The portfolio is the most used buzzword than the resume in typical designer hiring. Back in 2011, I remember running around to get my graphic designs printed in a booklet format just a day before my campus interview for a visual designer role. The idea was to make my work stand out more than the words added inside the resume about my graphic design experience. I was the only one to have a printed portfolio which was a bit funnier but helped me land the first job as a designer.
Good old memories!.
Now a decade later, the industry has changed rapidly thus need for a portfolio becomes the mainstream and pretty much every company asks for it as a first step of designer hire. Though there are so many resources about design portfolios, I came across a designer who just wanted to catch up with me to go through her portfolio and share feedback recently. After giving teardown feedback on her portfolio I decided to share the hiring manager’s perspective on how the portfolio would be evaluated and what are the building blocks of a no-nonsense portfolio which will help one to get closer to the expectation of the design hiring managers.
The best practices I am putting here are based on my personal experience in evaluating candidates during my stint across various product-based startups and scale-ups.
