Portfolios
What is a portfolio?
Portfolios are relatively new marketing tools in the world
of work. Well, what is a portfolio? It is a portable "show
and tell" collection that demonstrates your past related
skills and accomplishments for the job that you are applying
for. It may be in a binder, file folder, on video or you may
create an electronic portfolio on a computer disk.
What goes into a portfolio?
It is important to select items that will emphasize your related
skills and abilities for the job that you are applying for.
As in creating your resume and in answering behavioural descriptive
interview questions, select items that are relevant, recent
and your best examples. With this in mind, you might include
a number of the following:
Organizing Your Portfolio
Take time to organize and present your information. Think of
the job that you are applying for and the intended people who
will be looking at your portfolio. You may rearrange your portfolio
and select different items depending on your audience. You may
decide to arrange your portfolio chronologically, alphabetically,
or topically. Include a table of contents.
When to Use Your Portfolio
You may take your portfolio:
- when networking with friends and family demonstrating your
skills & abilities;
- when networking with prospective employers,
- when doing informational interviews; you might ask for feedback;
- to actual job interviews to emphasize particular related skills
or accomplishments – think out ahead of time so that you
choose relevant items and so that you can access it quickly;
- to leave for interviewers look at after an interview,
- to show your individuals who may be your references.
On a cautionary note, you might want to make several copies
of your portfolio, so that you if you lose a copy you have a
backup.
Here are some portfolio website links:
