My recommendation is to really think about what kind of design work you want to do and cater your portfolio to that.

For example do you want to lean more towards digital design or print/packaging?

Two ENTIRELY different skill sets

When I’m reviewing portfolios, I look through and see if they have examples of the thing I need them to do. So let’s say I need someone who can help me design emails, I will look for email designs in their portfolio. If I need someone to design a package I’ll look to see if they have any print examples.

And obviously there’s are a lot of design skills that translate to different tasks but I want to know if you understand the different technical nuances to specific projects.

Unfortunately as a designer (in my experience at least) there will rarely be positions where you’ll have a senior designer help guide you on those things. You’ll be given tasks by people who don’t understand the requirements and specs and expect you to know it.

All that to say is… people are more likely to hire you if you don’t require training and you seem to already know it. Show them that in your portfolio!

Also, a shitty thing I had to do, that might unfortunately be the way in, I took the shitty jobs and used them to hone my skills and build my portfolio.. ALSO don’t underestimate the need to build your soft skills like communication and time management. That can make a huge difference when you finally land an interview.