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As I discussed in my last post, your portfolio should be as un-complicated as possible and speak for itself. The goal here is to waste little time on mundane details when in actuality, your architectural work should be speaking for you. Now I want to take the portfolio the next step further in order to streamline your job-hunt process.

Generally, a secondary part of your portfolio is a PDF version of your work samples whic you send electornically with your initial email inquiry. People view work samples as multiple different things. Some just think they are actual jpegs of renderings, models or completed buildings they have worked on. Some arrange them on individual PDF’s by project or others turn their portfolio into a PDF. This last option is the best, most efficient practice and most people chose to do this. However there are a few things to consider when you do this.

First is the file size of the PDF. Anything over 5MB is just too big and it either needs to be compressed or you must start eliminating content. Usually compression is not a big deal and you won’t lose anything.

Next you must consider the page size. This is extremely crucial in that you want to use a module that will work with an 8.5 x 11 printer. Take your PDFs and print them out on the most basic printer you can find on its default settings. The reason why you need to do this exercise is that this is most likely what any employer will do when they get your electronic files. So, if your files don’t fit on their paper, in either landscape or portrait layouts, or they look funky for any reason, this will hurt your chances to get an interview.

Also, please make sure that your color options on your work samples/portfolios will look good no matter how they are printed out. For instance, many color printers are not configured the same way. A dark lime green on one printer may read as an olive green or a true green on yet another printer. Even worse, sometimes the potential employer won’t even use a color printer. Meaning all of the tweeking that you did to pick that perfect green color will be wasted and may as well be blue or red.

Lastly, on work samples, advertise yourself. By that I mean put your name on it! When people are flipping through work samples, yours might be in a pile of 5 to 20 others. You want to make the potential employer aware of exactly whose work they are looking at. If this means that you have to put your name on every page of the PDF, then do it. Why wouldn’t you?

These are important things to consider. I know from experience and have seen potential employers take my beautiful PDFs and print them without color, with awful printer qualities and with images that run off the page. Is it their fault? Probably. But do they care about that? Nope. The key here is to make things simple so that you don’t omit yourself from the list of potential candidates.

I also want to talk about the idea of a website.

“But don’t websites require all kinds of advanced knowledge about computer language?” you might ask. No not really. Designing a website is not as complicated as you might think. Through a little searching around the internet, you can find templates to work off of and sites that can aid you in a step by step process. If you look at the footer of many websites, you can often see who or what helped to create the site. Or you could make your life even easier and use software that you probably already have on your computer. Adobe has a few programs that you can design sites off of but I chose to use the simplest thing I could find, Microsoft Publisher. If you can use PowerPoint, you are already far too advanced to let Publisher intimidate you. By playing around on publisher you will get the hang of things quickly and you can knock out your website design in a matter of a day or two.

Here is my professional website: www.MarcJoseph.info Its not fancy and I haven’t updated it since I looked for my last job. However, notice that I have multiple tabs that lead you to the various facets of my experience. Also see that I have avoided complicated process’ such as flash media or crazy text.

Make sure that you are keeping with the same conventions in your website as you are with your portfolio and work sample. That means that you want to emulate the same layout and information that you use throughout all of these. In effect, you are starting to brand yourself. By branding yourself, you are presenting a holistic image that you want to convey to employers, peers, or even your parents. In doing so, consistency is key.

Setting up a web domain is easy as pie and well worth the investment of a few bucks a month to host the website. The reason that this investment is worth it is that, in the end, you can most likely phase out your portfolio almost completely. By this I mean that you will have a portfolio that you bring to interviews, but you no longer need to make costly sets of portfolios to hand out. When you apply to firms, you can include your website in your email, cover letter, resume or all of the above. Then, you have complete control over the way that they view your work and you can even change it on the fly. Also, you can incorporate more of your work, both professional and academic, without overwhelming your potential employer.

Establishing things such as simple work samples or a website can really take away from the time and pressure you may have to face when it comes time to look for that job. Having a clear intention of how the look of your work should be perceived, you should be able to generate these things from your portfolio with little effort. You will now have something in your back pocket anytime you are in a situation where you have to act quickly.