Phase 5 · Build your portfolio
The portfolio of work
What the portfolio is for, when it has to be ready, who receives it, and the format rules that decide whether it is read.
Who this is for:Candidates at any stage ·Mentors
A single PDF, up to 300 pages, sub-divided by Core Objective, sent directly to your two reviewers — and ready at the point you apply, not the point they ask.
The portfolio requirements
Institution of Structural Engineers
- All candidates must prepare a portfolio of work in support of the IPD final report forms, submitted to your reviewers before the interview.
- It must be ready for submission at the time you make your interview application to the Membership Department, to avoid delays.
- A copy goes to both reviewers, by email — sent directly to them, not to the Institution — using a suitable and secure method of transfer.
- It must be a single PDF, with a hyperlinked index to its sections and bookmarking where possible.
- It must demonstrate that you have attained at least the minimum level of competence and responsibility for the grade you are seeking.
- If you exceed the page limit, reviewers will be unable to assess all the information in detail and may decline to interview you.
- If you cannot provide it within the timescales your reviewers require, your interview may be refused.
- Portfolio maximum length
- 300pages, one PDFIncluding drawings, sketches and calculations. Exceeding it may mean your reviewers decline to interview you.
- Portfolio text pages
- A4You cannot reduce pages to A5 to fit two onto an A4 sheet.
- Portfolio drawings
- A3maximumEvery A3 page must be legible on a computer screen.
- Minimum font size
- Arial 10Applies to the portfolio and to the IPD final report forms.
- Supporting documents outside the page count
- Quarterly reports, progress summary, signed training recordsSent directly to your reviewers, not to the Institution, and they do not count towards the 300 pages.
From IPD Guidance — Chartered Member, Institution of Structural Engineers.
It is assessed, not just supplied
Two things follow from the guidance that candidates underestimate.
First, the portfolio and the report forms contribute to the assessment of Core Objective 2, communication. The documents are not a neutral container for your evidence; how well they are put together is itself evidence. A portfolio that is hard to navigate is making an argument about your communication whether you intend it or not.
Second, reviewers question primarily on the content of your portfolio. Every page you include is a page you may be asked about. That cuts both ways: strong material invites the questions you want, and padding invites the ones you do not.
The page limit is a design constraint
300 pages sounds generous until you divide by ten objectives and subtract the index, the checklist and the drawings. Then it is about 25 pages per objective, and a single full project report can consume a quarter of that.
Treat it as a budget. Anything that does not earn its place against an objective is spending someone else's pages. The guidance says as much: avoid repetitive designs or drawings, and full project reports.
Note what is outside the count. On the individually managed route, your quarterly report forms and progress summary record; on the accredited training scheme route, your signed training records. These go directly to your reviewers as supporting documents and do not eat into the 300.
A3 has to be legible on a screen
Drawings may be A3, but the guidance requires that A3 pages can be clearly read on a computer screen and do not contain information too small to view. The interview is normally remote, so your reviewer is looking at your drawing in a window on a laptop.
The practical test: open your own PDF at 100% on a 13-inch screen. If you are hunting for the annotation you added, crop the drawing to the part that matters and enlarge it. A detail extract at readable size evidences more than a full sheet nobody can read.
When the portfolio has to exist
Throughout IPD
Collect and annotate as you go
Keeping a portfolio of your work and responsibilities during IPD is also evidence of your commitment to CPD.
Before you apply
Complete and ready for submission
The guidance is explicit that it must be ready at the time of the interview application, not assembled afterwards.
At application
Submit the experience report and the ten IPD final report forms
These go to the Institution as a single document. The portfolio does not go with them.
About six weeks after the application deadline
Your regional group puts you in touch with two reviewers
You confirm the date, then email them the portfolio and any supporting documents.
Before the interview
Reviewers read it
Late delivery risks refusal of the interview; over-length risks a decision not to interview at all.
Related pages and tools
- StructureSub-division by Core Objective, the hyperlinked index, cross-referencing to the forms, and how to spend 300 pages.
- The checklistWhat signing it commits you to, why it is the first page, and why you must take it from the Institution rather than from here.
- ConfidentialityRedacting what an NDA covers while keeping the engineering that evidences the objective — and knowing when to leave a project out.
- EvidenceThe difference between describing a project and evidencing a Core Objective, and what reviewers are actually reading for.
- Experience reportYour roles and responsibilities across your career, in two pages, submitted with the ten report forms.