I swear, these guys are in pretty much every rendering ever.

http://www.immediateentourage.com/men-walking-away/

Brazerbozlak, I am a 40 year career owner and have looked at your stuff, have seen hundreds and it gets to be a blur. You are talented and obviously have great computer skills but where is the business Brazerbozlak? I have to throttle back my reviews with students, looking into the sun is too harsh of an approach…but at this stage you don’t have a resume and you need to OCD on a cover now. The portfolios are principally all you have but I’m seeking to make a business decision and while your portfolio speaks to the architecture it does not speak to my business….or how I will get paid back for your employ. Do you guys actually think that we are looking for replication of your ideas and theories? No chance! At this juncture, show me the money and then we will listen.

I am sorry that someone blew-smoke in your education but you need to now concentrates on a dynamite, hit-it-out-of-the-ballpark cover. Show me how you will contribute from the start….I suppose I can see you generating computer images, but is that all you want? If you want to develop into an architect you need to show the part with adding just one of your concepts into CD’s and talk frankly on how you are willing and able to start anywhere to make me money in return.

You’re in the Army now; show me how you can kill for me with a cover that shows you can deliver, for until you do that you’re just in a pile with the all the others with hopes and dreams that will never be accepeted, at leasr from the start.

Carrera,

Thanks for the review. I appreciate it!

I have resume and a generic cover letter I've written that I will personalize to each firm I send my stuff to. If you'd like to review those as well please send an email to brazerbozlak@gmail.com and I will attach them in an email to you.

Thanks again!

I love how people just think that if they throw a few red and blue arrows around the vicinity of windows that that somehow automatically shows their knowledge about building systems and sustainability... 

In sum... 

1) Your portfolio is too stylized... Remove the flashy text and stick to the basics. 

2) Some of your images and diagrams are too confusing and I have no idea how they relate to your concept. If I can't understand your project by looking at a few large images, you've wasted your time. 

3) Most people don't read text. No one cares. Images speak louder than words. Reviewers have hundreds of these to get through. 

4) Stop decorating your portfolio with faded background images. It's distracting. 

5) Think about composition. Your education isn't an alcoholic beverage you can just barf out in the form of a portfolio after you've had too much. Have some fines in the way you present your work. Your composition is an architecturally-inclined attempt at a Jackson Polock Painting. Do you want to be an artist or an architect? 

80 pages!

come back when it's 10.

I second Non Sequitur

You don't have 80 pages of worthwhile work coming out of school. NO ONE will weed through this much information and it indicates you don't know what is important.

You need a one sheet teaser page that can be shipped with your resume.  If they want more they will ask and 10 pages is probably about right for a new grad.  As Carrera said they don't really care what you did in school unless they are looking for a rendering guy.  Mostly just looking to see if your on par with your contemporaries.    

I see the points made about portfolio quantity…however you are only talking about what – 2 or 3 years of work? If I was a guy with only that much experience I would show most all. Of course you weed through your inclusions but quantity is important….a portfolio needs to impress and just 10 pages is not enough, if you have more…one needs to show the full breath of experience. Again these things get fanned and most are quite extensive so if I was given just a few pages I’d fan with my pinky and wonder “is that it?” If these things were intended to target a particular building type or ability maybe 10 or less works but that’s not what portfolios are - they are by definition a collection of a body of work, not just a few selected works. If you only have 10 works then go with 10 but if you by miracle have 80 then 80 is what works.

As for text - we argued all the time amongst ourselves on how much and words to include in our proposal profiles but settled on just two paragraphs – One to state the problem and the other to state the solution. Architecture is problem solving and I think employers and clients look to your understanding of that fact. It is fan-stop-fan-stop and when we do stop we do read…just don’t send us into a space odyssey. I agree that only 1 page should be sent with the resume, perhaps a collage of images would impress.

I've been on my own quest to land my first job in the field after graduating this summer, and I've ran into much the same questions.  How long, how much test, and what to send in with a resume.  The text is something I've always been on the fence with, however I think in the context of a portfolio, where someone with know prior knowledge of you work, it's better to go with that than a collection of diagrams that are usually more difficult to interpret than you think.  I guess the teaser is somewhat of a mystery to me since I have never seen an example of one.  I feel my biggest hurdle to getting a look is the fact I was never able to participate in an internship while I was at school, the regional economy never recovered to the point where internships were offered again, in a place I had somewhere to stay (until this year of course)  And I moved far away from the influence of my school's alumni network, so no one has any idea about the level of education I've received.  I'm gonna keep on hitting till I get the nod, but the hunt sucks when there's not much out there to point you in the right direction.  Idea: Forum>Career Path Advice (or whatever title you want to give it)  I've found more good info in archinect regarding the hunt than anywhere else, it would be a great resource if discussions and other posts could be compiled, and expanded upon within its own category.