Well, I’m back from a trip to the Bay Area for an interview that I think went pretty darn good. I think the general impression on both sides is that I would be a good fit for the company. If there was any hiccup, it’s that it is very difficult to communicate one’s competency and approach to interaction design other than just doing it. I mean, I showed some deliverables (e.g. task analysis, research summaries, flows, etc.) and talked about my process but I think this only goes so far in communicating what kind of a designer someone is. This has gotten me thinking a lot about how someone can package and communiate their interaction design skills. Some companies prefer to contract someone before hiring as a means of gleaning this knowledge. Try before you buy, so to speak. Other companies like IDEO or Google will have people do projects, essays, or tasks as part of the application or interview process. My guess is that this latter approach is often not entirely effective because it’s often very artificial. While the former is probably very effective but can end up being a bit of a barrier in some instances. What can a practicioner do to facilitate this process? I updated my portfolio — the Epinions section in particular — in light of this thinking. I’d be interested for some of you folks to take a look at it and tell me what you think about it. What questions do you think are left unanswered by my write-up? What other materials would be good to have?