The lies we tell
We all lie. Companies and workers alike. Mostly because it’s to our benefit.
When it comes to job applications, it’s extremely common that candidates to stretch the truth. Usually it’s just small exaggerations like:
Changing the dates on your resume or LinkedIn slightly to cover up unemployment.
Giving yourself a LinkedIn job title bump (”I was a junior designer but now I’m a Senior!”
Making up metrics in your portfolio that you never measured, or just didn’t have access to.
Lying in your portfolio presentation about if a project shipped or not
Or even as simple as, pretending you did user studies when you didn’t
Tell a recruiter you’re just looking for “a new opportunity” but in reality you’re just trying to get away from your terrible manager.
Hell, I honestly don’t blame my fellow designers. I’ve done many of these myself. It’s a symptom of a hiring system that punishes any “mistake” with a fury of 1000 suns.
When the list of candidates is 100s long, hiring managers, recruiters, and sourcers, look for any reason to disqualify candidates. So you either “play the game” of stretching the truth, or you lose by default.
We also have this insane unspoken rule about portfolios.
Each company you work for makes you sign an NDA, agreeing that you won't share their private information with the public. This includes images, projects, documents, Figma files, prototypes, you name it.
Yet, when it comes to portfolio reviews the interviewers expect to see recently shipped work.
If you work for any company, besides public consumer software, then it’s pretty likely that you’d be violating that NDA.
So what do you do for your website portfolio?
Hide your work behind a password?
Unlist yourself from google’s search results?
Just show some of the info anyway?
Not show any work in your portfolio for fear of being sued?
What about your portfolio presentation?
Obfuscate those key success metrics you worked so hard for?
Only show old work that’s already public?
Don’t show anything?
Most designers end up taking the risk and showing at least most of their NDA work for in-person portfolio reviews. Cause the alternative is just not getting a job.
So let’s just say what everyone is thinking: ”Whenever designers hear whispers of a layoff, or are looking for a new job, they go and copy their company Figma files onto a Pendrive.”
Oh and those designs that you shipped? The ones where Eng. couldn’t handle the scope of what you wanted to accomplish? Well those might just get a “Figma facelift” for you portfolio.
Let’s be real, a lot of the shit you ship and put out into the world is beyond your control. And that’s ok!
Except when It comes to interviews, you get dinged by your because your company had a crap design system, micromanaging teammates, constraints that are hard to capture in a 20 min presentation.
And somehow we’re not allowed to say those things, or “badmouth our old teammates”
So the reality, is that most designers give files a facelift. Because as much as people say they “want to know how you think” the reality is mostly them judging the images you show them, and listening to the story you tell.
The lies companies tell us in return:
In return, companies fill us up with their corporate propaganda. Everything from:
Changing the role that you were hired to perform
Lying about the value of their startup's equity to close a candidate
Telling us to “HR is on your side!” in any conflict, when in reality they’re just there to shield the company from legal action.
Or even these lies about layoffs like:
“Layoffs are a cost-cutting measure and are required for our company to thrive.”
Why are there so many tech layoffs
Mortality, Mass-Layoffs, and Career Outcomes
Tech CEOs screwed up (warning paywall)
CEO pay has skyrocketed 1,322% since 1978
Or that you can expect to be rewarded for hard work and performance in the work place:
“We reward people fairly for their performance”
Why Most Performance Evaluations Are Biased, and How to Fix Them