Your design portfolio is your chance to showcase the quality of you work, demonstrate your growth, and show employers your potential. A hiring manager wants to see what you have designed in the past and gain insights into your personality and taste level. With a smart profile, you can increase your chances of getting hired. Here are three portfolio tips that will help you make the right first impression.
1. Showcase Your Work
Hiring managers want to see what knowledge and skills you have related to design and architecture. Your portfolio should demonstrate the finished product and speak to your role in the successful project. You should include your sketched and finished photos of your project so prospective employers can see your design eye, taste, and sketching ability. You can also include accomplishments you’ve had, such as workshops you’ve attended, internships you have had, and awards you have won.
2. Demonstrate Your Personality
Employers don’t just want designers who have skill, they also want designers who have personality. They want to know your taste isn’t cookie-cutter. Your portfolio should touch on your design influences. This allows employers to better understand your style. By looking at your portfolio, a hiring manager should understand what you are passionate about. Are you passionate about green living? Urban living? Demonstrate your interests in your portfolio. This is also a chance to show that you are committed to learning and developing as a designer. Share projects that demonstrate how your aesthetic has evolved and changed.
3. Reveal Your Potential
Your portfolio can also be seen as your personal and professional story. The portfolio should have a beginning. Then, it should show your progress and end with what you are currently doing. Tell the story of your success in design. What accomplishments and projects have defined this success? Hint at what you want to do in the future and make it clear you want to grow. Employers want to know that you have the skill and the personality now and the willingness to grow and evolve so you can be successful in the future, too. You can also include hand sketches and quotes from clients or past managers. This will help you stand out.
Your portfolio is your best chance to win over a prospective employer. Take the time to show off your skills, successes, personality, and personal aesthetic. This is the best way to make yourself stand out from the rest of the pack and land the job.
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