Portfolios are a regular part of job applications, especially in the digital field. Whether they include copywriting samples, graphic design examples, or highlights of the candidate’s top web development projects, it’s likely that you’ll come across many portfolios during the hiring process. So, it’s important to understand how to evaluate them.
While a portfolio might look good visually, what’s to say that person has the ability or experience to work in your business? Or if the work is good – is it really relevant? These are the types of questions you need to ask yourself during the review process.
So, with that in mind, here are a few things you should consider:
1) Is The Work Relevant?
When reviewing a portfolio, it’s important to consider whether the work that they’ve presented is relevant to what they’d be doing in the role they’re interviewing for.
For example, if the candidate is interviewing for a graphic design position and the job requires a lot of print design skill but their portfolio is full of mobile design projects, will they really be the right candidate for your business?
You want someone who can dive right in and get on with the work they’re faced with, so it’s important that they’ve got experience of working on similar projects.
2) Does Their Style Reflect Your Business?
Another thing to consider when reviewing a portfolio is whether the candidate’s style is similar to that of your business.
Now, I’m not saying that this means you should completely disregard a candidate if there’s no work in their portfolio that is similar to your business (a lot of candidates are versatile, after all), but if their entire portfolio is made up of formal, corporate content and your business is more personable and casual, this candidate might find it harder to adapt the style they’re used to completely if they were to get the job.
3) Is Their Work Varied?
As I mentioned in the previous point, a lot of candidates’ work will be varied in their portfolios, and this is something to take into consideration when reviewing.
The more versatile a candidate is, the more experienced they’ll be and the more able to adapt to the work handed to them should they get the job.
4) Have They Presented Their Work Well?
Aside from the actual work included in a candidate’s portfolio, their presentation skills should be assessed when reviewing portfolios.
If their work is presented shoddily with no consistency – whether that be online or hard copy – that raises a question about the pride they have in their work and the quality of it.
This is also particularly important if they’re interviewing for a position where they’re a lot of presenting to clients. If the work they present to you is poor, imagine how it would look to your clients when they’re representing your business.
5) Have They Included The Journey?
Portfolios aren’t just for a candidate to show off about what amazing things they created, but to show you the processes they took to create their work and how they got to the finished product.
This gives you an insight into their working style which should help you to determine whether or not their style of work will fit your business.
Also, if they have only included the finished product, what’s to say that’s really their work at all?!
So there we go, some tips on things to consider when reviewing your portfolio.
Do you agree with these tips or have any of your own? Let me know in the comments below.