I believe the best time to present your portfolio in a first interview is at the very beginning of the meeting. Most interviewers will start with a question such as “In 3-5 minutes tell us about yourself.” This is your cue to respond with something like, “I’ve prepared a visual portfolio to do just that. Here is a copy for each of you.” And then you’re off.

But occasionally I hear from clients that the interviewers skip the introductions and go straight into the scripted questions. What do you do then? Don’t despair. You’re still in control. You have four options.

1. Stop the interview and insert your portfolio. This probably isn’t a good idea. Interviewers want to feel in control of the conversation. Disrupting the flow, especially with interviewers who skip the chit chat, will turn into an awkward situation really quickly. But at least know that it’s an option.
2. Don’t use the portfolio at all. This is ok, but you’ll probably feel a frustrated because you had a secret weapon that they didn’t let you use. It might throw off your grove through the rest of the interview, unless you have a backup plan like option 3.
3. Slip it in at the end. Even if your interviewers skip the get to know you questions at the beginning, almost every panel will ask you at the end, “Do you have any questions for us?” If you feel like you can only ask one question, say “I’ve prepared a portfolio for you to review. I would love the chance to spend a few minutes with you in a future interview to walk you through it and show you why I feel I’m the best candidate for this position.” If you feel like you could ask a couple questions, ask about wildly successful projects first, and then tease the portfolio.
4. Include a link to it in the thank you letter. If your interviewers are super hard core, or they run out of time, they might not even give you the chance to ask questions at the end. If this is the case, there’s still hope. When you send your thank you letter to your interviewers the day after, include a link to your portfolio. I recommend that candidates put the portfolio in the public folder of their Dropbox, and put that link into a link shortener like Bitly.com. You can shorten the Dropbox link to a custom URL like http://bit.ly/jacob-lindsay-portfolio. This is short enough that you could also write it out on a physical thank you card. The best part about Bitly is that you can track if anyone has clicked that custom link. If you see a click on it, then you know your interviewer has at least opened it.

Bottom line: If you don’t get to present your portfolio at the beginning of the interview, don’t lose heart. You still have a couple ways to get your wildly successful projects in front of your interviewer. If you would like to talk more about interview best practices, give me a call, or send me a text.