Applying for Graphic Design: Understand the Recruiter

I recently published our first ad for a permanent full-time employee at Convincible. This article aims to describe what it’s like trying to recruit a graphic designer. I hope it gives applicants some insight that could help to improve their applications, either to us or to other agencies. I’ll continue to update this article throughout the process.

Step 1: The applications flood in

The key thing to understand about our perspective, as the recruiting company, is that we face an absolute deluge of applications.

The job market right now is insane. Literally within hours of posting the job ad, we had 100 applications.

It physically isn’t possible to give every application a lot of consideration in this first stage. So candidates need to get some basic things right, really obviously:

• You’ve followed all the guidelines stated in the advert/form.
• You’ve provided all the information we asked for.
• We can quickly see that your experience/education is appropriate.
• We can quickly review your Portfolio and see that the work is of an acceptable quality.

In Step 1, we’re not even looking for good candidates, we’re looking for bad ones so we can reject them. It’s harsh, but it’s the only way the quantity of applications can be managed.

• 85% of candidates are rejected in this first stage, because they have neglected to include their Portfolio. These applications are probably submitted through job sites where their CV is on file, so all they have to do is click Apply. They have ignored that the ad asked them to include a Portfolio.
• 5% are rejected because their Portfolio isn’t good enough.
• The 10% who make it through have provided all the information that was requested, and included a Portfolio showing work of at least a decent quality.

Side notes:

It is agony to reject an applicant who has a well-presented CV with good credentials, but who hasn’t included their Portfolio. I feel sorry for them. But I don’t think we could have made it any more obvious. The application form includes a tickbox that says: “I have uploaded my Portfolio and I understand that my application will be rejected if I haven’t.” They all ticked this box.

We ask candidates to upload their Portfolio straightaway with their application, as we believe it’s much fairer. It allows candidates with less experience — but who are capable of doing great work — to stand on an equal footing with candidates who got lucky so far in their careers.

We also request that candidates attach their Portfolio as a PDF, not a link to a website, for two reasons. First, it provides an immediate demonstration of their ability to lay out a document. Second, because websites are awful. It takes 10 times as long to review a portfolio website compared to a portfolio document. Putting aside that some portfolio websites don’t even work very well, there’s just a lot of clicking you need to do.

Tips for preparing a Portfolio PDF

So, bearing our job in mind, how can candidates present their Portfolios to give themselves the best chance of standing out quickly?

In Step 1, we only have time to scroll through your Portfolio for about 1 minute. So:

• Show large images of your design work — use the whole page, with 1–4 images per page. Don’t make us zoom in (we won’t).
• Give the page a large heading that states the type of work, e.g. Logo design, Illustration. It’s often more ambiguous than you might think. (E.g. is an image of a catalogue a typesetting project or a cover design project?)
• If you provide additional details about what you did, write 1–2 sentences max. Completely skip telling us about the client. Just say what you did or what the project involved.
• Background graphics, if too overt, distract from your actual work. If you use them, keep them subtle.
• A minimalist overall design allows your work to take centre-stage. The layout should be thoughtful and clear, showing a mastery of design principles without a need to make everything visually exciting.

Side note:

Portfolios presented in A4 portrait are the most recruiter-friendly. They can be displayed one whole page at a time alongside your details or other windows.

Step 2: Wading in

Once the initial deluge has been reduced to a manageable level, we’re able to go back to the candidates whose Portfolios stood out, and review them again in more detail.