Confidential and sensitive material

Redact the sensitive information, retain the engineering — and if what is left does not evidence the objective, leave the project out rather than submit it hollow.

What usually has to go, and what usually does not

The material that attracts an NDA is rarely the material that evidences an objective. That is the useful asymmetry here.

Typically sensitive: the client's identity, the site address, the project value, commercial terms, security arrangements, occupier details, tender figures, and anything identifying an individual.

Typically not sensitive, and where the evidence lives: the structural form, the loading assumptions, the span, the analysis, the option comparison, the reason you sized a member the way you did, the buildability constraint you resolved, the check you asked for.

So the usual redaction is a title block, a name and a number — not the calculation.

Redact properly

A black rectangle drawn over text in a PDF viewer is not redaction; the text is still in the file and can be copied straight out. The same is true of white boxes, highlighter fills and cropped-but-not-flattened images.

Redact by removing the content and re-exporting — flatten the page to an image if you have any doubt — and then check by opening the finished PDF and trying to select the text underneath. Do this before you email anything to two reviewers.

Also check the parts of a file nobody looks at: document properties, the author field, layer names in an exported CAD sheet, and the file name itself. A file called `ClientName_Tender_Rev C.pdf` has undone the redaction inside it.

Tell your employer, early

Portfolio material is your employer's work product as well as your evidence. Ask before you assemble, not the week before submission, and ask specifically: what may be included, what must be redacted, what may not appear at all.

Most employers are used to this and have a view. The ones who are not will need time, and that time is much cheaper to spend two years out.

When to drop a project

Apply the guidance's own test. If, after redaction, the material no longer demonstrates that you meet the minimum requirements of the objective, it does not belong in the portfolio — it is spending pages and inviting questions you cannot answer freely.

That is a real cost when your best work is your most confidential, and it is a good reason to build evidence across a variety of projects rather than concentrating it in one.