Portfolio advice

[akepps]

I am a recent grad, employed at a consulting firm where I worked during grad school. I never really set up a good portfolio following school, since I already had a job, but I'd like to create one, since eventually I will be leaving my job (especially since nothing is secure in this economy). Any suggestions for how to layout a portfolio? There are certain projects that I am very proud of (both academic and professional), but do you include the entire report? It seems silly to me to just stick a few pages into a portfolio. I will also be included several GIS figures, and a few brochures. Is it bad to keep older work in there, or only recent projects?

So I guess basically, the question I'm asking is: What do you keep in your portfolio? How often do you update it?

[nrschmid]

I catalog everything including school projects and work samples. Right now, I keep mine in digitial format (Flash) with about 60-70 projects on disc, dating back about 10 years. I designed mine as a website although I choose not to display my work over the internet. I burn the portfolio but only distribute it when needed. I haven't updated it since last November and will probably be doing it again in the next few months. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon but it does take a considerable amount of time to update it.

I would check out land8lounge.com (blog for LAs but has plenty of examples of portfolios). You can host a portfolio on a website, make a PDF, have a hard copy, or make 1 page project descriptions/cut sheets similiar to what a firm uses when going after a contract. A single PDF document would not be set up in the same way as a website with hierarchy. Search previous posts on here as well.

[beach_bum]

I like to tailor my portfolio based on the job, so I find it helpful to have a little bit of everything available. As for written items, I like to keep them to a maximum of 3 pages, with the preference to being 1-2. I have the abstract to my thesis, a shorter staff report, a couple of white papers and a short research paper. For visual items, maps, graphics, plans, etc. Best of Luck!

This reminds me, must update my portfolio!