Developing a portfolio for applications and interviews When applying for design jobs or work experience, your application should normally include your CV and a covering letter, along with some samples of your best design work. You will often be asked to send these via email, but sometimes you may need to send printed copies. Furthermore, when going for interview you will need to take a printed portfolio of your best designs. This information sheet explains the points to think about when selecting samples and producing a portfolio for applications and interviews. It also offers brief advice about writing a CV and covering letters for design jobs in the built environment.

Introduction A portfolio can be described as a selection of designs that demonstrate your skills and the way you approach your work. You need to decide which designs to include and how to present your selected work in ways which will appeal to employers. Therefore, your portfolio is personal to you and there is no single right way to create it. However, there are some guidelines you can follow to make it more likely that your portfolio will create a good impression. You should also follow the advice given by tutors and other relevant staff in your department.

Putting together a portfolio It is useful to create an online collection of all the design work you produce during your studies. You can then choose designs from this collection in order to create your portfolio. Create high quality digital and printed copies of the designs that you plan to use. You need to be selective when deciding what to show to an employer as your portfolio cannot be made up of all your designs. Instead, include your best work but also aim to show a variety of your different skills, including illustrations, sketches, initial concept designs, CAD work, photos of 3-D models and some detailed features, e.g. construction details, but don’t include too many technical drawings.

Points to consider Think about the initial impression your samples/portfolio create, as your work needs to look interesting and engaging. Aim to produce a concise set of designs showing a broad range of skills, which, in the case of an interview, allows you to present and talk through your projects, ideas and interests. Decide the purpose of your portfolio. At application stage, most employers only want to see a small number of digital examples, typically 4-6 pieces. They don’t have time at this stage to look at lots of designs, so aim to give them a flavour that will hopefully have an impact and make them want to see more. It is a good idea to ‘target’ your portfolio at the practice you are applying to. This means you have to do some research into the firm. Find out something about them including the kinds of projects they do, and their ‘philosophy’ about design, and then consider adjusting your portfolio so that it reflects a similar range of projects. However don’t just copy their projects. You need to demonstrate your own original ideas. When sending work with your application, follow any instructions the employer provides in the job advert or on their website about the number of samples or maximum file size to send. Usually they will want you to provide your samples as a digital attachment. Use a PDF file and keep it to a sensible size (typically 5MB and maximum of 15MB). Most advisers recommend not to use online platforms, your own website or Google Drive to present your work with an application.

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The employer may print out copies of your digital designs when they receive them. Don’t assume they’ll be printed in colour. Black and white printing is cheaper, so make your digital portfolio printer – friendly and check what the images look like in black and white.

Portfolios at interviews At job or course interviews, you will usually need to take along a printed (hard copy) portfolio of work in a bound folder. Use an A4/A3 size PDF for your physical portfolio. Larger A2 size portfolios are too big and bulky to carry around. Think about the format, and decide whether to have the work as portrait or landscape in layout. You do not want to have to be constantly turning the folder around when showing it to an employer. Typically aim for around 20-40 sheets in total, again with a variety of types of design. Your general aim should be to convey the process behind your design work. Include at least one complete project, such as a major/final year project, that shows all the stages from the start to its finish, demonstrating progress from initial idea and general concept, through development to the completed project. This will provide an insight into your design interests and your ability to realise a project to its completion. You will need to be able to verbally present your portfolio to employers at interviews. This means talking it through with them, describing the various pieces of work and explaining the process you went through to create them, including your thinking and ideas. Employers will want to hear about your work and are likely to be encouraging, so do not worry about having to present your work. Instead see this as an opportunity to be positive about your ideas and designs. Before your interview, think about what you will say and practise talking enthusiastically about your work and interests. Be familiar with the designs and projects you have chosen, and think ahead about the possible questions they will ask about them. Organise your portfolio in a logical structure so there is a ‘flow’ to your designs and your comments. Use a range of different image sizes so that it doesn’t look monotonous. It’s good to have a small amount of text next to the images which explain what they are, but keep this to a minimum. The visual design work is more important here. Use a clear readable size for any written information, avoiding unusual fonts which may be distracting and unnecessary. The designs in your portfolio do not have to be exclusively from your individual projects - you can include work you did as part of a group project. After all, team work is a feature of the design profession. However, concentrate on what you personally did on a project and make sure it is clear which aspects of the designs you were responsible for. Do not claim work which someone else in the group did. Remember one of the your group may also have the same work in their portfolio! Get feedback and advice about your portfolio from other designers, including people who work in the profession, and from your tutors.

A note about CVs and cover letters for design-based jobs Design is a visual profession so your CV should also be creative and original. This means you can normally include some limited design features in your CV as well as the text-based information. You do not necessarily have to follow the conventional A4 portrait format typically used in most CVs. For example some students create folded CVs on high quality paper or card if they are sending a physical hard copy CV, to produce a professional feel to their application. However, avoid creating an overly complicated format or a layout which is difficult to follow. In a CV the words are the most important and you need to quickly communicate your qualifications, experience, and levels of ability in different design software, etc. Therefore, while visual devices are desirable they should attract, but not distract, the reader. Aim for clear information presented in an exciting looking way, i.e. a strong balance between text and some (limited) design features.

Finally, your covering letter should demonstrate your writing skills. It’s a good idea again to use some visual feature that is common to your CV so that they complement each other, but as with your CV, the emphasis is on the text, so follow the usual advice about good self-expression, correct spelling and grammar, producing information which explains clearly why you want the job and what appeals to you about working for this practice. For more information on writing effective CVs and covering letters see the Careers Service’s advice at www.shef.ac.uk/careers/students/ gettingajob.

Some Tips and Examples: 1. Identify work samples to share When it comes to choosing items for your portfolio, quality always trumps quantity. A portfolio isn’t supposed to be a digital repository for every .psd file on your hard drive. It’s a public showcase of your very best stuff. Have a Cover Page. Some examples appear below. Please note, all the following images for reference only and cannot be reproduced.

A contents page that visually communicates what to expect in the document will show proof of your professionalism.

Visuals on how ideas are executed captivate us and make us more interested and engaged.

2. Show your development process (when it’s relevant). Consider showing development work if you think your alternative design concepts had merit.

Your role: Did you manage the whole project, or were you working as part of a larger team? Whatever the case, let viewers know where your efforts made the difference.

Your process: Tell viewers how you arrived at the design they see on the page.

Success metrics: By what yardstick did you measure the design’s success?

3. Go for variety.

4. Make sure the pieces flow nicely from one to the next.

* Please note the examples in this handout are for reference only.

University of Sheffield Careers Service. Image credits: Bobby Nisha and Jiewen Xue M:\Ca_Share\publications\applications and interviews\Developing a portfolio for applications and interviews

MZ July 2016