Greetings All!

This is my first post here so forgive me if I am posting this in the wrong section.

I have been working in the marketing department of a company for the past 3 years and am ready to make a change. A lot of the work I did was graphics design related and I am looking to expand upon those skills and make a career out of it. I've had an interview or two and showed some samples of my work, but haven't landed a new job just yet.

Actually, one of the interviews I went to yesterday is what I am writing about. It felt like a very strange interview to me and I didn't get the feeling like the company would be a good fit for me, but I want to know if one of the questions I was asked is "normal" for a graphic artist position.

During the interview, the interviewer was looking at some of my design samples and then asked me how a felt about the design. Since I wasn't sure what he was asking he clarified by saying "If I crumpled this up and threw it in the trash, how would that make you feel?" I was thinking WTF?!?! I told him that I wouldn't like it and that I am pretty proud of the work I do. Has anyone ever been asked a question like that? He went on to explain that he wanted to know how emotionally attached I am to my work, but I question the relevance of that to the job.

Anyway, any thoughts? Thanks!

Seems like an interesting question to me, but I think I understand where your interviewer was coming from...

I think he wanted to see if you'd get all up in arms if he didn't like your work, or criticized it... although it might not be a fair question because since it is your portfolio. Your portfolio represents the best work that you feel you've done, so of course you are more emotionally attached to the projects in there.

Perhaps a better answer would be "I think I'd prefer if you marked it up, and showed me where the areas were that I could improve upon." That way it shows that you are wanting criticism to better yourself as a designer instead of getting defensive about your work. A design manager wants to be able to give criticism to their employees without them biting their head off every time they have a critique. Of course that depends on how the critique is presented, so crumpling it up and throwing it away in front of the designer's face probably wouldn't be the best approach.

haha or you could always go with the smart tushie answer...
"Go ahead, crumple it up.. i'll just print it again!"

yea i get where the interviewer was going with it... kind of an odd way to phrase it... but it will certainly give him a quick and easy understanding of a person's attitude and outlook about their work and how they take criticism. It's not easy to tell someone something is crap, and it's certainly not easy to hear it. Interesting little test on his part.

Sounds like he's dealt with emotional people before...or he's a jerk! Maybe he's the one who needs a new job!

I think the question itself is very clever and telling, like others pointed out it demonstrates how you deal with criticism on your work. But I do think it is one of the questions interviewers like to thrown in to catch you off guard, which actually is good, because so many interviews seem to be watered down with the same questions, and answers, so it does give more insight about you, versus your 5 year plan, why you chose design, what are your strongest and weakest traits on the job...type questions. You expect these, and have probably reguritated the answer enough times, to come across as poised, but get one of those off the cuff, make you think questions, and they truely see if you can think on your feet.

Very interesting. I actually took the interviewers question in a completely different way. It seemed to me like he wanted to see the fire. If you were passionate and confident about your work. I have never had that happen to me on an interview before. Sounds like a very different kind of place. LOL

Hi,

I do not agreed with you. Any way, your ideal make me thinking about some thing for my project.
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Please try to keep posting. Tks and best regards

Hi,

Thanks very much for this comment and link. It's very useful .It help me to think about my ideals.

Tks again and pls keep posting.