Now that you’ve assessed your skills, thought about an ideal work environment, and how you would position yourself, it’s time to jump into the portfolio!

Many articles and courses have been written about portfolios. Why should you read this one? Portfolios are hard and you are your own worst client. I want to save you time and the last minute anguish you might have in polishing up that portfolio. We’ve all been there but don’t fall for this trap!

Before we start sketching or pushing pixels, let’s step back and think through the goals of your portfolio. Let’s get into the first principles.

Everyone ever: I should have started that portfolio earlier 😱

Portfolio personas

The main goal of the online portfolio is to land the phone screen. It is not to be exhaustive in describing the rigor of your process (save that for the onsite!) but rather to start the initial conversation and continue the momentum from online, to phone screen, to an onsite interview. Be choosy in what you show here and focus on curating the best representative image of your work.

Because you will not present this portfolio — your portfolio must stand on its own. This is easy to get feedback on, send it to your friends and have them pretend to be your hiring manager.

Let’s dive into three types of personas that will be looking at your portfolio — recruiter, hiring manager, and designer.

Recruiter 👩🏽‍💼

A recruiter’s job is to source qualified candidates and to present them to the hiring manager. Good recruiters understand the design process, have worked with other designers before and know what a hiring manager needs. Since their job is to get as many qualified leads in the pipeline they’ll be scanning your portfolio and resume for signs of good work and process.

Goals of a recruiter,

Source a variety of candidates through multiple channels

Match the job requirements to the candidate

Follow-up with promising candidates to see if they’re a good match

Present top candidates to the hiring manager

Get feedback from the hiring manager and repeat the process until all positions have been filled

Remember, the objective of the recruiter is to first and foremost get the right candidate for the client. You are not the client. The hiring manager is. That said there are some recruiters that go above and beyond to make sure both parties are satisfied.

Hiring Manager 👩🏻‍🎤

This is your future manager or potentially your manager’s manager. Unlike the recruiter they (usually) have a keen understanding of design assuming they’ve been a designer themselves but sometimes they might come from another field such as engineering, data science, or product management. In that case they might also ask their fellow designer to evaluate your work.

Goals of a hiring manager,

Make sure your level of skill matches the job requirements

Get a sense of your level, your seniority in design (based on scope, impact)

Assess if you have the right balance of craft skills

Watch out for any red flags or gaps in employment

Imagine the manager to be busy and distracted. Their work is already cut out for them and their drowning in responsibilities. They need more designers! That’s great! But they’re browsing your portfolio while running from one meeting to the next. They’ll glance over it for 30 seconds. If it looks interesting they’ll give it 2 more minutes. If they see good things they’ll let the recruiter set up a phone call.

Designer 👨🏻‍🎨

Sometimes another designer will be evaluating your portfolio as well. They could be a senior, junior or a peer to you and depending on where you’re at in the company’s interviewing process they might evaluate your portfolio in the beginning or right before your on site.

Goals of a designer,

Help out the hiring manager source candidates

Get a sense of what type of designer and where your strengths are

Relay any concerns to the hiring manager

Just like the hiring manager they will have a pretty good grasp of design and they will also be looking to hire someone who can elevate the team. If they’re a junior designer they’ll be looking for mentorship.