Web Designer Freelance Interview Preparation Guide

This is your chance to show off-but don't overdo it. Of course you want to showcase your best accomplishments as a designer, as well as the positive qualities that you can bring to the workplace. But that's where many people lose their focus-they forget about what's important to the company they're interviewing with. Frame your strengths in a way that they are relevant to your potential employer. Whenever possible, try to tailor your responses so that they match closely with what the company is looking for. For example, instead of just saying that you know InDesign, you might mention that you have plenty of experience designing multi-page materials if you're interviewing with a company that puts out a lot of brochures.

Avoid using clichés, like saying you're a "hard worker" or a "team player." These are empty words unless you have examples to back up your claims-which you should. You want to sound impressive to potential employers, but you also have to present yourself in a way that makes you stand out over all the other candidates, who are likely just as "hard-working" and "team-playing" as you are.

...you also have to present yourself in a way that makes you stand out over all the other candidates, who are likely just as 'hard-working' and 'team-playing' as you are.

This is not your own personal forum for airing out all of the grievances you had with your last employer, and doing so is not going to help you get the job. Instead, you want to remain professional and honest without coming across as someone who makes a lot of unnecessary problems. Put a positive spin on your reasoning as much as you can.

For example, money is a common reason why people leave their jobs, and it's not unreasonable to seek out new employment opportunities in order to increase your income level. However, telling a potential employer that you left over money is going to signal to them that you might do the same thing to them one day, or that it'll be expensive to keep you. Instead, you can say that you felt there was no longer any room to grow at your last company, or that you were looking for new opportunities to advance your career.

In some cases, you'll be interviewing for a job without having actually left the last one. That's okay, but expect to answer a lot of questions about what you do at your current job, why you're thinking of leaving it and how long it'll take you to be able to start your new job.

If you work freelance, you may be asked questions about your current clients and whether working for them will create time conflicts or prevent you from hitting your deadlines.

If you were fired or let go from your last job, this might be an extremely stressful and difficult question for you to answer. Don't be too nervous if you were fired-after all, everybody loves a good comeback story. Just make sure to spin this answer into something positive that helps demonstrate your growth as a designer.

Don't be too nervous if you were fired-after all, everybody loves a good comeback story.

For example, if you were let go from your last position because you weren't a good fit for your employer, it means you're ready to find a company which is better suited to your talents. If it was a personal problem, then outline the steps you've taken to correct that behavior and demonstrate your eagerness to get back in the game.

Above all else, stay positive and don't go into more detail than you need to in order to explain the situation. Don't point fingers or use this as an opportunity to badmouth your last boss. Just present the facts, show that you've grown from the experience, and move on to the next question. If the interviewer wants to know more, he or she will ask you follow-up questions.

A job interview might give you the chance to step into the spotlight, but that doesn't mean you're going to be the only one in it. Employers love to hear you talk about their company and the work that they do just as much as you like to hear people say nice things about your design work.

Employers love to hear you talk about their company and the work that they do just as much as you like to hear people say nice things about your design work.

This is also a bit of a test to see if you've done your homework, so try to be prepared to answer this ahead of time. Again, if you don't know anything about the company and can't find out any info, this is a good chance to hear more about them.

Give your honest opinion, but avoid being too negative-after all, if you didn't like the company or the work that they do, why would you want to interview for the job in the first place? Constructive criticism is okay, but again, you want to frame it around why you're the best person for the job.

It's okay to impart that there is something missing within their organization-perhaps it's a void that only you can fill! But you don't want to come across as someone who is ready to start tearing everything down and doing it all your way.

Regardless of what you know or how you feel, you should have some nice things to say-even if it's just your initial impressions when you came in for the interview.

When you use video on a website using the HTML5 video element (as opposed to embedding from YouTube, Vimeo or other video-hosting services) it's the website's responsibility to serve each browser that video in a format that the browser can play.

As of recently, major browsers, OS and devices support the MP4 video format (using MPEG4 or h.264 compression). To assure compatibility with Firefox clients and certain Android devices that can't play an MP4 video, it's good to have copies of the video in OGV and WebM formats. When multiple copies are available, all files should be listed as source elements of the VIDEO tag.

If you have a tight timeline, you need to know right away whether the freelancer has a conflict. Most freelancers often manage multiple projects; this doesn't mean they aren't the right fit for your project, but it does mean that they need to be able to balance your project against the needs of their other clients.

☛ Things to listen for: Project management skills. Are they confident about their ability to meet your milestones? What's their approach to juggling multiple projects?

☛ Follow-up question: "Is this timeline realistic?" An experienced freelancer should know whether you've allocated enough time, missed key steps, or aren't leaving enough "buffer" for challenges that are likely to arise.

With all the pressure and anxiety of being under the microscope during a job interview, people often tend to forget that you're just as much interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you. You should always come prepared with questions to ask at the end of the interview. Not only does this make you seem engaged and show your interest in the position, but it also gives you a chance to make sure this job is the right fit for you.

...people often tend to forget that you're just as much interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you.

Try to avoid bringing up questions about pay rates or vacation days unless you're in a position where you absolutely have to. Most employers don't like to discuss pay until a follow-up interview, so try to wait out these questions if you can.

Questions about the company, the people you'd be working with, and what the job itself entails are all good places to start. However, you'll want to find questions that make you seem engaged, not just going through the motions. Instead of just asking what their company is all about, inquire about the future of the company: where it's heading, what projects are coming up, and what the future means for the position you're applying for.

This is usually the last question asked at the interview, so you don't want to take up too much of the interviewer's time. Stick to about three to five questions if at all possible. It's a good idea to have these questions written down and to keep some paper and a pen with you during the interview, so that you can write down any questions that might come to you while you're talking.

Although these tags create specific visual treatment (STRONG makes the text bold, EM makes it italicised and SMALL makes it smaller), this is not their purpose and they should not be used simply to style a piece of content in a specific way.

Each of the three has semantic purpose and should only be used to mark text as follows:

☛ EM - Emphasized text. This is text that should be emphasized thus changing the meaning of its context.

☛ STRONG - Strong importance. Can be used in titles, headings or paragraphs to emphasize the word or phrase that bears the most importance in the sentence. It can also be used to stress the importance, or seriousness, of a word or phrase.

☛ SMALL - Small print. Used for disclaimers, clarifications and general de-emphasizing of the marked text.

☛ To style text as bold, italic or in smaller font, generic tags can be used and the styles applied with CSS code instead of abusing semantic HTML5 elements.

Let's be honest-artists and designers sometimes have a tendency to turn into divas when faced with criticism or editorial guidelines. It can be frustrating to work in a creative field and have outside factors hinder your creative expressions. But for a professional graphic designer, criticism is a part of the job; employers want to know that you'll be able to suck it up and make changes to your design when necessary.

Let's be honest-artists and designers sometimes have a tendency to turn into divas when faced with criticism or editorial guidelines.

What's important here is to impart upon the interviewer that you can take direction, that you're open to the ideas of others, and that you understand how to work within a hierarchy. However, the interviewer might try to throw in different follow-up questions or add modifiers to test how you work when treated unfairly or when given bad criticism.

Answer in a way that's truthful, but that shows you can still be part of the team, even if you tend to be a little too argumentative and passionate about your work when faced with unjust criticism. Make sure the employer knows that you are open to critique and willing to listen.

An experienced professional should be able to share samples of their work or tell you about projects they've worked on. Use your best judgement about this based on how they've represented themselves: Some types of work aren't always public or easily shared, for example, and someone with years of experience may not have a big portfolio if they've recently made the move to self employment.

☛ Things to listen for: Quality. Does their work represent the skill level and attention to detail you're looking for?

☛ Follow-up question: "What was your approach to this project?" This question will help give you more insight into how they collaborated with others, addressed the client's needs, met challenges, or exceeded expectations.

Again, this is where research comes in handy. If you're applying to a design job as a 3D modeler with a company that uses 3DStudio Max you want to be able to say that you use that same program, not that you only use Maya because you think 3DS is inferior. You can frame it like this:

"I think it's important to know multiple modeling systems, because each has it's benefits and drawbacks. I understand that your studio uses 3DStudio Max; I'm very familiar with 3DS, so I should be able to hit the ground running here."