Your personal brand is the new CV, here's the research

"Personal branding" used to sound like a LinkedIn buzzword, something for influencers, not candidates. The research says otherwise. Hiring decisions are increasingly made on proof, not claims, and a portfolio is the clearest proof most people never bother to build.

The 88% number

Nominet research found that 88% of HR professionals are more likely to hire or move forward with a candidate who demonstrates their experience through a portfolio. The same study found that 89% of HR professionals think the act of building a portfolio itself demonstrates many of the vital skills employers are actually screening for, organisation, initiative, the ability to communicate your work clearly.

And yet only 31% of candidates actually have an online portfolio. Most people still rely entirely on a CV and whatever they can explain out loud in an interview. That gap is the opportunity: build a portfolio and you're already ahead of roughly two in three people you're competing against.

Hiring is shifting from credentials to proof

This isn't limited to portfolios specifically, it's part of a broader move toward skills-based hiring. SHRM research found that 82% of organisations that ask candidates for work samples use them specifically to identify the people they're seriously considering, not as a blanket screening step. The same research found 78% of HR professionals say the quality of their hires improved once they started evaluating actual evidence of skill rather than relying on credentials alone.

Google is one of the clearest examples. The company now states that it will "treat these new career certificates as the equivalent of a four-year degree for related roles," and more than 150 companies, including Deloitte, Verizon, and Walmart, have adopted the same standard. The message from employers is consistent: what you can demonstrate matters more than what a piece of paper says you studied.

What a portfolio actually proves

• That you can do the work, shown, not described in a bullet point
• That you can communicate clearly, in your own words, in your own layout
• That you took the initiative to build it, unprompted, before anyone asked
• That there's a real, checkable link behind the claims on your CV

Stop being a CV. Start being a brand.

A CV is a static, one-shot document. A portfolio is a living personal brand, it's the same experience, the same skills, but shown instead of summarised, and it keeps working after you've sent it. If you're one of the 69% who doesn't have one yet, that's the gap to close, and it takes about 30 seconds to get started from a CV upload.

More from the blog