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ACD writers, how hands-on are your works?
Mentor
Happy Wednesday y’all
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Don’t password protect the whole site. If there’s a sensitive piece just password protect that part of the site.
Not red flag. Many valid reasons to have password.
I have one, to keep my book ‘fresher’ - if I can’t get new book-worthy work to add often. Casual lookers is not who I want, I want actively looking to hire peepers on my book.
And I know exactly who checked out my book when they ask for my password.
My entire book is password protected and I give zero fucks what a recruiter, ECD or CCO thinks. If you’re going to let my simple password “password” get in the way of hiring me, then I’ve dodged a bullet by not working with you.
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I don’t need to give anyone an explanation or justification for why I keep my work and personal information behind a loosely locked gate. I credit creatives, directors and production companies in the work and you can connect my name to my work in Ads Of the World, Cannes, D&AD, etc.
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Password protect your work if you want. Or don’t. Regardless, good creatives and recruiters will put in the work to verify your involvement in your campaigns. If you lie, you’ll be found out and risk the opportunity, or your job if you get the offer and most importantly your reputation.
@Publicis Phew! Dodged that Publicis bullet! Good to hear.
A Password protected site tells me the person isn’t interested in looking for a job and/or entertaining any job offers.
Selected work that’s password protected indicates some sort of NDA was involved.
Snap Inc 1 - while I respect your opinion, that’s a simplistic and somewhat inaccurate assessment.
There are some advertising verticals that expressly forbid showing work publicly (including but not limited to virtually all of healthcare).
There’s also NDA’s as some have pointed out and from a UI perspective if half your work needs protection and the other half doesn’t, showing it all with a single ‘wall’ might make more sense. If you’re more senior, you also might not want to show the world the internal case studies or secretive marketing results that back up your work.
How that’s explained or setup is important though. I get very tired of websites that are just the default Squarespace password field, no explanation, etc. That’s lazy. If you’re a storyteller (which is what we are, end-of-day) you can wax poetic about who you are, what you do, etc., and setup why your work is protected or invite someone to engage with you, further.
If you do that well, it would negate the idea that you aren’t interested in a job and rather why you’d be good at it.
My 2$
I have Apple work in my book, which has to be password protected, and I had an intern copy and paste half my portfolio, including my bio, into theirs, so I keep it locked down myself. That said, I probably would have it open otherwise.
Same but it was an account person that switched to creative.
Sometimes it's required depending on contracts, area of work, privacy etc. I don't see it ever as a red flag
I have a main page and then when you click portfolio it’s gated. First, it could get indexed on Google search, ranking for certain keywords around a clients name or brand campaign. The client doesn’t want that.
Second, NDAs. I note on every piece of work that info is limited to protect my client’s IP. Hasn’t been an issue in interviews.
My pharma work is password protected as a cover-my-ass measure, but who wants to look at that anyway. 🙃
If it’s good then all the secrecy does create a certain Ta-da moment though… 😏
it annoys me when I find them, but I get it
Password-protected sites are often used because creatives have projects under NDAs and publicly posting them would be in violation of that agreement. Also, much work you feel good about might never see the light of day (we've all had projects where the chosen concept wasn't necessarily the strongest, or what the creative would have chosen), and would still be embargoed, likely indefinitely. Password protection to the rescue. Basically, while, sure, designers could be using password-protection to fake a body of work, it's a short-sighted move that will become immediately clear to the employer should the designer land a job. Disqualifying a candidate simply because they have a password-protected portfolio only reflects negatively on that employer, since they don't understand the basic reason for password protecting a portfolio.
Red flag.
F’ing post it. Unless you’re wanted by the FBI for mail fraud, fuhgetaboutit!
Ahh small agency. Different perspective.
At a WPP agency I knew a couple people that got fired for putting client work on their portfolio. So I don't judge when people do a PW. It's crazy out there.
Password protection might be a good idea if you need protecting and not just your work. When I look at the visitor analytics for my portfolio, I get traffic from all over the world. I’m not on the job hunt, so why all of the visits?
I was once told our portfolios are good ways to get info about you. It could lead to that phishing email in your box. My only contact info shown is a specific email address. I occasionally get alerts that email was found on the dark web.
My site used to be protected. It was only because if you and I aren’t doing business, you have no business here. After this conversation, I’m thinking about going back.
Coach
I don’t know if I’ve ever considered it a “smart move.” It may be a necessary move if you’re not legally allowed to share the work. But if it’s not necessary, I can’t see the benefit.
Specific projects behind a password, I get why.
Whole portfolio behind a password, annoying and I am probably just gonna skip you.
In Pharma it needs to be password protected.
Not a smart move, but if there’s a valid reason I get it. People do like transparency.
How is it a red flag? Your portfolio isn’t The NY Times. It’s for people you want to share it with—no one else.