191: UX Portfolio Myth: Your personality is not what UX recruiters want in your portfolio (Myth 5 / 5)

Adding personality to your UX portfolio is one of the most repeated pieces of advice in the industry, and Sarah closes out her five part portfolio myth series by explaining why it's actually working against you. Personality and passion don't get you the interview. Proof does. That's the whole myth this episode takes apart. Sarah argues that trying to inject personality into a portfolio usually competes with the actual content instead of supporting it. A font chosen to feel "personal" can make a case study harder to read. Extra design elements, background flourishes, or animation pull attention away from the work itself, and animation in particular can even make some viewers physically ill. A personal logo shrunk down to fit a slide often becomes illegible. None of it proves you can do the job you're applying for, which is the one thing recruiters and hiring managers are actually scanning for. She backs this up with a line from Steph McDonald, lead recruiter at HubSpot focused on UX design roles, who compares a well edited portfolio to a fashion designer who puts on all her jewelry, then takes a few pieces off before walking out the door. The move isn't to avoid adding things you care about, it's going back afterward and cutting what isn't earning its place. Sarah's takeaway is direct, less personality, more evidence that you've done what the job description is asking for. This episode also wraps the full five part series. Sarah runs through a fast recap of all five myths, from project count to portfolio websites to showing failed work, and asks listeners who followed along to share whether it changed how they think about their own portfolio. #### Topics Discussed ✅ Why personality and passion don't get you an interview, and what actually does ✅ How trying to show personality through fonts, animation, or design flourishes can work against your portfolio instead of for it ✅ Why a personal logo in your portfolio often backfires once it's shrunk down to a smaller size ✅ What Steph McDonald, lead recruiter at HubSpot focused on UX design roles, said about editing a portfolio before you hit send ✅ Why Sarah says the goal is proof over personality, and what that actually looks like in practice ✅ A full recap of all five UX portfolio myths covered across the series ✅ Where to learn more about Career Strategy Lab if your portfolio has been stuck in redesign mode for months #### Links & Resources 🔗 Episode 168 of the Career Strategy Podcast, Sarah's full interview with Steph McDonald 🔗 Episode 187, Myth 1 of 5, on why you don't need three to five projects in your portfolio 🔗 Episode 188, Myth 2 of 5, on why your portfolio doesn't need to be a website 🔗 Episode 189, Myth 3 of 5, on why your case studies don't need to show the full UX process 🔗 Episode 190, Myth 4 of 5, on why you can show projects that didn't launch 💸 See how you can get hired in UX with the help of my UX job search coaching program 📋 Take a peek inside my UX job search coaching program 👋 Follow me, on LinkedIn, Instagram, & YouTube