One of the biggest mistakes you can make when preparing for an interview is to prepare for a situation that doesn’t exist. I’ve seen many students prepare to present a projected portfolio only to discover that the room they will be interviewing in doesn’t have projection capability, or the interview team wasn’t prepared for the setup necessary to view projected work. In more than one instance, a student reported to me that they hadn’t arranged to bring a laptop and had assumed that there would be a computer available for them to use, which was not the case. This is an easy mistake to make, especially for students and new designers since they have become accustomed to the setup and technology that the classroom and university environment provide.
Every situation will be different. Every firm, company, office, and person has a different expectation when it comes to presentations. Every working designer has presented work and has had work presented to them, so they each have some expectation of what should happen and in what ways. In the case of interviews, many of the people participating will have been part of at least some past interviews and will also have some expectations for candidates on how things might go.
Though you cannot predict and prepare for everything, there are several variables that you can plan for if you just take the initiative to ask the right questions in advance.
Ask About the Space
You can almost bet on having your interview take place in a set room with set technology capabilities. Most companies will have a default space where they conduct their interviews, so it won’t be any problem to ask about the room you’ll be interviewing in. They should easily be able to briefly describe the room, though don’t be surprised if they simply describe it as a small conference room. You can followup with something like, “Oh, ok, great! So, we’ll just be seated around a table?” This will usually provoke a bit more information. It’s great to know if there is a round table or a rectangular one and how many it seats so you can think through presentation methods and relative scale of the images you’ll be showing.
You can ask about projection if you feel like that is your absolute best presentation method, but I’d actually strongly recommend against it as it is the method where you’ll have the least control over your presentation. It will also more than likely take the most time to setup , which will waste valuable time you could be using to present yourself and your work. Nobody likes to watch somebody fumble with cords and flash drives, or struggle with technology in general. It can easily get your interview off to an awkward start. A more helpful technology question might be WiFi access, though again I recommend strongly against counting on any outside technology as it tends to be Murphy’s Law that it won’t work when you need it most.
Ask About Numbers
Another helpful thing to know when preparing to interview is how many people you can expect to be participating in the interview. This can range from 1 to infinity. I’ve heard of interviews where as many as 20 people packed around a table or into a presentation room for an interview, though more typically you can expect 1-4. There is an important difference between interviewing with just one or two people and a handful. With one or two people, you can intimately share a reasonably sized portfolio book or a small screen like a laptop or tablet. With any more than two people, it becomes very difficult for everyone to see. This is especially true with screens and glossy paper as any glare can turn your portfolio presentation into an exercise in patience and frustration for your audience.
Knowing the number of people involved is the best piece of information you can get. You may not be able to get an exact number, but it’s a great question to ask and a missed opportunity to skip. Knowing your audience is not only a huge advantage in preparing the actual presentation, but also in raising your comfort level and overall preparedness.
Ask About Time
When planning the number of pieces to present and what will be said to explain each one, it really helps to know how much overall time you can expect for your presentation. It is great to ask how long you can expect the interview to take or how much time should you plan for your presentation. This should be a pretty easy question for most companies to answer as they will likely be interviewing a number of candidates, each of which has a time slot on the books. Most will happily tell you that they have set aside x amount of time for each candidate. This time can radically vary, but the most common lengths are 30, 45, and 60 minute time slots.
Keep in mind that this time also includes formalities, chit chat, setup, and Q & A in addition to you sharing your portfolio. I’d typically plan for half the time to be dedicated to the portfolio and the rest to other activities. This means that in all likelihood, you’ll have between 15-30 minutes to share your work and talk directly about yourself. This isn’t a huge chunk of time and you’ll have to plan very carefully to make sure you’ve presented your best self and your best work in that timeframe.
Preparedness is Well Worth the Risk
Take advantage of the fact that your interviewers have experience with other candidates using this space for interviews. I know that it can be intimidating or even seem overly obtrusive to make the phone call to ask these questions, but keep in mind what a designer does for a living. A designer creatively engineers a communication experience given a set of set limitations and opportunities. What better way to show that you are not only a solid planner, but that you are serious enough about this interview to put together the best presentation you can.
How can any potential employer possibly be upset about this? They gain more than you do from having a well prepared candidate since it will be their valuable billable time they have to spend on an under-prepared candidate. You’ll still have the experience to take with you when preparing for the next interview either way.
The worst thing that can happen is that they refuse to answer your questions or outright ignore your request. To me, this sends a strong message that you may be walking into a place that doesn’t foster or even encourage a supportive working environment, which is also valuable information that you can take into account when choosing where to spend 40+ hours every week for the foreseeable future. Either way to stand to gain much more than you lose in this scenario, so be brave and make the call. You’ll be glad you did.