Applying for jobs is a job in itself which is important to recognise. You’ll have to do some work to make sure that every application you put forward makes you a strong candidate as a designer. Although each company does it differently, the documents you should be prepared when looking for a job is a cv, covering letter and portfolio. These are standard documents that most job posting will require of you, but as a designer, you’ll know that a portfolio is a key part to showcase your skills visually. If you mention a skill on your CV it would help to have it evidenced in your portfolio one way or another. After fixing my portfolio a few times over the course of my own experience in finding work, I’ve had a fair share of cringe-worthy moments looking back at what I considered a ‘portfolio’, but the more you work on it, the more you realise it is always going to change, and eventually will land you a visual impression that gets you to interviews.
So in this weeks article, I share some of the tips on things I wish I knew when making a portfolio for architectural graduate jobs.
Your work portfolio is not the same as your uni portfolio
If you haven’t gotten work experience it is expected that your portfolio is going to consist of your university projects. After all, you’ve dedicated a whole year (and sometimes even longer) to building a body of architectural design and thinking, you want to show what you’ve worked on. However, when you are looking for a job, it isn’t practical both time-wise and physically to send employers 30+ pages of your projects. Regardless of how well you did academically, you’ve got to fit the particular criteria that they are looking for and that means being selective about what but also how much of your projects you do show.
You want to showcase your work in a way that makes you employable, you’ll have to be fitting into the criteria that they are looking for. You could argue that it wouldn’t be representing you, but this is the opportunity to show the best parts of your design process leaving the employer wanting to know more about what you can offer them and in turn what they can offer you (and whether they can provide the training for specific skills too). Your work portfolio can act as a sample portfolio but remember your portfolio is the evidence of the skills you mentioned on your CV and covering letter, having that in mind you’ll need to make sure that you are showing what you are telling them.
Your portfolio is a project
As you become skilled in designing architectural work you can begin to develop a style or way of presenting, and sometimes that is unique to you as an individual. If you mention that you are a creative person you need to be able to show this when taking care of how you present your selected portfolio for both the sample portfolio and the portfolio you’ll present at interviews. Attention to things such as layout, house style, alignment - think of your portfolio (s) at this stage as a design task in itself, how can you best illustrate the kind of style that is your way of storytelling. This is where you might find yourself having to rework some CAD drawings or mapping because you’d like to create a narrative of your projects in a different manner than you initially did when you first produced them. There is nothing wrong with reworking anything that is in your portfolio, you will improve over time and you’ll eventually learn how to use InDesign and Photoshop in a multitude of ways. It is a reflection of your skills and if you’ve gotten much better at a particular skill like model making or illustrating you should update your portfolio to show that. It won’t do you any favours if you can’t show your current skills and abilities if they aren’t visible and proven in your work.
Document your learning and include it in your portfolio
You don’t have all the skills to make yourself employable. If there’s a particular software that you enjoy using or one that you want to learn use this opportunity to extend your portfolio outside of your university projects. Whether it is a design project from competitions or needing to figure out rearrangements in your own home create a project of your own and use Revit (or any software in the Adobe range) to add diversity to your palette of skills such as model making, rendering or even illustration and add what you make into your portfolio. It is one of many ways to continue to push your problem-solving skills in a real-life context that you needed your design skills for. Find an excuse to learn something new that you can add to your portfolio, this will help you find ways out of boredom but keep your exploring new ways of using existing software or simply just learning how to use new software altogether. This will help during interviews as it will give something to talk about that lies in your interests.
Include your work experience design work in your portfolio
Even if you didn’t play a large design role if you have contributed to a project whether entirely or as part of a team you shouldn’t shy away from sharing it within your portfolio. This was something I wish I did sooner because initially I was learning SketchUp and thought why would anyone want to see this but any time I mentioned I had experience on my CV (even if it was two weeks) I needed to evidence it otherwise it wasn’t worth sharing on the CV, to begin with. Architects and those who interview you will know how a project runs but seeing that you can demonstrate an understanding but also practise of real architectural design skills are always great to have. You won’t be able to gather all the skills required of you from the get-go but showing that you’ve tried and even learned new skills will give you the confidence to understand the role of specific software’s and how each company uses it, as no two practise will do things in the same way. No one will expect you to know everything but showing that you have had the experience you mentioned on your CV is really important. You know how little you know of the industry but showing that you have tried to apply your design skills in a different method or use entirely new programmes will show your awareness of the design process that takes place within a project.
And lastly, your portfolio is a work in progress, regardless of how much work you have.
So you’ve made alterations to your portfolio, you’ve sent various different ones at various stages of your own attempt to get an interview. In all honesty, no matter how many final versions you save of your portfolio it will always need to be changed and altered to meet different needs and uses. Don’t think that the same portfolio you submitted to get a 2:1 will get you the job for a placement role, and the same goes for applying for your Part 2 and so on. It is a bit of work to get employed, well a lot more work than you might have anticipated. But as long as you are constantly adapting and altering what you do have to fit a specific requirement you’ll realise that there is always work to do. Even when you do get work experience or get employed you’ll attain new skills and do new things that might just overtake the work you did for your university projects. You are a constant work in progress, so there is no need to place all the pressure on your portfolio, as you may already notice it isn’t the one thing that gets you anywhere but it is part of what will get you somewhere eventually, in the end.