Junior UX Portfolio Review: 80+ Applications and Only 1 Job Interview. Why? 

What did you take away from this review?

In a saturated entry level market, the portfolio itself needs to look great. There are numerous alignment errors, massive margin gaps, mixed type faces and weird color choices. Many also are skeptical of most designers that claim they can code when they don’t showcase that skill. Given some of the very rudimentary mistakes with margin, that doubt only grows. Finally, the UI in these apps feels very dated and as Vy mentioned, it’s too app heavy in general. Sorry to be so critical, but I would want the same honest feedback if it were me. If you don’t want to code it yourself, there’s plenty great portfolio templates out there to work with. TLDR: it’s the portfolio site itself, not just the thin case studies, that are probably leading to your rejection rate.

The most important thing this person can do is look at other, successful designers' portfolios and see what they did. Despite alot of the comments here being a bit harsh, they're right. The portfolio needs some heavy changes, both on UX research and UI of the case study and the portfolio itself. See what people in the industry have done and follow their lead. They have jobs for a reason.

Why can't we state the obvious fact that this portfolio hasn't gotten any job offers, because it just doesn't look like it comes from someone who can design? I am sorry to say but it doesn't look professional, even considering it's for a junior designer. Very basic UI Design rules, like enough whitespace, text alignment, colors, fonts working together, are not considered. Neither for the portfolio side nor the Mock-Ups. She advertises herself as a designer after all. And UI is an important part of UX, if you want to believe it or not. If they have 100 other applicants no one will even bother to look deeper into the portfolio if it doesn't look appealing/professional. So I don't see how your solution is more ideating, more research. You can have the greatest process ever but most reviewers might not even look at it.

Advice for new designers… As a full time graphic designer I can tell you they aren’t even looking at her case studies, because you can already see basic design mistakes on her landing page. Certificates are a great way to start, but your education cannot stop there. It’s foolish to think you will be job ready in three months after completing one of these programs. With the increase of applicant’s switching to UX/UI the competition is only going to increase and companies are going to be picky about who they hire, especially jr. roles. Your portfolio has to function and look great. You cannot produce mediocre work and expect job offers or interviews.

Her skillset is impressive, yet it's reduced to a short section hidden away in her "About me" page. The overall user experience scanning this portfolio could be improved. The turquoise hyperlinks are difficult to read & the grey background is not exciting enough and doesn't offer a nice color scheme. I personally try to avoid browns or greys as they can tend to look lifeless, especially when poorly contrasted with colors that don't complement well with each other. The flow of the website could be improved, I wonder if she could run some heat-mapping to see where visitors eye-tracking tend to go. My Advice: You don't want readers eyes to glaze over, so while it's important to include details of your process, it's best to stay concise with your wording and images. UX is about reducing cognitive load, and since recruiters have to read 1000s of resumes, please be mindful of the cognitive effort you're imposing on them. Your portfolio should be scannable. Bolding key words that are in job postings is a must. Also, bulletpoints are your friends. Leave out the TL;DR. It suggests that you're aware of being too wordy and rather than scale down your portfolio, instead you threw in a cliff-notes option for the recruiter to decide to read. They will assume you're either lazy or inconsiderate of their time, so definitely change that. Remember the #1 UX Rule: Don't Make Me Think. The recruiter shouldn't need to decide anything, your user flow should make reading as easy as possible. Recruiters skim resumes/portfolios. They'll give you 30 seconds tops, so do not give them a reason to abandon your page. Final tip: Don't bomb-apply jobs. Be selective and intentional about where you job hunt. Recruiters KNOW when you're passively submitting for jobs, they can see right through it. Do this only if you're just looking to practice interviewing & white-board challenges. Otherwise, don't waste your efforts. That time could be better spent networking at nearby UX meetups or hackathons. Spend time researching companies you like and learning about what their pain points are, and then redesigning any of their current products or services. Look to see if they have case-studies and online conference events. Get acquainted with them on linkedin & follow all their social media, and make getting hired a "job" in itself, because IT IS. A bit of compassion: Mindlessly applying is a fruitless endeavor. Listen, I know it was for PUA and you're required to job-seek to get benefits, so don't get hung up on the 1/88 ROI because you & I both know the PUA job search barely counts. Their recommended job listings are crap anyway. I would focus on redesigning your portfolio with a UX eye, and redirecting your job hunt on quality instead of quantity. Hope this helps and good luck!

Can I be harsh and say that it doesn't look good at all? If it looks bad, your UX skills won't matter enough.

I really like the idea of a FAQ section! Really smart

I think this is a little more superficial, but I would suggest to organize the portfolio better. The design is a little messed up and the margins are too wide, so it's hard to read and understand the case studies, I think.

Thanks for doing this. I'm in a similar position. I have been applying since completeing the UX design shortcourse with Google to get some great portfolio project ideas and systemization. It has been about 3 months and so many applications, and I am starting to worry that increasing time unhired is going to be detrimantal to me as a product.

I keep a spreadsheet of my applications, both to keep track of status and historical purpose. After one year I applied to a little more 100 jobs, the RESPONSE RATE was 20%, that means you don’t hear back even for rejections. So, someone that is transitioning to a new role/skill set shouldn’t be that surprised of receiving quite low interest, as the skill is what it is. From what I’ve seen there’s crazy demand of mid-senior, even roles categorised as junior often have requirements that are for designers with more experience. Pretty bleak situation.

An awesome review! Me personally, I got into UX right after graduating highschool and unfortunately fell into the bootcamp trap. However, even though it was quite short, we did have the opportunity to complete a real project from a real client right at the end which was a huge learning experience for what would really be done. Since then, I've been volunteering for an Ed-tech organization just working as a UX designer for free. I've learned probably 3x the amount I did in the bootcamp through that experience alone and have recently been trying to beef up my portfolio in terms of UI and content. Sometimes I wonder though if my portfolio is really as important as I thought it was in terms of the design aspect but this video helped me see that it can be a game changer when it comes to landing a position!

Saw this on discord community and i was enthusiastically waiting for it since I am about to do my first ux project for my portfolio. Thanks Vy.

idk why your videos has so less views/likes. I mean you're really providing true values. (unlike so called designers, here on RU-vid). If you'll have any fully fledged course, I'll love to buy it.

I am soo happy I found your channel while taking my online course. Listening and watching to your wisdom about the field makes learning more easier to digest and apply. Thank you soo much for your time and efforts!

Acting on evidence... As the great Sherlock Holmes would say: "Never ever ever ever act on assumptions." Amazing advices as always, and this time, from the new office! Thanks :)

Very good breakdown of the portfolio. I agree whole-heartedly. Clearly articulating with annotations can help, screenshots, metrics, and reason/evidence for the “why” you’re solving this problem. Why did you do the research and the type of research? Was there any pre-discovery research already done from any other teams or that you gathered? This can show that you stretched outside your own areas. What were the key findings after analysis? Are any competitors doing the same thing? Do you need to recreate the wheel? In a real job? All of this costs money. That you may not have. I enjoy watching your portfolio reviews. Keep it up!

This video helps a lot understand what actually the job market is looking for when it comes to UX design jobs, it's a lot of research and evidence-based decisions demonstrated on your portfolio. Thanks for sharing !

Sometime i am speechless, that people think a bootcamp or online courses will get u a job. Maybe it's typical in the US, but here in Germany self-thought designers won't get a job in a company. And sometimes i think there is a reason, that i was studying 4 years design (+2 years of training before). Because a lot of self thought UI Design have fundamental issues with the design basics (typography, color choices, design theory).

I JUST recently began educating myself on UX. However. I think another issue to confront aside from the aforementioned issues (huge amounts of text, overall web presentation, etc.) seems to be the layout of the apps, especially the headers. The color theory, the headers, the font sizes. They’re just SLIGHTLY off. As my professor said, not bad. Just unresolved. A revisit to figma or whatever was used to create these and simple bumping could make a lot of these products really sing.

Good guy Vy back at it again with the quality content

The girl needs to improve. But with so many rough comments in this "forum" she is more likely to give in than to make the improvement she needs. She should review Gestalt principles but you all, masters of the UX field, seem to lack one a key competence for the UX job, empathy. The way comments have been done so far might suggest you are not as great as you think you are

As a newbie, I really don't understand any of this.

As a person trying to get the best Jr portfolio, I would say thank you so much for the content that you record for us. Also, would you mind to update the discord link? Is not working from here. Regards from Brazil.

people on reddit were talking about how the market for junior ux designers is already saturated ( only demand for senior / experienced designers ). would you agree with that or do you see it differently?

Loving your Book!!!❤❤❤ One quick favour : Can you suggest some other right people on RU-vid or other social media platform in domain of UX design (to avoid Yay and Nay sayers). Please share your views on Malewicz RU-vid channel if you can🙏🙏 Please don't offend you are still the best :)

Hey really liked the video! I have a couple of questions regarding practicing and showing the use of research methods such as interviews. How can I recruit participants as a beginner? And how many participants should I have in a case study to make it a good case study to have in my portfolio?

U r guiding a ux designer in a way which looks like he/she is going to do a startup. I think these kinds of research is to be done by those who come up with a startup idea. Just for making videos u can't make things complicated.

its kinda cheeky that you call that area of your head your forehead though... as far as I'm concerned the forehead ends were the scalp begins... just because you are bald there doesn't mean you get to call it the forehead lol.

Terrible portfolio, really weird looking.