Hello, Linkedin - I am looking for a new role and there are a couple things I have recently learned that I want to share! While applying as a young professional - a lot of roles might seem interesting to you. In my case, I have dabbled in illustration, editorial, animation as well as motion graphics and social media design.
But what I have learned from asking for feedback after rejections is that employers are looking for quite specific things, even when "variety of work" is mentioned. For me, having a portfolio with animation, illustration, motion graphics and a book-binding project seems "diverse" since the skills are quite transferable, however this is not necessarily what "diverse" is for a lot of employers.
You need to make the client feel at ease when they look at your work - and predictability (in your work as well as the hiring process) is a great indicator for that. In my case - this is what I lacked.
So to tackle this - I have decided to design 2 separate portfolios that fit the roles I am interested in. Here is an example of a diverse portfolio for perhaps a junior role in children's publishing. There are two of my children's illustration projects, some editorial design and my stop-motion animation project, that relied on a lot of illustration too.
This portfolio highlights the skills and passions that would be relevant specifically in children's illustration/editorial design work, things like character design, typography, children's books. It focuses on more hands-on projects and leaves out some of my motion graphics and social media work out - which can always be accessed on my website.
The second portfolio is on the way and it would highlight more of my digital work - social media, motion graphics, animation and editing. Some projects I included in the first portfolio, will still be included in my second one, however presented in a different way. This way I can give credit to the depth and well-roundedness of projects I have worked on while not overwhelming employers with irrelevant details.
I am an enthusiastic person and am proud of the work I do, can talk about it for hours if needed, however I am ready to move forward and do more impressive work with great people, so I need to approach my work with a more analytic mindset with each application.
What do you think about this approach? Have you experienced similar things?
