Bringing zines to a job interview?

[Fluxxii]

Hey everyone! I am supposed to go to a job interview tomorrow for a position that involves a lot of print work and some bookmaking. She told me to bring in samples of this work and although I do have some zines that I've done (collabs of poetry and whatnot), I have a perzine that I am debating bringing. I like the design aspects slightly more than the rest of the zines that I have, but if the interviewer actually reads it then I'm afraid she might get a bad impression of me - it's all about mental health and bitching about life and such, and I've never actually printed it to sell/trade. I would normally say I made it for a client, but my name is all over it! Should I leave it out or bring it and hope for the best? Or do you think that it would hurt my chances? The position is on a college campus so it might be a bit more relaxed.

[Dan C]

It sounds like you shouldn't bring that zine.

But maybe if you can whip something up that represents your design abilities and personality at your best, you should bring that.

[Erica S.]

I would bring in the other zines for sure, but not the perzine. Unfortunately, she is almost sure to read it, and even if she doesn't read it there could be lines that jump out at her and make her think you're something other than a totally bright-eyed shiny-happy workerbee. If you have time, you could try to make an identical version of the perzine with safe writing (or even just "loren ipsum").

[Ericfishlegs]

If you liked the look of the perzine a lot more than the poetry zines I'd say it was worth the risk. But if you really do only like it "slightly more" I wouldn't bother.