Is your portfolio landing you jobs or getting lost in the shuffle?
Here are some quick portfolio tips to help us help you:
1. Is your portfolio viewable online? In many cases there may not be time for an in person meeting to show your portfolio- especially for freelance work. Be prepared to send a link to an online portfolio or at least a PDF of work samples.
2. Does your portfolio distract from your work? Your portfolio is meant to show off your work samples and your skills, and should not be over designed or cluttered. Showing creativity is good- but be careful not to tip the scale to messy or distracting.
3. Is your portfolio easy to navigate? Hiring managers will not look at your work if they have to try too hard. If they cannot navigate through your page or download your PDF than they will move on to the next candidate. If your grandmother can access your work easily you are probably safe.
4. Who is your audience? Your portfolio should be appealing to any kind of audience you will ever work with or want to work with. If it is extremely edgy or conservative you will pigeonhole yourself into one type of work. You should have a variety of your best work samples from every type of skill listed on your resume.
5. Have you paid attention to detail? Your portfolio is being looked at for design, development pieces and links working, spelling and grammar, etc- even if that is not in the job description. If you cannot pay attention to the details in your portfolio employers will assume you cannot pay attention to the details in their projects.
6. Who did what? Your portfolio should spell out what your contribution was to the project or work you are presenting and highlight your skills and strengths.