By Daniya Kayani

Looking for some tips to really boost that portfolio of yours? Here are a few ideas for how to make your portfolio ready for industry inspection!

1) Ask for feedback

Two sets of eyes are always better than one! When you work on something for a while, you cannot be unbiased when evaluating your own output. So, who better to look at your portfolio than a colleague—e.g., a fellow student or recent alumni—, a lecturer or an industry professional? You’d be surprised, how willing people in our industry are to help emerging professionals. Be pro-active: simply ask! Also, if your university has a careers service, you may be able to ask them for specific advice tailored to your industry too.

2) Give variety

Have you done a few projects that complement each other? For example, you might have created a social media calendar with mock-ups for one project, and an in-depth target audience plan for another project. If so, include both in your portfolio! It’s best to show variety to display your versatility. You could even include doodles and side projects into your portfolio, as long as they have some relation to advertising or creative/strategic comms. Through your portfolio, employers want to get to know you, your skills and your point of view.

3) Let your personality shine

Do not leave your ‘about me’ page empty. I repeat, do NOT. Let yourself be completely authentic—yet professional—on your page. At the end of the day, viewers of your portfolio want to get to know the human behind the work too. Feel free to share some of your motivations for your work and the projects/causes that you’ve been passionate about.

4) Use strong pieces

Throughout your studies, you will likely work on many projects—that does not mean you need to include every single one in your portfolio. Select pieces that are the strongest in your opinion. Lead with your best foot forward. It is better to feature few but strong pieces, rather than a mix of strong and mediocre ones. As a rule of thumb, 3 strong pieces of work can make for a brilliant graduate portfolio already!

5) Add context

It’s all fair and well displaying your work in your portfolio. However, a good portfolio needs to do more than just that.

It is unlikely that a viewer will know the background to your work. In our industry, answers are not always obvious, which is why you’ll need to explain your campaign work to them. Give a short description of the brief and how you responded to it in the way you did (50 – 100 words is enough). Also, you want to add the year when the work was produced, and your year of studies (e.g., October 2021, BA (Hons) 2nd year). Lastly, if you have won a commendation for your work, make sure to mention this as well!

Check out this portfolio by a recent advertising graduate. It is a great example of how to provide meaningful context for projects.

6) Stay current

With the ever-changing landscape that is the creative industry, it is crucial to keep up to date. Don’t get left behind. Did you just create a project that fits in perfectly with a current trend? Include it! Or maybe you’ve produced a new project that deserves to be showcased—throw it in. Always be updating your portfolio. If you really want to impress your industry viewers, maybe try some industry terms! You can find a great glossary of terms here on HAT’s website.

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