I do, however, challenge the notion that a portfolio should be self-explanatory. It can take a really long time to do this, and it’s easier to just pull out relevant examples as part of a conversation. It would take me about a week of clear time to do this for my portfolio, and to be honest I’m always going to be too busy for that. Is that arrogance? Maybe, but for me, it’s just pragmatic.

The issue of NDAs is a tricky one. If you have ever done any decent paid work for a decent ‘known’ organisation it is likely to be under some sort of NDA. I don’t want to urge people to break the law, but for decades designers have shown work that is technically confidential and shouldn’t be shared. But, an interview is a place of confidentiality anyway. You will probably say things that you wouldn’t want spread around the industry (to your current boss, your colleagues, your ex-boss). And the interviewers are not likely to rip off your ideas or your wireframes. Seriously, they are really not likely to. The chances of them remembering what they saw when a relevant project comes up are very low.

So, I get incredibly frustrated when interviewees pull the NDA card as an excuse for not showing some of their ‘interesting’ work. If you really can’t bring yourself to share the work that you have done to get the job that you want by proving what you can do, you are really missing out as an interviewer really can’t make such a leap of faith in your abilities just on your say so.

But there is an alternative… You could always de-brand the work, recreating it in a way that the original client is not identifiable. Or, as the article points out, show some non-work work. Side projects, thought leadership, failed projects, pitch work etc.

I hope that every User Experience person in our industry that is planning on taking themselves to an interview can take note of this article and be respectful of both the interviewer’s time and their need to see how you work so they can have faith that you can help them deliver work for their clients.