Writers: when to put a portfolio link on your CV

A senior UX writer I coached last year kept getting ghosted after phone screens. Her resume was strong. Her portfolio was clean. The issue, it turned out, was that she was linking to the same portfolio for every role — and every role was reading the wrong three pieces first.

For the e-commerce copywriter role, the hiring manager landed on her B2B SaaS annual report. For the brand writing role, they saw her microcopy rewrites. For the narrative designer role, they got her voice-and-tone documentation.

None of those were bad pieces. None were the right piece to open with.

This is the writer's portfolio problem in a nutshell. A link is only useful if what it opens with is the right thing. Get that wrong and you'd have been better off with no link at all.

The case for leaving the link off

Start with the counterintuitive question: does this job actually want to see your work before the interview?

For a lot of writing roles, the answer is no. Here's when to skip the portfolio link on your CV:

Senior editorial or strategy roles. If you're applying to be a head of content or a managing editor, the hiring manager wants to see how you think about systems, not how you turn a sentence. Link your LinkedIn or a Substack where you've written about writing. Let the work come up in the interview.

Confidential or NDA-bound work. If 90% of your best writing is locked up in brand guidelines you can't share, a portfolio with your three leftover freelance pieces will actively hurt you. Better to write a strong one-paragraph summary of the kinds of work you've done, and handle samples in conversation.

Heavily technical writing. Some technical writing roles will ask for samples on their own. A random link to your Medium blog can make you look junior. Wait to be asked, then curate for the specific request.

When your best work is three years old. A portfolio frozen in 2022 screams that you stopped creating. If your recent work can't be public, leave the link off and be honest in the interview. "Most of my recent work is internal and confidential" is a better answer than a stale portfolio page.

When the link is non-negotiable

On the other side, there are roles where not linking a portfolio is close to disqualifying.

Marketing copy roles. Brand writing, ad copy, landing pages, email. Hiring managers expect to see voice and range in the first 60 seconds. No link signals you don't have samples, which in this world signals you don't have experience.

UX writing and content design. These roles want to see microcopy in context. A portfolio case study that shows the before and the after, with the decision trail, is practically the job.

Freelance or contract writing. The link replaces the references. No link, no interview.

Any role where the job description literally says "link your portfolio." You'd think this is obvious. I have read dozens of writer CVs that skipped it anyway.

What to actually put in the portfolio

A writer's portfolio isn't an archive. It's an argument. Here's the structure that works for almost every creative writing role.

Three to five pieces, no more. If you have fifteen great things, pick five. If you have forty, pick three. The strongest portfolios I've seen are ruthlessly curated. A reader's attention is finite and you want to control what they land on.

One sentence of context per piece. Don't just link the PDF or the published article. Write a line that frames it: "Launch copy for an insurance product targeting Gen Z. Worked with one designer and a product lead over three weeks. Conversion lift of 22% over the previous landing page." Context transforms a sample from "here is some writing" to "here is writing in a situation that matters."

Before and after, whenever possible. For rewrites, microcopy, and UX work, show the original. The delta is the portfolio. A single "after" screenshot tells me nothing about your judgment.

Process notes for one or two pieces. For your best work, include a paragraph or two about the decisions you made. What voice you chose and why. What you cut. What you fought for. Writers often underestimate how much hiring managers want to see thinking, not just output.

Match the link to the role

Back to the UX writer I mentioned. We reorganized her portfolio so that the first case study changed depending on the role. For SaaS roles, she opened with her microcopy project. For narrative roles, she led with voice-and-tone work. For marketing roles, she put landing page copy on top.

Same portfolio, three different URLs. Took her an afternoon. Her interview rate nearly doubled over the next two months.

The lesson isn't about URLs. It's about recognizing that a portfolio link is a promise to the reader about what they're going to find. Break that promise and you lose them in 30 seconds.

Takeaway

A portfolio link on a writer's CV is a tool, not a requirement. Skip it when your best work is confidential, stale, or a bad fit for the role. Include it when you're applying for copy, UX, content, or freelance writing work. When you do include it, curate aggressively, frame every piece with context, and point each role to a version of the portfolio that leads with relevant work. The writers who treat their portfolio as a living argument get interviews. The ones who treat it as a dump of bylines get passed over.