Tell me how to improve my chances of getting a job?

I am an Industrial Designer looking for a job. I have been looking for the past year and it feels like I am doing something wrong. I would have thought that I would have a job by now and I am ready to completely change everything to get one. Obviously something is not working unless I get told otherwise.

Here is my online portfolio and resume so you all can see some of my work and tear me apart.

I have been getting some interviews for places but usually what ends up happening is they take someone with more experience, or so I get told from the recruiters. I was hoping the community here could help me take my resume and portfolio to the next level by offering up some tips.

I have a feeling that I already know what needs to be done, I just lack the motivation lately with my many side projects and ideas. (I am a entrepreneur and wantrepreneur) Hopefully this post and your responses can get me excited about transforming my work and portfolio into something amazing.

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What do you think that would be, exactly?

Honestly, your site, resume, and portfolio all look spot on. From a quick glance if I could change anything, it would only be that your resume display in the browser rather than download to my computer. In terms of resume, I would remove “activities,” and save those as conversation starters when you interview.

Speaking of interviews, how do those go for you usually? Do you find yourself connecting with a team/individual on a personal level? I always felt an interview went really well when the portfolio was pushed aside and we could have a coherent discussion, either about the industry or design in general. The fact that you’re getting your foot in the door is a good sign (though not surprising with your level of work.) It makes me think maybe the right “fit” hasn’t come along yet.

The Quagga Project started a while back. Almost a year ago, when I was out of a job. I learned a lot from the experience, especially about entrepreneurship. It would have been nice to have a Cecil Wallet!

I have always felt that all my interviews go great! I was flown to Chicago for an interview that ended up going two hours over because we were so busy talking about other things. I thought for sure I was going to get the job, but didn’t end up landing it.

Your site shows that your are able to execute and shows employeers you can actually deliver quality deliverables. Which is a solid start


However, its lacking wow and purpose. Your site has a terrible experience. Let me walk you through my first view.

"Ah Huge logo. Bigger than the projects.Kinda of a weird logo? what is that? "

Lots of white space on the projects. Eh catalog shots (feels lazy). Ohhh Bikes cool. Some sketches. Logos for cover pages (lazy again)

  • Your main page should feel like a hot image board. This is literally your first visual impression to an employeer. The white catalog shots and logos are not exciting.


    Also the very first project on your page shoes ZERO process. Its like you went to Zappos, downloaded the views and thats it. Doesn’t set a very good mood.

Maybe the second project is different? Nope, the exact same thing. Not even a blurb about what it is. Link to the site. Have a small story there.

Third project. Another Shoe. Maybe itll be different. Oh look an Ad. This looks promising. Nope just images.

3 strikes, your out. Close tab.


Your other projects are presented better. But I never even get to them.

People always see something different. Its actually a self portrait. A face if you see it? but its also made from my initials! EH

Perfect, This is what I am looking for! I am in the process of changing the site and will make sure this gets improved on!

I must admit, I have not placed the process for these up yet, but I wanted to have the content there. I have a ton I can say about the Quagga Wallet project and really need to update it.

Any tips for how to show information for the shoes? I will admit, I am not sure really how to do it? I have sketches for them, but that is all that really went into it. Do I share the brief from the marketing team? Its not like other projects that find new technologies or solve any problems. I was just told to design a shoe for a specific market.

This is great feedback for me overall and I appreciate the time. Hope I can show you all improvements as they get made.

I disagree with everyone here… Although everyone makes good points, I don’t think those are the main issues of your portfolio.

I think you are clearly focused on shoe design. If you are not, wow that is unexpected.
I do not love your work, but then again I’m not a shoe person, but besides that, I don’t love it because I don’t get any of your projects… Reasons below.

Looking at your cargo collective site, I think there are some core problems with your portfolio.
Personally, if I was the one reviewing your portfolio, I don’t think you would even proceed to the phone call stage :frowning:

I am purposely being very critical because I assume after a year of job searching you are frustrated and want to get some honest feedback:

  1. No process, in addition to what @Sain mentioned: I have no idea what any of these projects are about. I have no idea how you think or approach and identify a problem, no critical thinking is shown in any of these projects, there is no personality. I get zero feeling on who is Evan Hoffman and why should I care? If I wanted to see images of shoes, I could just google search “shoes.”
  2. No role or responsibility: It’s not clear what your role was in the project… Reebok, were you a photographer? Quagga, were you a photographer? Rain walker, were you a photographer and maybe you did that ad? etc…
  3. Easy shop system: Even if this was an old project, I would highly recommend you update the ui to match more current styling… the project feels outdate and makes you look out of touch. Not a fan of the faded market image. I think its distracting. First hero shot of your project is a out of focus grocery aisle photo… Get rid of it, it’s not helping in many ways. I’m assuming you were trying to set up the environment for your project, if so at least choose a more professional looking photo. I don’t even know what this project is about, where’s the project title and project statement??? After the out of focus photo is “what are the consumers following…” HUH?! What are we even talking about here? So confused.
  4. Sketches: I would remove this page entirely… It’s not helping you showcase your sketching skills. Most of your projects are shoe related, so I would showcase your sketching skills WITHIN each project. Also your sketches project only has right-facing shoes. This only shows me that you can only draw shoes in one direction and from only one angle.

[updated]

  1. I took a look at your resume. My gooodness what is up with all caps?
  2. Also how you made the first letter of certain words larger is extremely distracting.
  3. Your resume should be easy on the eyes, readable, and a representation of your experience and skills. The way you design your resume is also a representation of you and your skills. I am NOT telling you to make it all pretty with illustrations with charts and graph as you see some designers doing lately. What I am telling you is that your current resume design is NOT helping you in a positive way, so you need to fix it. First thing you can do is make your paragraphs/body text not all caps.

Message me directly if you want a full analysis of my impressions.