whoa, mine was like 5 pages, but i had a significant spread of competitions i had won and built work/furniture as well.

this was for a b.arch though, just to fully disclose.

i think my prof. portfolio may be too short, I only dedicate 2-page spreads for each project. I figure most employers have better things to do than look through 20+ pages of student work.

My MAarch thesis project portfolio is over 20 pages. But I made it into its own book so it had to have enough pages to warrant that.

You shouldnt have to turn the page to get more information on a project. This is maximum impact for very quick viewing. Its the art of being on point. Think like iceberg principle - you only see the top 1/32, the bulk of it is buried below. a 2 page open spread is just fine.

As an employer who does a lot of interviewing, I find that many entry level candidates will tend to overload their portfolios -- which leads to an overwhelming amount of explanation during an interview.

Give your prospective employers the benefit of the doubt -- if it's a place you would want to work, they're going to "get it" pretty quickly. Treat your prospective employer as though they're the experienced design professionals that they are.

I think most employers are looking for an overview -- especially during a first interview. Keep it simple and quick -- if you force the interviewers to spend more than 15-20 minutes going through your portfolio, you're probably going to lose your audience and they'll start jiggling their legs and checking their watches and blackberrys. look for this behavior and speed it up if you see these sorts of things starting to happen. Remember -- they're not as much in love with your work as you may be.

You may encounter situations where the firm does want to see more than a minimal portfolio -- my suggestion is to prepare one or more supplemental "project books" that present some of your special work in its full glory. If they want to see that much, you can haul it out and go through it during the interview.

don't include anything that makes them scratch their heads...

What do you make of employers who dont even look at your portfolio at an interview? I think its disrespectful but at the same time its them saying we really dont need anyone to do anything but drafting - the worst job I ever had was at a place that didnt look at my portfolio. The 2 best were places they looked at, and actually commented on like a crit. I'd say - dont even bother if they dont care to look. Any employers out there have insight?

or....you can always make a big portfolio and flip through it quickly.

it's all a matter of how one presents the portfolio on the moment. I mean, I probably have way too many pages and projects in mine but I think its possible to assess the situation and show only what's relevant at the interview (or not show anything, as was the case in my last interview, strangely). I think its pretty effective method for me, edit on the fly.

I know a guy who has an autographed picture of Doug Lewelyn in his portfolio

Thanks for all the feedback. Right now I have 7 projects, each with 1-2 double spreads (so 2-4 pages per project)... I figure I can mix and match them depending on the interview and job, instead of showing them all... 2 built/being developed, 5 academic. I thought I was supposed to have one longer project in reserve (10 pages or more.. start to finish, showing process), but I take it from the comments that this is now archaic.. maybe I'll have it as one of those project books quizzical suggested, instead.

evilplatypus, I get a sense that a large part of the profession is now commodified to the point that employers of recent grads may be largely indifferent to whatever we have to show in our portfolios... they probably know the design skills and thinking capacity we have pretty much by our degrees, schools, the studios we did and perhaps the grades we got. And if we turn out not to have them, they probably figure there's more of us where we came from... kind of depressing to contemplate, but who knows...

while the portfolio always is important to me, I'm actually much more interested in observing the candidate as he/she presents the material contained therein.

5-years out of school, you're all probably going to be somewhat embarassed by the naivete of what's in your portfolio anyway -- I'm more interested in knowing how you think and how you present your ideas - and whether you actually have any ideas. I want to see how you formulate sentences and how you adapt yourself to the questions I might ask. I want to learn about the diversity and breadth of your interests and abilities.

what's on paper is important -- what's in the chair opposite me is much, much more important. but, I really enjoy looking at cool work too ... so, bring it on!

same shit different day Urbanist - when I was interviewing for my first gig around 97-98 all i had was pencil and pen and ink. I had (1) really nice cad design drawing in black and white. No one really cared. It was can I get what theyre saying in the medium they know. Dont discount the interview either, I suspect the personality and attitude is weighed about 75%, past working experiance/drawings 20% and portfolio about 5%.