Preparing your portfolio 

Portfolios and examples of work

With any application for a design role you should provide some form of examples of work. This should demonstrate both your design ability and level of technical competency. This shouldn’t be a portfolio of your work rather a “snapshot” of your skills and experience – 3 to 4 pages of work that highlights your skillset. Sending a full portfolio can be too long and sometimes your key projects, skills and experience are lost amongst the other work.

Examples of work are essentially there to briefly highlight your skillset and experience so the employer will be interested to find out more and invite you to interview.

Also bear in mind that you aren’t going to be there to explain or contextualise the examples of work so make sure the work is either self-explanatory or provide a brief explanation of the work presented.

Portfolio

A portfolio is usually in reverse chronological order, unless you wish to show previous work more relevant to a particular role. As you gain more experience university work should be minimised. Employers are more interested in your paid work from an experienced applicant than their university days.

For new Graduates or those with very little experience your portfolio will be different with much stronger emphasis on your university work.