Your Portfolio Can Put You in the Spotlight…or Out

Standing out in the crowd is harder when the crowd is bigger, as it is in today’s job market, but there are ways to make yourself a true standout, and among them are your portfolio and how you present it.

If you do any type of creative work, whether it’s writing, design, web development, signage, art or making presentation slides, to name a few, a portfolio is a must. However, it can take a lot of different shapes. Let me tell you about three portfolios I have seen.

Worst: A candidate showed me samples in his portfolio that were completely off the mark from the type of work I needed, although once I noted it, he said he had those back at home. It was already too late. The image was set. The portfolio should have been reset ahead of time to match the job, showing similar pieces done for other groups. In addition, the presenter should be enthusiastic about his or her own work. This one showed no excitement, no real sense of pride. I was left cold.

Bad: One portfolio that scored low with me had obviously been sitting on the shelf a while. A graphic designer was showing it to me, pulling out piece after piece from a faded presentation binder. Before the meeting, I expected to be dazzled by the design. Instead, the portfolio was disorderly and the samples were old and stale. There was nothing that said “hire me” in any of the work.

Best: The best portfolio I have ever seen was not only targeted, but it was delivered with panache and a bonus. The candidate arrived for the interview with a binder that showcased her recent writing and project management experience, both for print and online media, organized with tabs for different types of projects. The cover was personalized for me and my organization, and when she left she gave it to me. She had clearly done her homework, too. We had talked about a planned overhaul of a publication during our phone interview, so, inside the binder cover, she included a three-page thoughtful proposal for how the project could proceed. It didn’t matter that not everything in it was actionable. What mattered is the research and effort she put into it. I was sold.