Why portfolios matter for creative professionals

Top tips for creating a killer interview portfolio

Your CV is up to date and you have a cover letter ready to go, but what about your portfolio? In today’s competitive job market, having a good CV and cover letter unfortunately may not be quite enough to wow your interviewer and make you stand out from other candidates. That’s why we, at Moxie and Mettle have created this post to help you stand out in the interviewing process.

From experience, we have seen that candidates with portfolios are, most of the time, better received that candidates without. By spending a bit of time creating a portfolio for a job interview, you can give any potential employer visual proof of what you can do and how well you can do it.

The keys to creating an effective professional portfolio includes emphasising accomplishments and organising information in an understandable manner so viewers can quickly find what they need.

What to Include…

An interview portfolio will be comparable to your CV; however, it just goes that step further to showcase your skills and actual work. Usually it will consist of six main parts: an introduction, a professional background summary, visual work (if applicable), summarised projects, awards and recommendations, and a closing page.
Choosing the Best Pieces for Your Portfolio

You will need to find, choose and organise your best work/pieces to add to your portfolio. It is very easy to fall in to the trap of just displaying some images/information of your best campaigns without any explanation of why they were good and what results they achieved.. In addition to this, the pieces must be relevant, there is not point including work from school/college.
Sell Yourself

Either at the beginning or the end of your portfolio create a section solely dedicated to YOU! Which contains your CV, awards, certifications and any other information that is relevant and makes you stand out. Testimonials from clients and employers also if applicable.

Written by Liz Gadd