Speaking of portfolios (here goes my super smooth link to the next tip) keep them short and sweet! In the six months it took me to get my first placement my portfolio evolved dramatically. For a start I had to address the aforementioned flaws but after that I still reconsidered, redesigned, tweaked and fine-tuned it time and time again. What started off as a slightly overweight, chatty, blonde secretary was condensed down and transformed into a slick, no nonsense businessman sporting a nice jazzy tie. Remember you are addressing an audience who are strapped for time, they don’t want to be reading an essay on each project and in most cases, to put it bluntly, they wont. This can often result in them missing the idea and overlooking what may actually be a good piece of work. Try to restrict yourself to just one sentence per project. This will make you really think about what you want to say; it will force you to be clear and concise with your words and will ensure that people know and understand exactly what they are looking at.