if i were you i'd go back and grab that fucker by the neck and get your due...you know i hate architects sometimes.

Bring a short portfolio to give to them [it could easily be an 8.5x11 with a money shot of a couple projects... like a contact sheet]... it saves alot of $$$
and i've noticed they appreciate it.

With hindsight being 20/20 and all, you should've sent some sample work (8.5x11s) along with your initial cover letter & resume. That way, the prospective firm has something in hand to identify you and your talents.

I don't think it would've hurt you either to have told them that you were interviewing elsewhere and couldn't lend them your portfolio. Employers (at least ones that don't have their head up their asses) should realize that candidates are interviewing with other firms, particularly if you've travelled to a city and set up a handful of interviews. It also makes you seem somewhat "in demand" if you've got interviews elsewhere - particularly when one of those other interviews is with a competing firm. Let 'em fight over you!

just curious,
1.why don`t you copy them on a cd (jpeg copies) and tell them you just have one copy? they can view them on their pc.
2.upload your pics and let them view.

portfolio is probably one of three places right now:

1.) trendy boutique hotel nightstand in fr--wait, napa valley
2.) under pile of shit on partner's desk so dense that even his boyfriend/overpaid office manager can't find it
3.) neatly arranged in a file cabinet under a heading like "people we'll call when we need low-paid, highly-skilled drafting help because that's how people get jobs, they just wait around for me to call them"

(i don't speak from personal experience or anything...?)

in other words, the asshole lost or stole your portfolio. and is trying to avoid you because he's a pansy-ass prick.

write it off, move on, and create a portfolio format that is "disposable" because firms often DO like to keep your work for a while, sometimes permanently.

never show a cd portfolio. give them something to hold.

leave a cd behind, if you wish.

also, any firm that asks to keep your portfolio is a firm of pricks. you don't keep something that costs $100 to print out and is that precious. they can ask for sample sheets, or even emailed pdfs later, but seriously, that's ridiculous. And they CERTAINLY should not KEEP portfolios.

send them a bill for the expense...and then when it's thirty days past due, take them to court...a small claims court could be perfect and if they don't show then you win by default

i'm assuming, of course, that you are genuinely pissed off by this and are willing to put in the effort to make their lives more difficult. although it might be more fun just to toilet paper their office.

when i went on interviews, and when i was interested in being hired (and felt that they were interested in hiring me) i would always offer a cd version of my portfolio to leave behind; i wouldn't wait for them to ask, i would offer. it's a $2 investment. it was always appreciated and gave the illusion i was well prepared. i do remember, an early 90's interview, when i showed my computer animations on a VHS tape, and then telling the principal he could keep the tape for his use.

sweet, a totally irrelevant advertising troll bot...... I totally want one of each of those phones.

our firm would never ask a candidate to leave behind an original portfolio ... although, since we do interview a lot of candidates, having a summary copy as a leave behind helps us a lot when we review a candidate's file several weeks (or months) later ... b&w is fine for a leave-behind since we've already seen the originals ... if you submit a summary portfolio as a teaser before the interview, it probably ought to be in color since you can see detail much better in that mode.

i personally don't like portfolios on a CD ... they're a pain to keep track of and use ... i'd much rather visit a well designed website (provided it's not painfully slow) to view the candidate's work ... if you do submit a portfolio on a CD, make sure it's something the firm can open and view ... i can't tell you the number of CD's i've received over the years that required software i don't have loaded ... in other cases, the presentation simply didn't work ... those go straight into the can and it's hard for me to overcome the bad impression they leave

whatever you do, don't send me 25 separate jpeg files attached to an e-mail ... i'm simply not interested in saving all those files to our network and wading through them one-by-one

when in doubt, go lo-tech

The K500i for $110!!!

thanks for your responses. especially myriam & quizzical - my thoughts exactly! i've never been asked to leave behind my full portfolio, even for a little while, but always sent a teaser 2 page sample with my resume prior to the interview. usually this is enough. my friend has suggested (and i'll be following this from now on) if ever asked, apologetically refuse but offer to come in a second time to speak with the partner who would still like to see it.

i'd never go beyond leaving anything more than my 'teaser' portfolio, since my portfolio is my personal and professional body of work, i'm conflicted with handing it out like disposable fliers. i've never left a cd - mostly because i've some architects find it tedious.

ochona & others, have you seriously experienced firms asking to keep/borrow your portfolio? (entire one i mean) i thought i was just dealing with unique dumb asses. since when did the tides turn towards this being okay? usually firms toss the resume and sample portfolio when they're done looking. i'd hope to god they'd have a good and strong enough impression of me during the interview to remember me without needing a full colour portfolio to jog their memory.

ps - i'm still waiting.

better hope you win so you can recover filing fee

i'll have to think about this. I was going to zip 2 to 4 jpgs into one attachment, since i've assumed that employer has an image viewer (such as the one in windows since the kodak viewer included with win95?)

However, there's quite a bit of freeware that creates a standalone EXE slideshow.

www (not CD) websites are not so easy, imo. therr's a choice between making an online payment for decent hosting or using an unreliable crap infested free host.
i like the idea of a reduced B&W sampler/portfolio as interview momento


~~~~~~
and of course i'd include a sample of the high-end high-performance condom i designed for that industrial design firm

"zoom zoom zoom" :-)

We've had quite a lot of interviewees recently say "this copy is for you to keep" after we've reviewed their portfolio. We would definately not ask to keep an entire portfolio - even for a few days - unless it was offered to us. But perhaps this firm that interviewed you has had similar experiences lately and is starting to assume that all interviewees these days are making enough copies of their books to allow them to leave one everywhere they go.

I think that it would be appropriate to send a letter to the highest ranking person who interviewed you reiterating that you were expecting that your book would be returned to you and requesting that they look around for it and ship it back to you when they find it.

It is helpful when candidates leave some visuals behind - whether a few pages or a whole booklet. We also have had a lot of candidates ask us if we have any images of the firms' work that they can take with them or borrow while they're making their decisions. We generally give them a few of the pages that we usually include in our marketing and proposals. I used to ask firms the same thing when I was interviewing, and occasionally they would lend me materials that they wanted returned. I always mailed their materials back promptly.

I'm not a big fan of CDs or online portfolios (I wrote about this on another recent portfolio thread.) These just don't have the likelihood of being seen by as many people in the firm. Also, when I want to quickly consider the merits of the top candidates in relation to each other the paper format is much better for this.
Consider that when firms are hiring it is because they have a lot of work - which usually translates to little time. Having to look up candidates' websites, or load their files from CDs, and bookmark or download and sort these materials, and then possibly take the time to print out their images - are all tasks that we just don't have time for when we're in "hiring mode."

Something that you should always keep in mind when interviewing: time that firms take to interview you and your competitors, review your resumes and work, show you around the firm, deliberate over hiring decisions, etc. is all unbillable time. It's all unavoidable, and an investment in the firm's future, but nonetheless it is taking away from billable hours in the present. Anything that you can do to streamline the process and save time and annoyance for the interviewers will be appreciated.

some interesting comments since my last post on this thread ...

e909: while our firm is relatively advanced from a technology standpoint, i still receive digital submittals from time-to-time that i simply cannot open without a) downloading some new software; or b) going to some other desktop in the office that has the application software needed, or c) spending an inordinate amount of my own time (*) ...

i dislike receiving a load of separate digital images because a) they take too much time to mess with, and b) they take too much space on our network (or my hard drive) ...

remember ... in any given week, i deal with a LOT of different candidates ... whether they like it or not, candidates need to submit portfolios that respond to the lowest common denominator ... otherwise, you are likely to get shuffled to the bottom of the stack ... because i'm VERY busy, i'm going to concentrate my attention on those candidates who a) seem to have the general capabilities i seek and b) make it EASY for me to know what they're all about

now, don't get me wrong ... i love to interview and it's fun to look at interesting portfolios ... if i had nothing else on my plate, i could devote a lot more time to that sort of activity ... but, i can't, so i have to make rationale decisions about how i use my time ... i just don't have the luxury of struggling with candiates whose submittals are difficult or obscure

(*) for example, i got a PDF file from a guy last week ... he had changed the extension on the file (for reasons i still don't understand) and it took 4 e-mails and the passage of three days before we figured out why my computer would not open his file