How to Design an Excellent Architecture Portfolio - Top Tips and Do's and Dont's

How to Design an Excellent Architecture Portfolio - Top Tips and Do's and Dont's
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Stephen Drew: [00:00:00] Hello.

Will Ridgway: Good afternoon, everyone.

Jack Moran: Hello, welcome to the chat guys. My name's Jack Moran. You might have seen us last week. I've got Stephen Drew here with me and we'll reach way. We are the architecture team at the Architecture Social. We've also worked for McDonald's company for some time. Why don't you give us a bit for anyone who wasn't here last week, Stephen?

Why don't you just tell us a little bit about yourself before we

Stephen Drew: get started? Sure. So I was a part two. I worked in industry. I worked at EPR architects for a few years, and then for the last six years, what I do is I specialize in architectural recruitment. We've worked with everyone from Grimshaw desire, deed, and as well as that, some really good clients like som down to as well as smaller Architecture practices.

Will Ridgway: Hi, I'm well, it's I've been working as a recruitment consultant and McDonald's company for the past [00:01:00] year alongside you were working under your guidance and you have been recruiting for a lot of AIG, 100 and companies outside AIG, 100 for the past year, working from parts twos all the way up to senior.

Jack Moran: So I've worked alongside both of these lovely gentlemen for just over a year now. I've worked with some agent 100 practices, mainly inside London, a few small practice outside of London as well. I also have the joy of doing a lot of the support roles as well in architecture practices be that HR practice managers or office managers.

So today we've got a interesting topic to discuss. We are going to be talking about the duty. Don'ts of the portfolio. Know this is a big thing, isn't it? Stephen, because how many jobs require a portfolio? Most of it is all done on the CV. Isn't it? By the architecture to have to go, a little bit further because the portfolio is, your bread and butter, isn't it?

Stephen Drew: I think compared to maybe a traditional. CB application, whether it's an [00:02:00] accountant or something like that in architecture, you need the saving and you need the portfolio. The CV is the kind of a core, it's the spine. It's the it's the center of all your professional experience. The portfolio is like a window into who you are as a designer and what you have done.

And it expands on everything in the CV. So the idea the CV is. That they can read and assimilate or your professional work and all your experience in the industry quite quickly, the portfolio is seeing that visualizing then, and it should almost be like a story and it should encapsulate your career.

So that ideally you want to go with what you've done professionally at the start and your best projects. And you want to explain and give the reader an insight into what you've done, what you're about and who you are as a designer. Now there's two apps, two versions of a portfolio in my head. There's the one you take to the interview, which is K is the chance that you [00:03:00] get to go through with a potential employer, all the stuff you've done.

And the other one is the online version, which is called a sample portfolio. And the sample portfolio is a little bit more like a taster. It's a little bit more like an insight into who you are to get the person to bring you in for an interview, because what you can't do is you can't, or you should not anyway, send through 50 to 60 sheets online.

The person will simply not finish it, but that is my definition of what a portfolio is. W do you think that's a fair.

Will Ridgway: I think that's pretty fair with, there's a huge difference between CVS and portfolios and the fact that on a particularly as well, like online, if you want to look to find some help from CVS, there's lots of it because everyone, every job, every profession, you need a CV to apply for most part.

And obviously imagine football day, for example, but we're talking. Normal level here, but but portfolios, it's [00:04:00] much more concentrated to specific industry. And so there's less help out there. And a lot of people phoned me up and they always ask about what do you need in a portfolio? And it's quite broad.

There's not much help out there. So hopefully the, what we talk about here is going to be much very helpful to explain that and give you some sort of guidance, but as a big distinct difference between that your sample port. Which is what you use to say. Two companies as application, and then also get design portfolio, which you send, which you have with you in the interview.

Hopefully we'll we'll show the distinct differences between

Stephen Drew: the two. But the one thing I'd like to add before we jump into Jack is that there's no one way to do. Portfolio there's no it, because the thing is it's down to what you want to express them, what everyone has done in industry and based upon your work experience, it would be very different.

So what I'm going to talk about is what I think makes a [00:05:00] portfolio more effective in general, that being said, sometimes you can still do something which breaks some of the rules and is quite impressive. I think they'll right now, especially in the current climate that. We need to do is talk about the techniques and the stuff in portfolios that it's going to be more effective, right?

The things that are going to appeal to the most amount of employers are going to save you time and ideally get the point across and who you are to get that person to meet.

Jack Moran: Excellent. Okay. Brilliant. And the first point we wanted to bring up, break down is what you touched on earlier, Stephen, about the length of our portfolio.

For example, graduates, they might not have this problem so much. However, there is always that problem of, just putting content on it for the sake of it. For the graduates, let's start with that. What, what are the dangers, what are the recommendations that you've experienced about keeping that portfolio, the right lens?

The concise. Yeah.

Stephen Drew: So think of the sample [00:06:00] portfolio of the best hits. Okay. Think of it. Like you're a band and we've released five albums. You're not going to get someone to listen to five albums all in one go, they get bored after one and who knows, some of the best stuff, some of the best songs.

So you've got to think of it as the best hits. You really got to hit them, smack them in the face and grab people's attention really quickly, because we are in an environment where people are busy. There's the person who will be looking at your CV. They might be in a taxi, or they might be out more likely right now, there'll be at home with kids where the wifi is not working and it's not fast.

So file size and length is all important stuff. So I would argue, and I just picked the, one of the question. 10 to 15 pages. And even then 15 is pushing that I wouldn't. When you designed them a sample port for. I think of it, like check tech checkboxes and tick boxes, where you've just got to go for this checklist and you've got to go boom.

And you've got to hit people really hard. Think of it like an [00:07:00] assault and their attention. You've got to grab their attention with some really strong professional work. Show them really intricate. Details. You've done anything on site. Give them an overview of a project and tell them exactly what you've done.

What was the project? What was the RIBA stages? What was your responsibilities and your, if it's your academic work, as you've just graduated and you want to put that there, start, you've got to start with your strongest work and you've got to get them hero images, and you've got to put them up and you've got to explain what you've done on the project, what it was modeled then, and then also you want to go through and take that.

Sections details, elevations, rather models. We want to take all this stuff. What you do not want to do in a sample port probably is repeat stuff. So you've got to think 10 pages. Opportunities and press some of them. Don't cram it all in, because remember you can expand upon it in the interview. That is the idea in the end, you should have about 30 pages.

You don't have to go on [00:08:00] too long and you want to, you're going to go into it in more detail. The sample is a bit like if you're at the festival or something, and you're the band where you're gong on stage and you're playing with someone that they've never heard you before. And then, in the end, Then you talk, then you expand the prominent all, but what do you think?

My analogy is that a good one on, yeah,

Will Ridgway: I think that's the best way to view it, to be honest, because I get calls all the time and they ask how many pages should it be? And that's a difficult question to answer because there is no right answer to how many pages is you should be.

You obviously don't wanna make it too long, but at the same time, you don't have to be too up. I think it largely depends on the contents that you have. For example, if you're quite if you're just coming out of university, chances are you probably not got much professional work experience and therefore not that much work that into the portfolio.

And so therefore it's important to still include that work and includes a nice balance of your education work as well, but then still not make it too long. I, to be [00:09:00] honest, I think. I think anything above 10 is probably pushing, starting to push the boundaries of the length of a sample portfolio, because you do want to keep it concise.

And at the same time, you don't want to include so many pages that when you do get to an interview stage, you don't want to end up the interviewer to be seeing the same pages over and over again. And they've already seen on it as a sample portfolio. So it's important to keep. Get your best works, but then you also want to have the elaborated elaborated pieces saved.

So for the interview stage as well. So that is still interesting parts of the project you can still show in interviewed. So I see it as more of a synopsis of each project you want to include. If you've got your design skills, you want to include that in one included. Any technical detailing skills drawings that you may have done basically keep it quite broad.

And but at the same time, you don't want to be too lengthy. 15 pages. There's nothing wrong with it. [00:10:00] I just think.

Stephen Drew: Sometimes fighting sometimes less is more. And and I think then as well, the other thing that I really like, what we were saying is that, remember if you don't necessarily have the professional work yet draw parallels in your academic work, to what you're doing professional.

So if you haven't worked professionally yet, put a detail in, put stuff in that the employer is going to use, software, weather models. Again, this is the kind of thing that you want to give a taster off because in your portfolio you can expand sometimes a really good sample portfolio. It's going to be five or six pages in there where it's just all killer, no filler.

And I think it's the ultimate thing. If you feel that a page is not straight. You're stronger off without it. Think about the meaning of every page. What every time you look at a page, you go, what am I trying to convey here? Okay. I'm trying to convey that. I worked on [00:11:00] my part one and I did this project, which was a school.

It was an education scheme at this RIBA stages and this value and on that I use rabbit. And on that I used freely. Okay. You caught that in that's the message is really strong in your academic work, you would say. And my final. This is my design fees. This is a bit of an over there, and here's the stuff that I have done.

I did use Reddit modern. Then I did this technical detail. I did this construction drawing and that's really what you want to go on. The other one that I would want to mention is if you're an app, if you're a part one in particular, you really do not need to send off your, the work you did in your first year.

At time, you're on your third year, you're a lot stronger, right? So you don't need to do that anymore. I would put the emphasis on your third year's work and send that across. So the summarize sample portfolio, keep it in a sample. So it should be in the [00:12:00] true essence of the word. A few pages find the 10 sheets really that's where you should be sending.

And then you're in your design portfolio. Take person. 15 to 50 pages. And not huge a ones. I think a free is the way don't rely on just printing stuff out and sorry, just to put in stuff on a tablet, because you can go into there and you can have reflections and all of this stuff. So always take something print near out at a free and ring binder.

You don't need to spend a hundreds of pounds on a portfolio. Something really clean and clear

Jack Moran: is a. Good question. Steve is just coming on the topic of that. Last week we were talking about the portfolio and how you, like you said, with your dissertation, you'll take it to a stationary shop and get like ring binded, nicely presented when it comes to the sample portfolio.

Would you do a cover page, a content page, to almost a company, which is

Stephen Drew: Just to be clear the sample portfolio. It's a really [00:13:00] good question because sometimes people would like to hand them to employers. The reality is you're going to be just doing that digitally now. Okay. And especially, it's going to be really hard right now to physically send your CV in portfolio anywhere.

And I was been watching a few videos lately and an employer will always say that they love a physical portfolio from a student and a CV. And that's nice. However, my what's the word I'm looking for? The war, how I feel about it is that you have to go for the thing that you can do and spend the time in the most and get the maximum results.

So I worry right now in this environment that actually walking around a, to B, especially when we're not even sure. Offices are open or not. It's not going to be a good use of time. So the format IC it is that you send your CV file and you send your sample portfolio online to as much employers as possible, and you do the research on them and you send them a beautiful little email with that attached.

And then you follow up a phone call and to answer your question of what should be in then [00:14:00] I think is, so if it's 10 to 15 pages, five to 10 pages, then we're looking at a few. Solid as right. And you don't need to repeat stuff in, then you don't need to put the CV in it again. I think you either put the CV and the portfolio and the sample portfolio all is one doctor.

Which when I look back, that's where I actually did. Or what you do is that you, you sat them, you have the, you have a very clearly marked, so in the actual email, you will have the tax body. Then you have the. The CV attachment and put your name on it. That's one thing that I see people not do all the time.

Cause this guy, if he's got his computer and he's got the CV version too, they don't know who that is. So put in Stephen, Drew, CV Stephen Drew portfolio. And then if you've got references, but Stephen Drew reference now would be a four sheet with whoever's on there. But what do you think is this about the ideal format [00:15:00] or what you think.

Will Ridgway: Yeah. So I'm, I see a lot of people that do a lot of title pages and the contents page. So that's quite helpful in terms of having a look through. But I think that's generally, from my opinion, I think that'd be generally better to. For your design portfolio, as opposed to your sample portfolio because you want to get straight to the point.

W when you look, when a employer looks at your portfolio, they'll just go top down. If they see a contents page, they're not going to be like, oh, let's go to page whatever to have a look at it. They're just going to go top down. So I think it's probably best just to leave that out. Maybe you can do just a quick title page, where it has your.

Yeah, your contact details as well. I wouldn't go too much and I wouldn't put too much effort into that. The effort should be all on the portfolio. So that you can, as soon as you get to the second page or even the first page, you get straight to the point and you see the first piece of work, which is usually your most latest piece of work or what you may consider the best piece of work, whichever fits the description, whichever fits the bill.

And then you [00:16:00] then go in chronological order. So for example, if you're a uni student, you'd include your latest piece of work at the top and then go downwards. And like Steve said, you don't particularly need to put in your first year works in all, you don't have to include every single piece of work that they've done.

You can keep. Short and sweet. You don't have to, if there's some stuff you've done, like early on, you're not particularly fond of, you can still just leave it house. It doesn't have to be everything. It's just a few selections of the best that you've done. Just to give an idea to the employer of the type of work you'd have done the type of what you capable of and the type of work that you could potentially recreate.

Stephen Drew: I think that's it. I think we naturally, and I did as well, because, so when you start with a portfolio, your natural reaction is to put everything you've done in, right? Because you will you'll you want to tell the employer the full range of stuff you can do. I've learned over the time of going from Oxfordshire to recruitment is that Edison is key.

And [00:17:00] the reality is if you can do something once I know you've got that skillset. So once you've demonstrated that beautiful acts in the metric, then fantastic. I know you can do that. And then if you've got a few examples of a rabbit model, Within the project then within the portfolio, I know you can do that too.

So the trick is edit things down five to 10 pages, which are really concise and clear to me is a lot better. Remember that as well as other practical stuff out event, they won't be printing so many pages. Okay. The file size is going to be shorter, and this is all the important stuff on first impressions.

In the design portfolio, you can go to town and you can get the most expensive, beautiful paper. And you can have 30 sheets, which shows stylist nice, balanced story, which you can weave over through the interview. That's absolutely fine. And from the grain I actually did from my [00:18:00] interview is that when I went from my one in person, I went to hubs, Reaper graphics, which is a store.

And I printed out all my work in. So it was an AFL book. I'll ring bound. Got it. On my shelf, gathering a bit of dust in there, but the thing is that it was a talking point and oh, I've gone blurry. Sorry. But basically that's so I was speaking to on, on, on Sunday with my friend, who's an associate at BDP and he'd have the book as well.

And it was the fact that he printed out his book and went to a employer who had high-end residential projects and the empires. This is amazing. Basically what I can do is why don't we, every time we build a building, we give the client a book of the building and it is exactly like your portfolio. And therefore that portfolio got in the interview because of the way he beautifully.

The, when he sent up the sample portfolio, which secured in [00:19:00] the interview though, that's this five to six pages online, which is all killer, no filler to the point and gives them over them on the overview and the end in excitement of who he is to get him in. Yeah.

Jack Moran: Okay. A couple of questions come in as well, just to add onto it.

And the first one is asking is it wise to include any group work that students might have done? MBA three? You might be one for that,

Stephen Drew: Stephen? Yeah. Free. Okay. So group work. Yes. Very important. I think group work, but when you've done group work, say it's school. Group work is good because actually, if you think about it, it means you can work as part of the team.

And it's very rarely and architecture, and this is a small project that actually you're going to be doing it all on your own. You're going to be working with people. So there was a really good skills. So I would definitely do that and credit it. Or why do you want to do though is outline your responsibility and hopefully you did do some stuff and you want just that guy in the corner who was like, trying to try to.[00:20:00]

Tack on going. Yay. Well done guys, but you suppose showing what you did on there? Cause if you said, look, I pitched as part of the team, I did the rendering side and what we did is together. We work together and we project a coordinated the project against the deadline. That's all really good life skills.

And this is stuff that we do as a team now, even in recruitment, isn't it because. When you work in real life, is that, so for instance, me and we'll work on a particular role and they'll need this help on some staff and I will help them with other things. And so teamwork demonstrates that and the, see, even what we're talking about right now is a really good point to talk about in an interview.

And then you can build that up from the portfolio. So the answer is yes, you should put it in and you should. Not ages, but briefly who was involved then names and what your roles and responsibility was. Who, what, where, when, why, who am I? What was the project? Where did we do it? When, why? So meaning responsibility.

Does it mean if you start to break [00:21:00] things down into them, then it gets really interesting and employable. Yeah.

Will Ridgway: Completely great. Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head that,

Jack Moran: It's quite a big thing. If I could just add something because well with the whole, teamwork and separate responsibility, I think that is really important to distinguish between what was so low and what was, in a team.

Because too many times we've all seen portfolios and CVS where it's essentially. I'd done this, I've done that. I'd done this. I had done that and it makes it sound like the candidate almost drove the whole project themselves. So I think going back to your point is really important, Stephen, to actually say what was in a group and if you enjoyed the group work as well, but then also putting your solo

Stephen Drew: responsibilities, what little life lesson, like talk to Steve moment.

So I'll play it. I'll put everyone to sleep. But I remember when I did my part to. And I went and you could do stuff in a group on your own. And I was like, you know what, I'm going to do it on my own. Cause I was at the time I was like, I want to control every element of the project. I've got great idea.

And all the people [00:22:00] who did a group work together got first. And I really struggled and I had my lowest mark of the whole year. So I ended up with two one, but I think for that, I scraped the low to two. And so the point is. There is something about strengths and numbers. So group work, absolutely. Put it in as fun.

I think. I think it's great. So what else have we got to go? Because I think we've hit the nail on the head about the sample portfolios and we can always return to that, but maybe we should talk about. Design portfolios and me Chanel one, though, I'm an expert on how to do a design portfolio in the old physical world.

It is going to be very interesting in the new COVID era. And I've got a few ideas from it and I would echo is that best imagine now, right? Like the way you're watching online and the way we could demonstrate, and we could share. Documents, I think long documents in this online world [00:23:00] is the death of your, of interest.

Okay. If you've got this long slide show on, I probably would be looking around on my phone, not engaged. And I think that it's the same thing of, so maybe in the old world where a physical interview, you could get. Some more pages beyond the, on the table, because you can flick through it if people are losing interest.

Cause that's the thing in the internet. You it's almost like you can gauge the person's. How excited they are. And then you stay on the sheets a bit longer when people are interested and you move past things, which are less of interest to the interviewer, but now we're in online world.

So it's going to be very hard to read that because we're looking at digital pixel versions of us. So again, I think less is more right. I really do. Cause you can always follow up. If they were interested in one page, we've stopped after the biggest [00:24:00] downfall you can do on a portfolio in an interview.

And we will do another one of these on interviews with portfolios, the crickets navigate stuck on one page. And it happens all the time. People can get stuck on one page talking about. The meaning and the intricacies of the design, the first of one project. And you can spend so much time on it.

And you've got to think that in an interview you have an hour or something like that on the online, the sample portfolio, you've got a few seconds like the CV to impress someone, and then they get more time in the interview. You've got a few minutes before you lose interest, right? There's a few examples and we obviously will be respectful to everyone.

We know, but as this one or two times when we've had candidates who go to an interview and if they talk too long and spend too long on one or two pages in the portfolio, the whole interview runs. Too far too long. And the interview was I'm not interested. [00:25:00] And so with the portfolio, you have to think of it.

As a narrative, you got to think about. You're pacing and time. And you've got to look at the document and think one minute on this one, two minutes on this one if I was explaining that and if so, can someone look through it and pick up information quickly and go through? Is it clear? Is it concise?

Make sure the funds are illegible not too much tax. Do you don't want to overwhelm me? They'll make things too small as well. Let the pages breathe and think about it. Like we're calmly set in. And you walking me through it and that's the. So it's real relaxed and excited, and you're going for your projects.

And every page is like a mini treat. They let you flick through it together. And wow, there's an example of a Axona metric, a BIM model, and you're all excited to talk about it and what you did at uni or what you did in [00:26:00] industry. And that's the pace of it. You don't want to throw everything out there.

And at the same time, what you don't want to do is have it. You need a thesis and, or you need to be a quantum physicist to understand what's going on, but that's my opinion. And so at that I'm more interested on a clear and concise portfolio that is, understand the bone legible. And when you read it, it feels light and easy and exciting.

Not blank when I say light and easy. It's that, it's almost a pleasure to go through. It's like an exciting book. It's like a, I call him the, that you're interested in and you go to the end and you're like, my gosh, this person we've got to hire them because check it out. It was great. It wasn't too much.

Wasn't too little. Are you [00:27:00] excited for my portfolio?

Will Ridgway: Yeah, I've seen your portfolio. So

Stephen Drew: which when Paul went to prop two, oh, I put Paul one on the website, Architecture Social, you can leave a comment and say, if you tie on me,

Will Ridgway: I don't disappoint anyway. While I was why I wanted to the way I like to see interviews while I was in like the portfolio itself, is that.

It's like a presentation or even a even a test maybe without the sort of pressure that those two generally have. But if you go back to school, for example, and you have to do your mass tests or whatever, you don't wanna spend one the whole. Oh, one question you want to make sure that, if second too long on one particular question you do want to move on so that you can cover the whole thing to give yourself a better chance overrule.

And I think that's quite important. And of course, when you're in your interview, whoever you're being interviewed by, we'll ask you questions about particular [00:28:00] projects. And of course you will want to elaborate, but you've got to be conscious of the time. So you don't have. Giving too much details about one particular project and then leaving out one of your one of the works that you do want to show off at the end when they run out of time.

And generally they're going to be about, you're going to have about an hour, less than an hour, to be honest, to go through your portfolio. As soon as the interview starts, it's not straight to the portfolio necessarily. So you do want to keep an eye on that. That's one of the reasons why as well, in an interview, you start with your best works at the beginning, so that if you do end up accidentally running out of time, at least you've covered the works that you want to.

The words are going to be the sellers to whoever you've been interviewed. And I think as well, when it comes to how you present your portfolio, you can obviously have it bounded or bind done all the right word. Is that where you can just flip through and you can skip pages as well.

You don't have to go for every single page. You can move over. I've seen [00:29:00] people as well, where they just have loose a free sheets, which it's, it can be good. As long as you've got some sort of order to. And

Stephen Drew: sweaty fingers and stuff, and it will panicking with sheets flying around everywhere.

Will Ridgway: Yeah, exactly.

I think as long as you have another book what's good about it is that you can grab a piece of paper and you can flip through and change the order slightly in order to fit the conversation. So that's one of the best things about it, but yeah, I would keep when you're going through a portfolio, Half as much, you do want to have a lot of information there, but you don't necessarily have to talk about all of it.

It's there as a backup in case you're the interviewer us. Can I see more of your technical work for this particular project? And you're like, yeah, sure. Here it is. Treading a little bit on interview how to do interviews, but it does relate to the portfolio.

Stephen Drew: It's fine. I think it's, it goes hand in hand.

So I think you're bang on well under and remember, and that as well in an interview, for instance, [00:30:00] What you can do when you've got more experienced on the line is you can actually even bring what you can start separating your works into different portfolios. You can have a professional portfolio, you can have some of your academic work almost as another booklet because you might not even look at it when you're, when you've got more experience.

And then where you can also put your technical work or some technical examples. Work in there. So let's pretend you work on a project with the stages three to four. You could do that. And that's what I was going to say with brass question here about Love's drawings and so forth, because I think it's really important to show.

Drawings you were involved and it might be a nice idea for you to almost put it in a separate portfolio. You could put a little image of a GA that you were involved in, which is in the portfolio. And then maybe what you want to do is you could show case you could even print out a package in a separate document and take that long to demonstrate all the technical stuff you've done.

[00:31:00] Cause the cause in an interview. And it's very much about because your portfolio. It can speak. If it can speak for yourself, then you've got a strong portfolio. Chances are though you will need to visually go through your portfolio. Call or now a video or in person. And you're almost going to carry the person on the journey with you got to show them insight.

And so that they get excited about who you are. And the thing is that sometimes the conversation can flow in different ways because we're all human. It's like this whole topic the way without me and the boys though, is that it's not scripted because we know the main points we're going to go. But the conversation flowers and the, what I like about that is that then you and me, then there's a genuine conversation.

So it comes from an unscripted place. And I think that's the same way. We've you CV, you have to re you have to, [00:32:00] for instance practice the main points. What you want to do is speak from the heart about what you do, and then it organically flows. And so what you can do is with the flow of go, you can then if the conversation starts going towards the work that you've done and the GA's, you've done an industry, and they want to talk about that because they're interested in that, then what you can do is say interestingly, what I've done is.

The drawings in a separate document in case you want to look and they go, oh yeah, fantastic. And you go, yeah, no problem. Okay, let me bring it out. And then you go, is this drawing, use that drawing and then. You've got the conversations flowed really well. And that is the key. And that's the thing, it's, we've all this, the portfolio needs to support you getting the job and conveying to them that they want you on the team.

And so there, it's goes back to what you asked at the start Jack before. What is the best way to do [00:33:00] the portfolio and the best way to do the portfolio is the best way that they get excited about you. And the few things that we're talking about is that all long portfolios exhaust the vom and then they will be this enchanted and that's what we want to provide.

And so a successful portfolio to me is one that fuels. Charlie for the go through that, then you start getting really excited by the person and then you want to hire them because you think, oh my gosh, if the person that can do this portfolio is talking to me here is going to be like this in my office.

They're going to be a massive assets. They're going to be someone I want on my team. This is someone I want as a director in the future. And that's who they're going to hire.

Jack Moran: Excellent. And so question I wanted to put, so both of you, throughout your time in recruitment, what would you say is the number one common mistake?

That you've seen [00:34:00] in people's either sample or design portfolios that you could, advise some of the graduates to just steer clear off some that you've seen, so many times that you want to bang your head against the wall every time you do see it,

Stephen Drew: what do you think?

Will Ridgway: It's a difficult question because unlike CVS, I don't think there's a key thing that everyone makes a mistake on.

I think what I would like to bring,

Stephen Drew: oh, I see what that will wind you up. Actually, I'm going to let me have a bit of fun. What about files? Which are huge in size and the drawings don't load.

Will Ridgway: Oh yeah. I don't know how you'd, I don't know how you fix the drawings. It's not loading because I'm not a tech Wiz, but I don't know how you fix that, but know the file is.

It's a big issue.

Jack Moran: That's compressing, isn't it? I think, I've seen that before when some people will like compress images Stephen can correct me if I'm wrong, when you're exporting like PDFs and stuff, aren't

Stephen Drew: you're on to something here. Compression is a big thing. And I think actually that I would always advise anyone that does a CV or a portfolio in Photoshop [00:35:00] is crazy.

I think that you need to do it in this. Because the wedding end desire, because if you do spend a Photoshop flatten it and the fast lights will go bonkers, it'll go to 500 Meg or something. You really, if you want to do a really good portfolio, do it in design and that's because then you start thinking about grids, lining stuff.

Proportions, you can center things on this, on the pages and you're really are becoming a massive your craft. So that's probably a really practical one to do is that you should be doing and not illustrate or anything like that. You should be doing a portfolio in InDesign because then you can visualize all the pages.

You can go for the flow, all the stuff we've done and everything's lined up in grids. So for anyone that hasn't used InDesign, what it does, is it snap. So far as images and fire and tax and it arranges things in a really logical cohesive way. And that can make a big difference in how your portfolio looks.

The other thing is, yeah, file size. You want to make sure it's [00:36:00] under 10 mag under 10, the 15 Meg, you and the tax should. Clear, I will, don't go with a wacky taxed and also a few things pack piece for me. I hate it when images are overlaid and I would recommend you definitely keep the background clean and clear.

It's always safer to go with something like a white background, worst case. I think color when done tastefully looks really good and sometimes it can be absolutely weighing. Then I think when you're doing the portfolio, Just the thought and thing is, remember that your work, the drawings and the content and the architecture is the forefront.

That's what we're talking about. And everything on there should be supportive. And it goes back to that thing I was talking about earlier of almost wants to be, you almost want it to be like this beautiful work of art that you go through on a coffee bar must be on a coffee table and someone [00:37:00] would flick through it and enjoy.

And it needs to be really easy to, and to read, but in this line is so key. So key and make sure that the poor, the PDF works, make sure it loads on another device because sometimes someone will send me a port for a CV portfolio and it does no open. And then what happens is I say, I will get, cause I have a short attention span, so I will get frustrated.

And then what that means is I'm already. Slightly before I go into it, which is really unfair on the person then in the, cause it could be the best work ever. This is the thing you're dealing with people's emotions and who they are and busy-ness so you want to make it as easy as possible. I remember my old DT teachers to say, got to make sure my grandmother can do it.

And it's the same concept. You have well, in my thing, you've got to make sure that my mum bless her. If you're watching mum, sorry, but she ain't the best the computer as, and if my mum could go through your CV loaded up, because the file size isn't too big [00:38:00] and the, when she can understand what's going on, then you're halfway there.

Really?

Will Ridgway: Yeah. That's actually, that's a good point. I copy. If we go about the file size, I think what I was going to. So talk about is when people

Stephen Drew: done through this as well. It.

Will Ridgway: We do not do links always a PDF format. Don't send a link over to showcase your portfolio. Even if it's a website link, they won't look at it. It's it's a hassle we transfer. Sometimes we can't do that. The file without having to go through RIT system. So yeah always a PDF don't use links, but I think what I was going to talk.

Was as for people who have done technical work, but in their portfolio, they do not show any technical drawings at all. And that's mainly because technical drawings aren't necessarily the prettiest thing in a portfolio. And a lot of people leave out because of that, because they want to show that beautifully designed buildings that they have done.

And they always forget to include the technical work or not forget. Choose not to put the technical work in now. I think it's [00:39:00] always important to have the technical work in particularly as work you're going through role where you'll be doing all round. It is maybe less. So if it's a company that solely focuses on the front stage of projects, but I always includes technical work because it shows you're versatile.

You can do it as well. Yeah, because that's, when you want as an employer looking at your portfolio and being like. Can they do technical work. If they have that question in their heads, you want them to not have a question that, how do you want them to invite you in for an interview to learn more about your technical work and not wonder whether or not you've done it or not.

So always include that. I think that's one of my one of my things, but yeah. Links as well. Yeah, that's a really big one that links.

Stephen Drew: I think you're onto something with the tactical and then I think it goes back to what I was saying in the last one. I can't emphasize it enough. You got to remember if someone's hiring.

They it's because in their business. So in the Architecture business, There's a need for someone. Okay. And the way you get a job is by [00:40:00] making them, they need to be emotionally evolved in you emotionally interested, and then they need to know that you can do that. Okay, because that's what everyone does.

So for instance, when they buy it, when you buy an apple laptop, you got, oh, it looks so good. And it's great. And then you go on and they can do my, my, my homework on there. But the first thing you do is the emotion backed up. And this was the technical, it's the same thing. So you want the person in the interview to be wowed by.

You who you are as a person, how you talk and the beautiful design work you do not forget the technical though, because that's the homework that's the bit that they need, right? Because when you're in industry, you're not going to be doing Photoshop collages all the time. You're going to be sometimes rolling your sleeves up needed.

And the project at construction stages. So they need someone that they can feel comfortable with, who can do drawings of stuff. And that's what the technical work does. So [00:41:00] it's, it is such a prerequisite, in my opinion, it's not even a, maybe it's like you do need technical drawings in there. You need at least a technical detail, which is, I don't know, close one to five, one to 10, something like that.

And ideally something you've done in practice. And my friends who came on, he made a really good point. There's other stuff that you can do as well. Fill out our planning application through a survey, all this stuff for the end. You don't need, if you, it doesn't need to go right next to you. Design work.

Imagine though, if you brought that up as a separate portfolio and then that there, I think it'd be quite impressive.

Jack Moran: Okay. Excellent stuff guys. And we've got a question here. It's a bit of a niche question here, but I'd like a Stephen, I think. Be able to give some good tips on this one. So we've got someone here who's got experience working on, large scale commercial projects.

And I'll say that person has pretty much always worked on large commercial projects in all of their portfolio, but they're going to now be applying for small practices, smaller designs on a much [00:42:00] smaller scale. Is there anything you could that they could do to tailor it, to look more attractive to someone who is more about the smaller scale projects?

Stephen Drew: Do you know why it can go both ways? Really good question. I always think that you got to remember, especially in your early part of your career, that the reality is sometimes you joined the company and because you're lucky to get a job, it's very hard to have control over what sector that's.

Project sense. So in this case, commercial, you might one residential, but the job requirement is on a large-scale resident, a commercial office, and that's the way it is. So I would start thinking about transferables, first of all, I would say to the person that wrote the question should embrace the fact that you work on commercial and be proud of it because you've clearly done well.

And this did that. You're not conscious about working in the large group. Forever. But the fact that you're thinking about that, that now is really good. Maybe what you could do even then is that you could unborn the suggestion from my friends cause he came on Sunday and did a really nice [00:43:00] chat about what he looks for because he is an empire himself and associate a BDP and he mentioned.

People who've done it upon applications on small scale conservatories, or you can even send one off your, you, you can learn the process and do an imaginary. So what I would say to this sort of guy who asked the question is that it embraced the Alaska stuff that you've done. And maybe what you can do is if you're conscious about working on smaller stuff, It's that you could do an extension for your mom, or it could be imaginary or anything like that.

Just to show that you worked at two different scales and also in the portfolio, maybe you could put an emphasis in any details that you've done. There's an essence of detail of a large building. It shows that you can detail. And the point is when you detail, then you're solving a problem. Half the time.

Because you don't know how the detail you work it out and that's the same thing. So by showing that you can detail, it shows that you can problem solve. Yeah. [00:44:00]

Will Ridgway: William, no, I think that's I think you've a fan. I don't really want to different pages. And you said yeah, just and bright and embrace when we work.

And yeah. If you've got your technical work, you throw that in as well. Excellent.

Jack Moran: So if we do this and we do a little bit of summation, for everyone watching, so we can go back through the key points. So we started with the solid portfolio. I think we all agreed that 10 page mark, that's around.

Yeah, keep it short and sweet. It's all. It's all about marketing yourself, isn't it. And then when it comes to the presentation of sample portfolio you want it to look nice. You are just essentially trying to, show your best work on, everything that you've done. Pick out the bit, what is going to make you want to read on the UV in the interviewer.

And then when it comes to the actual design portfolio, I think we know we picked out that you don't designs Kia layout is key. It's all about because it's very visual, isn't it? Essentially, you're trying to get the person reading your portfolio to want to keep reading. And when it comes to an interview are, if you've got your most relevant experience to that point, your practice at the [00:45:00] front that is backed up with good technical detailing or anything else that the practice might specialize in.

Then I think that's going to throw their attention most. Is there any other sort of key. Do's or don'ts for you guys or do you think we've pretty much gone over the

Stephen Drew: fundamentals? I think we've gone over it. So for this so for me, I'm just going to go through, whereas, nice list here. Sample portfolio.

Yeah. It's all Keller, no fella to the sys to the. It feels light it's breathable and everything. There packs a punch online PDF. The only habit to beg. Keep the file size under ideally under five Meg, be careful with the compression, make sure the images are still allegeable. It's the balancing act of making sure I think compression.

Really make things you spent so long and you want to make sure the balance is right the same time. [00:46:00] They'll make the file to bag. Make sure this is done in InDesign. Make sure the PDF reads out. Make sure it's printed by a four as well as a free and loaded up on your. One up on your tablet, loaded up on your mobile, loaded up and your computer.

See what it looks like on your phone. The employer might look it on your phone, test, everything. And I, and again, I know we mentioned last week at a CVS, the same thing. There's one one of the, one of the guys we on the Architecture, Social director, what's a lot of respect from pat. Keith can be, if, for instance, he's reading lots of CVS and residential spelled wrong.

It suggests that. Maybe you haven't got attention to the detail. So you've got to spell checker, spell check, spell, check, spell, check, get someone else to read that in case you missed out the word automatically when you reread it, which does happen because I do it all the time. Get someone else to do it design.

So design work and technical work yet probably little bits of that or. [00:47:00] No fella and most recent stuff at the store front, most relevant stuff at the front professional work, always at the top, in my opinion. And that's what gets people jobs. If you have it. And if the, and then followed by your most recent and best academic work, a design portfolio, it's.

And fit well, 10, 15, 15 to 30 sheets design portfolio. You want to 20 can beautiful ones can be great. Make sure it works online. I'm just thinking out loud on the spot. Test it on zoom. If you may can go through it, maybe. So like we've well, I would load up the portfolio and talk about it online.

You might not be able to do a physical interview, then do a physical interview and test the test that bam. So you want to do all that, and then you want to make sure if you're going to go for an interview in person, a free ring bound, doesn't need to be too. [00:48:00] Extreme. I've seen some beautiful portfolios in person where you can make it.

I never did that. I think a clean wing bound portfolio really works. Wow. Again. Remember, if you feel that all the technical work you've done in practice, doesn't really fit in the flow of that portfolio. You can take a second portfolio which will have technical stuff in it. You remember, you can have the main portfolio and a supplementary doc.

And the point of the supplementary document is that when you're in the liver, you can say, we can go for the portfolio. And if there's anything else you want to go into the technical stuff, I've got more stuff here. Should you want to, if you say that before you go into the interview and you've given the employer the choice, which is great, make sure the portfolio, you the flow and you've rehearsed that and do not get stuck on one page.

So go through it. I think that's a nice round that for me, I really think we should [00:49:00] go out on a bang. So unless anyone has a great question. Yeah, we did

Jack Moran: have one more question coming from Isabelle that we'd all give a quick opinion on this, but it's the idea of, do you include anything personal at the end of your portfolio?

Personal projects,

I'm just going to straight off the bat say. Your portfolio is an architectural design professional piece of work that you're, using to show employers and where there's, there's no harm in a bit of personality, but for my opinion, for the portfolio, I'm going to say, no,

Stephen Drew: do you know what?

I respect that. And I'm more, I'm inclined to say it's safer not to. I think if you're going to do it, you've got to be bold. And this can't be my. Bad pottery and my sketches, which I thought were cool. And then you show someone that it's not is they got to be really good. They got to be really good.

And if they're really good, then great. That's objective though. What is good though? Isn't that? And so that's the danger. I think I would want to speak to a few people and feel confident on [00:50:00] it because I've seen, so for instance, Melissa's. Thank you that she's posted on the Architecture. Social is blinding and they probably would put that in.

I can see an empire going. Wow. That's amazing. My sketches though, would have got not got me the job, right? Let me just say that right now, but woke up me. The me, the job was that I did MicroStation and I understood architecture and I was quite keen on 3d visualization. So that got me the job as a part, one, along with my passion.

And I worry if I put down, oh my. Compute our hobbies and freely modelings, then it may have ticked the box of salmon alien. What do you think? Yeah, I think so.

Will Ridgway: I think sometimes it is a subjective thing to put in. So on one hand if I feel like it can sometimes distract from your main body of work and so may, might be best to leave out.

But like [00:51:00] Steve said, if you've got, if you've got something that, it will add to the portfolio, will strengthen. Then I think it's always worth putting it in at the end as well. Do you know what I

Stephen Drew: would do thinking out loud? I probably wouldn't put it in the end.

What I would do is like the technical work. I would bring it in your bag in an interview or have it on a fire ready in the zoom. If they were in precedent painted, it's really quick and clear and you go, oh yeah, gee, you were painting yourself. I love painted. Yeah. Look at more. I did last week and then you load it up and they're like, oh, the thing is what's nice about that.

Is that it's optional. And you can assess the flow because if you feel like the innovator or the pace of the portfolio is good enough as it is, you leave it there. Or the other thing that you can do is that if they go, oh yeah that's a bit of paint and you go, you know what? I brought a fantastic interview.

I loved the time. I really appreciate it. I will follow up at the end of this, whether they will thank you. And I'll send you one or two pitch papers. So that's very bold, but if [00:52:00] you did that, I would be impressed. But again, you better make sure it's not Mr. Beans clean. And at the end of that movie, the one I'm on about me, not Mr.

Bean's Mona Lisa, and needs to be a Mona Lisa and mine would be Mr. Beam on Elisa. So that's what I asked. Cool. I think I've I feel that we found

Jack Moran: pretty dissected the portfolio haven't we? And hopefully it has been really helpful for everyone who's joined us today. Thank you guys very much.

If you do have any other questions, feel free to drop any of us through your message. Oh, it looks like I might have just had a question actually coming from myself. This is one I'm interested in how you engage with HR while you're sitting in architectural practice. Oh, that's an interesting question.

I think

Stephen Drew: I can finish. I'm

Jack Moran: actually, I've actually got my man Stephen Drew to thank for that. So when I originally started in recruitment, I worked in essentially support team. So what I would help people fill roles where there was, Very busy working on other projects, or they just didn't have enough resources.

And such [00:53:00] a case happened with Stephen Drew. He was very busy in his world of BIM and magical architects that if he had any support roles that he had taken on via, office manager or practice manager, HR manager I've also worked outside of architecture practices on those role. So at the time you said, when you come here, it meets some of the architecture practices and the support roles they have.

We can get you to help out on. So that's an ever since then, I've actually, I really do enjoy working on them support roles because architects are great, but all you architects are friends with your receptionist and your HR people in the practices and, they need some love and attention too.

So I think that's the sort of angle that I try and bring in as well. And also, I like, I liked doing a bit of both, but a nice little mixed bag. I've got the architect side that I can do, but I can also do, the HR, the office manager, the practice manager down to the receptionist.

Stephen Drew: My social practice, isn't just architects that, and that's what we have to remember.

And I think that's, I'm an architectural practice. And this is interesting about the person that might receive your CV in portfolio. Could it be the receptionist could be the office manager. And [00:54:00] so all the points that we've talked about, and this is where Jack agrees, I was ready because if the third, the first person, I guess it, they might be the business owner who makes the decision.

They might be the receptionist, or they might be the office manager. And you need to make sure that it's very clear who you are, what level you're at, and that they can access the design portfolio, access your CV, and they can pass it onto the right person. Literally sometimes this person we're so busy, there'll be scanning for words, part two Architectural Assistant BIM Coordinator and our receptionist.

And if you don't have that key word, then you do not get seen. So that's a really good point as well, as strong as your portfolio is, make sure that your application that you send off is very. So I would say Stephen Drew part two Architectural Assistant available immediately for work in your London office, personalize the email that will go through to Jack's HR coordinator.

And then [00:55:00] it says for the attention of Marie dah, I'm really interested in this architect for practice because of X, Y, Z. Look at their website, look at something. Please a CV and portfolio attached. Any questions, please let me know. Very clear, very concise. And all the files are named. And I think that we're, that really helps, but great.

Should we leave it there guys?

Jack Moran: That's everything for this week. So thank you everyone for coming and yeah, perfectly. See you next week. See you on Thursday. My social events. I have a few drinks, a bit more of a casual event for anyone who gets to know each other, but we'll see how. Am I alive? Yeah, you can come find, you can come.

We'll you're

Will Ridgway: invited to thanks everyone for

Jack Moran: joining us. So have a lovely week.

Stephen Drew: Bye.