A laptop on a desk with a portfolio opened in a window
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It’s Time to Ditch the UX Portfolio

As a Hiring Tool, It’s Failing the Profession

Chris Kiess
Published in
10 min readJun 3, 2021

The subject line read “UX Designer — PERFECT POSITION FOR YOU.” It was an email from a recruiter with Mondo, “the nation’s premier staffing agency,” which went on for the length of a Tolstoy novel to describe a position at least 5–7 years my junior. It wasn’t the perfect position for me — not even close.

I get at least half a dozen of these emails each week. Most of them are spammy, spray and pray attempts at recruiting. Most of them are immediately deleted with no response given.

But with that many emails (or more) coming in from recruiters each week, it isn’t long before someone sends me a position that is a perfect match. Yet, I rarely apply.

First, I’m usually not looking for a new position. I haven’t looked for a new position in almost 2 years — since I found my current position. When you’re happy, why mess with “the mess” of applying for positions?

Which brings up the real problem — the mess of applying for positions. You have to update your resume, navigate the shitty application and recruiting process most businesses have in place and try to schedule interviews around your day job. It gets messy.

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Published in Prototypr

Prototyping, UX Design, Front-end Development and Beyond 👾 | ✍️ Write for us https://bit.ly/apply-prototypr

Written by Chris Kiess

Healthcare User Experience Designer in the Greater Chicago area

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