job hunting for emerging designers: A new Practice Note
Design Institute of Australia and Swinburne’s School of Design and Architecture have created this practice note as a guide for graduates preparing portfolios and seeking jobs.
Entering the design profession is competitive, particularly for recent graduates who may have fewer projects and limited industry experience. A portfolio remains the most effective way to demonstrate capability, creativity and potential, especially when tailored to the specific role or organisation. However, employers’ expectations are not always transparent, and the diversity of design roles within organisations today make it even more challenging for emerging designers to tailor their applications to suit.
To better understand what employers seek when hiring graduate designers, Swinburne’s School of Design and Architecture partnered with the Design Institute of Australia (DIA) to survey employers about their expectations of graduate job applications and portfolios. The survey was sent to design organisations as well as non-design organisations that employ designers in-house. Using an anonymous online questionnaire, we asked 22 questions about employers’ recruitment practices, including what they prefer in portfolios and interviews. We received 70 complete responses, analysed with both quantitative and qualitative methods.
To explore differences across employers, responses were grouped into four categories based on the DIA’s framework:
Interact design organisations which included consultancies offering communication/graphic design, UX interaction and service design, motion and animation design, signage, wayfinding, and packaging design;
Place design organisations which included architectural practices and interior design consultancies;
Use design organisations product design engineering and industrial design consultancies, and;
Non-design organisations which were organisations whose primary product or service was not to provide design services, but that employed designers ‘in-house’ to serve their own organisation’s design needs.
Top 10 methods employers use to seek graduate designers
The following advice is drawn from the online survey findings. While the sample size is too small to generalise to all Australian employers, the insights are still useful for graduates preparing portfolios and seeking jobs.
Although the advice reflects what many employers prefer, keep in mind that employment opportunities and employer preferences vary. Following common approaches may not always suit your work, goals or the job on offer. Always weigh the pros and cons of different options.
These tips are aimed at design students and recent graduates but may also benefit designers at other career stages.
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