Start before your last day, while you still have access to colleagues and real work. If you are facing redundancy, build an AI portfolio from lab work, practicum decisions with reasons, and a certificate an employer checks at source. Use the notice period to gather what you are allowed to keep, and the weeks after to finish the evidence.
Why does timing matter so much?
Redundancy compresses everything. You have a notice period, perhaps a consultation, and then a gap that feels urgent. The temptation is to apply widely at once. A portfolio built in a rush tends to be thin, but one built in the right order can be ready in weeks rather than months.
The order matters because some evidence is only available while you are still employed: references, a manager's willingness to confirm what you did, and possibly access to a live workspace if your employer uses agents. Other evidence, such as labs and a simulated practicum, you can build any time.
What can you gather during your notice period?
- A written note from your manager confirming the review, approval or exception work you did. Ask early; managers get busy during restructures.
- Your own description of duties, written from memory, with no confidential data. Focus on decisions: what you approved, declined or escalated, and within what limits.
- The practicum on live work, if your employer uses Pryme and agrees. Real decisions make stronger interview examples than simulated ones.
- Foundations. About 4 hours, free, no expiry. It gives you vocabulary for interviews straight away.
Do not copy customer records, internal documents or screenshots. A portfolio that breaches confidentiality damages trust faster than a thin one.
What do you add after you leave?
Three items, in this order:
- Lab write-ups from a free Build workspace: tracing a refused action to the bound that decided, checking a fact's provenance, reading the decision record.
- Practicum decisions with reasons, from a simulated queue in a free workspace if you did not do it at work. Six to ten decisions, each with the case, the agent's proposal, your decision and your reason.
- Certificate number and expiry. Certified Pryme Operator, checkable by number or QR code, valid for 12 months.
A general guide to building an AI skills portfolio covers layout. If the term is unfamiliar, what a skills portfolio is explains it.
What does this look like for one person?
Take a mortgage administrator we will call Mark, told his role is going after his team's processing moved to agents. During his notice period he asks his manager for a short note on the exceptions he handled, finishes Foundations on his commute, and starts the Operator modules. His employer agrees he can do the practicum on the live workspace before he leaves.
His portfolio shows a decision where he held a payment holiday request because the customer's income evidence was declared, not signed by an employer, and another where he approved a routine address change within bounds. He adds his manager's note and the certificate number. An employer can check the certificate and question his decisions. It gives employers evidence; it does not promise a job.
How do you talk about redundancy in the portfolio?
Briefly and factually, or not at all. "Role made redundant following automation of processing" is enough. If your role went because agents took over some of the work, that is a point in your favour: you know the work the agents do and where they need a person. Say so in one sentence in the cover letter rather than the portfolio.
If you are also over 50, read how people over 50 build a portfolio employers trust. For a week-by-week schedule, see the 90-day AI skills plan for people facing redundancy.
Where the Academy fits
Pryme Intelligence Academy lets you start the day you hear the news: lessons, labs and tests are free, and the practicum runs on a simulated queue if you no longer have a job that uses Pryme. Certified Pryme Operator carries an issue fee, paid to be issued the certificate, never to pass, and is issued through VerifyDoc.ai for any employer to check.
Questions people ask
Should I wait until the redundancy is confirmed?
No. Foundations is free and takes about 4 hours. Starting early costs nothing and gives you something to say in your first interviews.
Can redundancy support pay for the certificate?
Some employers offer training support or outplacement help; ask what is available. Since lessons, labs and tests are free, only the issue fee is at stake.
What if I want to freelance instead?
The evidence is the same; the presentation changes. See how freelancers build a portfolio employers trust. The guide to AI skills for job seekers covers what employers ask for overall.