UX Portfolio Myth: You don’t need 3 – 5 projects in your UX portfolio (Myth 1 / 5)

Sarah (00:00)

You do not need three to five projects in your UX portfolio full stop. This is a myth that keeps getting propagated all over the UX industry, your LinkedIn feed, YouTube, Instagram, everywhere. And it is not true. It is just a mythical number that somehow got adopted into the narrative of UX portfolios. You do not need three to five projects to get interviews and offers.

And I know this because people who have followed my portfolio tips and advice, which are backed by what recruiters and hiring managers want, they are getting hired with just one project in their portfolio.

All right, so on the Career Strategy Podcast, we are kicking off a five-part series all about the five UX portfolio myths that are holding you back and costing you interviews and job offers. So today I’m going to address this myth of why you do not need three to five projects in your portfolio. The short version is that one strong project beats five.

Surface level ones. What I mean is recruiters and hiring managers would rather see the details and decision making for one project versus five projects that just go through the double diamond process, right? And just show what you did, what you did over and over and over. That gets very repetitive. It gets boring if your portfolio

Contains five case studies that is basically just a slideshow of what you did. Years and years ago, someone told me when you confuse, you lose, meaning you lose people’s attention. And you do not want to lose the attention of recruiters and hiring managers, right? So to do that, we need to give them what they want. And they want to hear about the details of what you did.

and your decision making. And even if that means you have only one project in your portfolio, you can still get hired. Now, how do I know this? It is because I have a continuous feedback loop with recruiters and hiring managers because I interview them every single month inside my UX career coaching program, Career Strategy Lab. I also have a feedback loop.

Because when people in my program apply to jobs, I’m able to see the portfolio they’re making in Career Strategy Lab leading to interviews and offers. And I can tell you that number one, the portfolios that people make with my tips and strategies in Career Strategy Lab leads to interviews and offers. So I want to share with you.

just one kind of takeaway from an interview I did with a hiring manager recently. I interviewed Alexander Zay, who was the former head of product design at ManyChat. And when I asked him whether candidates need to have three to five projects, he said, I want one or two case studies that are

Fitting to the problem space and to the job description. He doesn’t need a five projects that go through every single step of what you did. He wants to see one to two case studies that show examples of your skills in action, meaning skills that are listed on the job description, right? He wants to see proof that you have done what he is hiring for.

If you want to hear more about what Alexander had to say regarding portfolios and case studies, I’ll drop it in the show notes, but you can also just search for episode 172 of the Career Strategy podcast. Now, on the flip side, I want to share with you an example of just one of the many people who have been hired with just one project in their portfolio.

So Laura got hired as a principal product designer with only one project in her portfolio, not three to five. she worked in kind of the industry of cybersecurity. And so she was looking for a niche role as a product designer in that industry. And after she got hired, she told me I didn’t even feel like my portfolio was finished. it had one project.

And she didn’t feel like it was as polished as she wanted it to be. It was still kind of just in, I think it was Figma slides or something like that. And she ended up being found on LinkedIn by the, I believe it was the head of product or the CEO. I forget. But they found her on LinkedIn, reached out to her.

And then she just said yes. And she did the interview, even with a portfolio that had one project. And even though she didn’t feel like the portfolio was ready to go. But in hindsight, she said she thinks she stood out in the interviews because the story she told about that one project went into the detail that they were looking for. It explained not just what she did, but why she did it, how she did it.

What happened? Who she did it with? What was the impact to the product, to the team, to the customers, to the company, et cetera? And so that is just one of many examples I have for people who have been hired with just one project in their portfolio. I’ll link to Laura’s episode in the show notes. I forget the exact episode number. So if you want to listen to Laura sharing her own words.

About how she got hired with just one project in her portfolio, then go down to those show notes. Another example though is Leon. Leon had been laid off after 11 years at the same company. He hadn’t touched his portfolio in 11 years, right? As maybe you’re in the same position. You maybe it’s not 11 years, maybe it’s five, but you’ve been in a role, but you haven’t touched your portfolio. So he was challenged.

With needing to get a portfolio ready so he could apply. And he focused on getting one project in his portfolio because he knew the sooner he had a project in his portfolio, then he could start applying. And so he got that one project ready to go. He ended up getting interviews and ultimately accepted an offer after this layoff.

From the company that he was at for 11 years. And a really interesting thing about Leon, too, is he is an author. He wrote the book about wireframing for UX. You can go Google it. I’ll link to it in the show notes. But even as a writer, Leon struggled with getting his portfolio together on his own. And this is just an example of how sometimes.

Working on your portfolio is challenging because you’re too close to it, because it’s you, right? And we can become too critical, we can end up second-guessing, we can end up rewriting it over and over and over. And it makes sense, right? It’s your portfolio. It could lead to interviews and a job offer. It makes sense to want to care about it so much, but sometimes.

We are caring about it too much or also caring about the details that don’t matter to recruiters and hiring managers, such as it has to have three to five projects. And in reality, if we were not operating in a silo, as both Leon and Laura were before they joined Career Strategy Lab, they were able to get hired faster after they joined Career Strategy Lab.

Because they were no longer doing it alone, but more importantly, they were not subscribed to this myth that you need three to five projects in your portfolio to apply or stand out. So if you are working on your portfolio right now, I would challenge you to tell me why do you believe you need three to five projects?

Is it because it was some tip and some carousel you saw on LinkedIn or Instagram? if so, I would challenge you to say, okay, why should you believe that person who posted that? maybe someone someone told you this, a mentor or something like that. I would go back to them and say, okay, you told me I need three to five projects, but why do I need three to five projects?

And if they can’t back that up with solid evidence, then maybe you want to reconsider. but these myths I’m sharing with you over the next couple of episodes, I’m gonna back them up with evidence, with research, based on what I’m hearing from recruiters and hiring managers, and what I am seeing from people who are getting interviews and offers from my career strategy lab program. So you don’t need three to five projects.

Permission to unsubscribe from that myth. And recruiters and hiring managers like Alexander want one or two case studies that are fitting to the problem space and to the job description. So if you’re working on your portfolio right now and you have an idea of jobs you want to apply for, go read those job descriptions and make sure your portfolio

shows examples of what is listed on those job descriptions because they don’t just want to see this kind of like checklist style portfolio that just goes through every single step of the double diamond process or whatever UX process the industry obsessed with this week. All right, no more three to five projects. And hey, if you get one project in your portfolio and start applying, it’s an experiment, right?

You won’t know if you can get hired with one project unless you start applying with one project, right? It could be like Laura. You apply for a role with one project. Well, Laura didn’t even apply. They found her on LinkedIn, right? But if you apply with one project and get interviews and get hired, it could mean that you’re hired faster than you would have been if you spent another three months trying to get five projects into your portfolio.

All right, next week’s myth is very, very popular. It is the myth that you need a UX portfolio website. Spoiler, you do not. And if you want to hear why and what you can do instead, and what recruiters and hiring managers care about, then hit subscribe so you will not miss the next episode all about the myth that you need a UX portfolio website.

All right, that is all I have for you this week. I will see you next week in another episode of the Career Strategy Podcast.