How to create an architecture portfolio?

When you apply for a job at an architecture firm, it is very important for you to know the right way as to how you present your skill. You need to make the best effort in creating a good architecture portfolio that would help a lot in proving to be of much use. So, you have to know the right way as to what to include in the portfolio so that it can look the best. So, here we would be discussing the important things which you need to concentrate in the perfect manner.

• Make the presentation attractive: You should keep in mind not to send your resume without the portfolio. If you happen to send plain text resumes, it would never impress the recruiter at all. Your actual ability is much more important than the institute or college that you have graduated. So, you need to focus on it seriously if you wish to land a good job offer. You have to make your best effort to make the presentation of your architecture portfolio quite attractive. By providing with the best and attractive presentation, your portfolios would make it quite presentable. This would also make your stay much confident about getting the job as well. You should not try to include lots of information as this would only make it look lengthy and boring. The best thing to do is to keep it short and precise. Your ability as an architect can also be checked by looking at the margins, proportion, the font of a page. So, you need to be quite serious when you create your portfolio in the right manner.

• Include your personal information: The work of an architect is multidisciplinary. You need to mention all your personal information that would prove to be quite informative. This is because it would provide the recruiter with the right information of your personality. You can try to add your interests to the portfolio. You do not have to hide anything from your skills like photography, painting, creative writing, etc. So, this would help a lot in making your portfolio a meaningful one with all personal details. The recruiter would also be able to find himself or herself quite informative about yourself.

• Choose different portfolios for the different source you apply: It is important for you to look forward to creating different portfolios for different sources that you are applying. Try to make a good research of the particular company that you are willing to submit your portfolio. By getting to know their philosophy, you should be able to create something unique. But at the same time, you should refrain yourself from mirroring projects of the office. This should be avoided as it would prove to be quite annoying to the recruiter to see a copy of their project. This would also create a negative impression on your quality. So, try to be original in your work in the best way that would make you stay yourself on a much better and safer side.

• Include technical drawings: You can try to include technical drawings that would help in showing your interests to the construction but it should be done without exaggeration.  There is no need to explain all the things like plans for the floors and such other sections. If you include too many drawings, then it would only eat up your valuable spaces. You can try to include 1:1 or even 1:2 details of the architecture which would prove to be much interesting as well.

• Attach a PDF with low size: It is not at all cool for online platform portfolios. It proves to be quite slow and also navigation seems to be quite difficult when it comes to its interface. When you create a portfolio with PDF format, it helps in searching for it without any problem at all. The office would save your portfolio in their system and might contact you in case of a future So, you can try to make the PDF with a maximum of 15MB. This would prove to be much convenient to save it without any problem at all when you apply for any job related to architecture.

• Do not forget to include cover letters: It is equally important for you to ensure of concentrating on your email. You have to make sure of including cover letters that would prove to be quite useful. When you compose your email, the text in the body should be attractive and brief at the same time. You also need to ensure of not making the mistake of forwarding the same letters to all the offices. Emails that arrive with the subject, “fwd” are simply ignored. So, these minor, though small, might lead to a lot of problems where all your effort made in creating your portfolio would get wasted. This would also because of your own negligence as well.

Thus you should try to ensure making the right effort in creating the best architecture portfolio. You should be honest in providing all the right information about your skills and expertise. This is because if you mention that you have got the best experience in the particular architectural software and after joining you fail to work on it, you might lose the job. So, being truthful is very important where you have to revise the portfolio before you send it to the offices