Tips on Submitting a Portfolio
We have recently added a jobs section to our website. There are several open positions to primarily help augment some of the work on Fizzy’s Lunch Lab as well as other projects. In addition to our website, we have posted listings on sites like Craigslist and received a number of responses. After having reviewed well over four hundred applications, we would like to identify some tips if you’re choosing to apply to us.
1. Online portfolios only
We only consider online portfolios and we do not review PDFs or media files sent to us. This isn’t a slight to the PDF format or an arbitrary decision. If we like your work, we want to be able to easily send it around the office without having to deal with an unwieldy PDF. If you don’t have a website, sign up for an account with free portfolio site like Carbonmade or Coroflot. Also acceptable: we have people who’ve even sent us Blogger, DeviantArt and YouTube pages.
2. Homemade portfolio sites
If you want to make a homemade website, that’s awesome. Just PLEASE don’t make it suck. Common annoyances are not limited to: long load times, unnecessary use of Flash, splash page intros, confusing or cryptic navigation, broken links, poor image quality, or “under construction” signs. The work should speak for itself, so unless you’re an amazing Flash web developer, please just show us the work.
3. Design red flags
We are a company that develops visual products and we expect all of our hires to have an eye for tackiness, even if you aren’t applying to be a designer. There are a handful of design red flags that will get your website dismissed without exception. These include the following: using Comic Sans (this type face is not “cutesy”, “kid-friendly”, it’s bad), gaudy gradients, extremely saturated colors, awful and cheesy background music.
4. Cover letters and Resumes optional
If you’re emailing us, your portfolio link should be the very first thing we see. We only will read a cover letter or resume if your work is solid and fits what we’re doing. If you choose to include a cover letter (which is optional), keep it a brief paragraph. Please don’t attached a resume document to your email, make that information available on your website or create a LinkedIn account. Ultimately, if you’re work is any good, we won’t care what college you graduated from.
5. Read the job description
Don’t submit to us if you don’t fit the requirements of the job description. For instance, we don’t want to see 3D portfolios for a Flash animator position. Seriously, stop sending us your 3D work.