Genuinely asking. Should I hang up on or continue an interview with a CD when they ask me to tell them about my work in my portfolio because they haven’t looked at it at all even after I gave them my portfolio link after they requested for it? They’ve had an entire week to at least skim through. It’s one thing to ask me to tell them about how I approached it etc but to outright admit you didn’t even look at my portfolio? Not trying to be entitled but Idk man

like
Posting as :
works at
You are currently posting as works at

That’s an extremely common question. Tell me about your work. Also, at this point if you want to hang up on someone there are hundreds (probably thousands) of people that would gladly take your place). Even if they didn’t get a chance to look at your work, everyone right now is understaffed and overworked. So hey, maybe they didn’t look at your work but they are taking the time to talk to you now. Maybe they didn’t look at your work because they didn’t care but maybe, just maybe, they didn’t because they are grossly overworked and understaffed and on top of that trying to make time for their personal lives. Give someone a break.

like

There was a time when you would bring your folio and reel to the meeting and sit there while the CD looked through every piece.

That gave you a chance to talk about your work and see their reaction to the ideas they liked most. With online portfolios, there is no guarantee they have looked at or watched anything, which can be a downside too.

I personally like it when I’m asked about my work in an interview. It gives me a chance to explain the background and refocus the conversation to the pieces that are relevant to the open position.

Point is, use it to your advantage.

like

The chances of an interview being set up without the CD giving a thumbs up to your book are slim. So, it’s more likely that they are asking you to help them remember your work and, more importantly, connect it to you. The interview is your chance to find out what they liked and why. And it’s your chance to solidify the connection between the work and yourself. If you want to be arrogant and assume that the agency is only speaking to you and that they need to treat you as God’s gift to advertising, then two things will happen: you will first have a lot of frustrating interviews—and then you will simply have fewer interviews. To be successful, a creative needs to have talent AND perspective.

likehelpful

While it may have bruised your ego, get over it and yourself. These are unusual times and CDs are doing the work not just creative directing more than ever before. Rather than is this disrespectful, the question you should be asking is if the CD is so busy he can’t look at portfolios then imagine how f’n I will be as a CW or Sr CW? That’s the red flag you need to worry about. It was also a perfect opp for you to find out if the company is doing well or just hiring because they are severely understaffed ( yes those are different things and should be carefully considered). Another question you should ask yourself but seems like a fair possibility is that you weren’t vibing during that interview and are hoping someone will say to walk away. In the end, only you truly know how that interview felt. If it made you feel iffy then walk. There are plenty of others it may be a better fit for who aren’t as easily flustered or feel slighted. No judgement here other than be honest with yourself and you’ll never go wrong.

like

Too late. You are way too entitled. Hang up. You’ll be doing that CD an immense favor.

like

Man. I wish you told me this before I went through with the interview. Next time!

Easy one. If you want or need the job then don’t hang up. Otherwise hang up.

like

They’re asking you to talk about the work to see what your role in it was, what you’re thinking is, and take you through it the way that you would present to a client. Often times we’ve seen other people with the same work and we want to know what you say your role in it was. Sounds like you’ve got some attitude adjusting to do my friend

like

I just interviewed a person and asked him/her to talk about their work.

I don’t think it’s disrespectful at all.

I want to hear from you how the work was created. I wanna hear how connected you were to strategy. I wanna hear your role in the project.

The thing is: there are a lot of impostors in the industry. And we can identify impostors when they talk about the work.

Not only that, it’s an amazing way to see how the person talks about ideas, how well they tell and communicate them.

So don’t feel offended by the CD’s ask. She/He is doing her/his job.

likesmart

Don’t hang up. Walk them through it.

I’ll admit, though — it’s poor form for a CD to not look through your work, regardless of how busy they are. I always make a point to look through my interviewee’s book and craft questions based on their portfolio and experience.

like

If it’s a really stupidly general “tell me about your portfolio“ comment, yes that’s annoying. But if he or she just wants to talk about the experience of making specific pieces of work, or what your role was on specific pieces, or talk about any interesting production challenges, that’s a different story.

like

Usually my CD and I look at a book - at least briefly - to determine if we want to interview a writer. Is that not typical?

like

To me this is entitled. You have no context for the situation and are immediately making it about yourself. The CD has likely seen dozens (if not hundreds) of portfolios. Maybe he/she/they want you to walk them through it, maybe they forgot, maybe the vetting went through someone else, or maybe they’re an asshole. Most likely, they’re over worked.

What it is, is an opportunity for you that not everyone gets. Sell yourself, talk shop, get an offer. Or don’t. But judging someone in that instance does YOU no good.

like

Why even interview people, amirite?

like

I always have creatives talk through their work, shows me how they present themselves and how they think. Sometimes I only have a chance to quickly glance so the the interview is the dedicated time to deep dive

Related Posts

I m doing leet code problem solving practice since last two months to crack coding interview however I feel it is hard to solve medium and hard category problem most of time . Is anyone else faced similar issue and able to overcome by following tutorial or course ? Any kind of leads to overcome this Issue will be helpful . TIA

like

I have an interview for a Principal Renewals Manager role at Slack/Salesforce this Wednesday and I was hoping for some advice on how I can wow them? Ive done a lot of research and made loads of notes but get very nervous in interviews and dont always articulate how I would want to / say everything I want to cover. It also doesnt help that the job im in at the moment makes me absolutely miserable and im desperate to leave… help!

like

Hi all
I have applied to various positions in amazon and i nevwr got an interview call. I have tried referral also but still i never got single interview call. The jd is suitable for my profile. Why I am unable to get a single interview call. Where i am going wrong. i am trying since march and its already been more than 5 months. Sometime it shows my profile is under consideration then it gets rejected. How can i make it to amazon ?
Please do help me out.

like

I'm a cashier. We just got a new manager, and she's making things really hard for us. She starts work at 4:30am and leaves around 2:30pm, but she still expects us to stay until 6pm and work on the weekends! She gives us really long shifts and doesn't give us much time for breaks. And when we ask her about it, she gets mad.

I'm worried that if I speak up, she'll make my life even harder. I don't want to lose my job because of this—do you guys have any advice?

like

Any insight on Aesthetic Medical Device Sales? Interviewing this week.

like

I feel like so much of the media discussion about people NOT going back to work is centered on POC. I have white coworkers just as frustrated. Is this just another example of how POC are having the authentic conversation no one else is willing to have?

like

Is it actually safe for my manager to ask me to drive my truck in the winter? I normally wouldn't mind since I've done it before, but this particular guy just told me to "drive slow" instead of providing me with the necessary safety measures to avoid accidents.

like

What are effective ways to ensure your team feels content within the workplace? There is a rise of many people feeling undervalued and not cared for as an employee. I would like to change that. No matter the job, no one should feel less than.

like

Hi Fishes,
Need suggestions on informatica interview.
What type of questions panel ask?
Anyone gave interview recently?

like
like

Applying to OW - can anyone share interview process and tips?

What’s the best way of selling work to your boss if he’s just not current on new stuff? I keep getting handed references from some directors from 10 years ago and I want to say “hey, what about something from this year, not last century”

likefunny

Is it common to negotiate software engineer salary at smaller companies? I know it’s common at FAANG, but what about for companies with around 200 engineers? I have a counter offer from my current company and on-site interviews scheduled for end of July with google and Amazon, but I’d prefer to go with the smaller local company if I can negotiate the salary (from offer letter) up another 5% or so.

like

Any privacy engineers out there ? Curious to learn about the role and interview process!

like

I have a product interview coming up and one of the questions is “what is a product you know a lot about , tell me it’s functions, issues, how it can be improved , and market space"

like

Has anyone who interviewed R1 for Stern heard back yet? I’m seeing initial decisions we’re supposed to go out 12/1 but my application still says “we hope to release your decision shortly”

like

Facebook interview tips / advice? What type of questions do they ask?

like

Anyone else have a formatting pet peeve and get annoyed when people don’t have a blank first column and row in tabs? I.e headers/data in cell A1

My first manager told me this, and I’ve followed it to a T since.

likesmart

More Posts

Looking for experienced auditors in the Tampa area. Private companies, manufacturing, construction, professional services, healthcare, nonprofit, government, benefit plans, all industries!

like

Sorry if this has been asked ad nauseum around here, but can anyone recommend a really good (yet easy and basic) skincare routine? Specific products/brands would be really helpful.

Mid-20’s here. TIA, I really appreciate it.

like

Does anyone have entry level marketing tech roles?

like

I JUST LANDED A PHONE INTERVIEW WITH GOOGLE!!! can I get some google phone interview tips, advice, etc.? (Forever grateful) 🙏🏾

like

Finance - Highest salary? After how many years? Is Ad better paying than typical accounting?

like

Salary for Accenture Big Data consultant - level 9. Based in Chicago for the Accenture Digital Applied Intelligence group. 4 years of experience, non-MBA

like
like

Do you share your struggles of depression and/or anxiety with your parents/family? Especially when not living with them.
Should I be? It's a lot of effort to sound ... happy or normal on the phone. But don't want to make them worry either.

like

What are your hours like as a clerk? I’m sure it varies a lot based on the judge but curious to hear people’s experiences

like

Anyone have paramore tickets for tonight and can’t make it?

If you had a table of customer experience/satisfaction survey responses for several questions (non-numeric but discrete possible answers, no free text; 1 question per column and 1 responder per row), how would you approach determining significant insights within the data? Excel's "Analyze Data" feature doesn't really suggest things that make sense in the real world. Is there something you would try with correlations somehow, or would you use a non-Excel tool entirely?

likesmart

Have to give a massive shout out to one of our overlooked group of colleagues, the RT team. Thank you!

like

Going to India for 2 weeks for my project, any tips related to culture/way of working?

likeuplifting

Does anyone have the AWS Cloud Practitioner certificate and does it hold any value? I’m non-tech looking to get some certificates under my belt to be more marketable in my job search

like

#Urgent and Active Openings

L&T Infotech is hiring Pan India for below roles: Interested people can drop their email id's and Names with respective Job Id's .

Post Photo
like

Help. My AD left and we're still looking for a replacement. My AAE was promoted to AE prematurely in light of the departure. Now we're having serious problems.

I have two great lead roles on the team that I’m looking to fill. If you or anyone you know might be interested please let me know! See comments for details

like
like

Has anyone not taking notes or highlighted along while watching the Becker lectures and successfully passed?

like

Anyone have success stories using Surgent? I’m taking FAR in 3 weeks. I’ve gone through the material twice, and plan on crushing MC questions for the next 3 weeks. I’m just concerned if this is enough or should I supplement with different material.

like

Additional Posts in Advertising

Scenerio: Its Friday. You're working on a crazy detailed RFP and you're so close to finishing the $$$ part and the office internet DIES. Do you:
A) tether to your phone and get 'it dun
B) go for beer

like

What do account people do at your firm? At mine it seems to be just forwarding emails between the client to the strategy/analytics/creatives who do the work and back. Surely not like this everywhere?!

like

Anyone work at Williams Lea Tag? Do you recommend the company?

like

Any great resume-writer recos? I need help!

like

Books on human psychology that have affected you. I'll start: influence, sales Bible, on killing.

like

When my boss asks me to send him a recap of what I’ll be working on next week but things are slow because all my campaigns are paused due to the upcoming Civil War.

Post Photo
likefunny

Which agencies are going through layoffs

like

Tom Bagot, RIP

like

Audi ad is MVP so far

like

Which do you prefer?

“Give me a deadline and I’ll get the work done”
or

“when I get this done I’ll let you know and we can figure out when the client will see it.”

like

How did your agency handle layoffs? All-agency meeting before they started? After they ended? Both?

Kinda sorta trying to predict if I’m losing my job tomorrow.

like

Best fashion agencies for retailers? Asking for a friend who is looking for some agency help

like

I’m feeling drained. Unmotivated, uninspired, & bored. My job takes all of my mental energy, but I can’t start looking for anything new yet. Any advice on how to handle a job that makes you miserable?

like

Anyone else feel like your junior creatives don't want to be creative?? Ex: "I'd love to see some new options. Anything you'd like, no restrictions" response "Do we have to? They'll never buy it"😳

like

Anything specifically to ask when receiving an offer?

like

Friendly reminder: there’s a search bar in your emails. It’s really helpful for referencing conversations or finding files, links, etc & much faster than reaching out to someone to resend for the 5x.

likefunnyupliftinghelpful

Anyone still being asked to come into the office for pitches?

like

Interviewing client side for the first time, what are some good questions to ask that one might not think about at an agency?

like

As bad as my job may be, someone out there has to write an Effie entry for Weathertech

likefunny

What exactly is going on with Havas NY? I've heard many complaints about how it's a disaster, just curious specifically why.

like

New to Fishbowl?

Download the Fishbowl app to
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
That was just a preview…
Sign Up to see all discussions
  • Discover what it’s like to work at companies from real professionals
  • Get candid advice from people in your field in a safe space
  • Chat and network with other professionals in your field
Sign up in seconds to unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.

Already a user?
Login here

Share

Embed this post

Copy and paste embed code on your site

Preview

Download the
Fishbowl app

See what’s happening in your industry
from the palm of your hand.

A phone with Fishbowl app

Scan your QR code to download
Fishbowl app on your mobile

Download app

Sign up for free to view this conversation on Fishbowl

By continuing you agree to Terms of Use and Privacy Policy

Already have an account? Log in

Sign up for free to continue using Fishbowl

By continuing you agree to Terms of Use(New) and Privacy Policy(New)
Messaging rates may apply

Already have an account? Log in

For account settings, visit Fishbowl on Desktop Browser or

General

Legal