The project that best demonstrates your ability may also contain customer details, internal figures or work your former employer owns. A portfolio needs evidence, but evidence does not have to mean uploading the original files.
Check what you are allowed to share
Review the relevant contract, confidentiality obligations and employer policy. If permission is needed, ask through the appropriate route and keep the answer. Do not assume that removing a logo makes an internal document public, or that leaving a job ends your obligations. Get qualified advice when the legal position is unclear.
Think beyond names. A distinctive combination of dates, locations, project size and screenshots can identify a client even after obvious labels are removed. Hidden spreadsheet tabs, comments and document metadata can also contain information you did not intend to publish.
Build a separate demonstration
When the original cannot be shared, create a new sample with invented data and label it clearly. Show the skill through the structure of the work: how you define a problem, compare options, explain a decision or test a result. Do not present the invented example as a real client success.
For example, an operations applicant could create a fictional delivery schedule and explain how conflicting priorities are resolved. The value lies in the reasoning and usable output, not in pretending that the figures came from a former employer’s system.
Where permitted, a short narrative can describe your role without exposing the material: the type of problem, your responsibilities and the methods used. Only include results you can substantiate and are authorised to disclose. Separate your contribution from the team’s work.
Before sending the portfolio, open the final exported file as a recipient would. Check links, attachments and hidden content. A recruiter should receive a focused demonstration of your judgement, including the judgement to protect information that was entrusted to you.