The Portfolio You Need to Get Hired

If you are preparing to submit your portfolio for the 1st time, this blog post is for you.

I submitted my first portfolio a year ago while applying for the greenhouse internship at Ogilvy& Mather in Paris. I love France and decided it would be nice to spend summer there instead living in the Miami heat. That was a challenge, but I tend to love challenges. Challenges are the means to progression. Creating a portfolio was frustrating, as I had never completed a portfolio of creative works before. Questions began to run through my mind, asking, “What do I chose? What to add? This or that?” Anyone looking to put together an impressive portfolio should follow these steps:

MAKE YOUR CHOICE

Pick 3-5 of your top-choice agencies for whom you would love to work. Dig into their culture, find brands they work with, and uncover their specialty (traditional advertising, digital, mobile, etc). Understand that agencies that want to hire you will pick you, but you pick the agency of which to apply, yourself.

Search their recent campaigns along with the names of their top creatives, and try to predict what they expect from a candidate’s portfolio. Incorporate pieces which can potentially match your agency’s culture. Make it personalized! You can always change it or add pieces which you think will work better for another agency.

BE YOURSELF

Do not try to create a portfolio to impress and claim something you are really can’t do. Be yourself and add pieces that you like most,which represent you well. Include pieces you are prepared to talk about and are proud of.

STAY FOCUSED

Your choice says a lot about you. You do not need to show every single thing in your portfolio; you only need to show the best pieces you really like. Make them flow as a story. If you have doubts whether a piece is your best effort, do not use it. It is surely not your best!

BE KICK ASS

As human beings we all are very different. Agencies are looking for creative personalities, not for robots who just execute campaigns. What makes you you? What’s your hobby? Have you ever climbed the Himalayas? Did you provide the voice-over for last Disney cartoon? Are simply a passionate cat lover but have 100 dogs? Think about it and try to find out what’s unique about you; and add it to your portfolio web page as an appendix with photos or videos to show who you really are.

Being creative means thinking differently, show it to agencies.

BE FLEXIBLE

Do not add campaigns for giant brands as Coca-Cola or Nike. Agencies have had enough of these, and are bored of it. It’s very easy to create a campaign for the brand everybody knows. Find out the #3 cola brand in the world and promote them. It’s always challenge to promote the brand which is less known.

STAY TUNED

Show your employer that you are open to the world and share links to your social network accounts. And the most important thing: do not forget to add your contact information!

BELIEVE

By the end of the day, you want to find the job at the agency you really like to love each other and live happily ever after to do it you have to be honest and create your portfolio the way your ideal agency will like. So you will be hundred percent sure if they like it that you need to work here. If they do not like it – that’s not your agency. Do not waste your time and love what you do.