Create Your Portfolio
A portfolio helps you
- keep track of what you are learning,
- provides samples that illustrate your skills, and
- is a wonderful tool for you to use when job hunting or interviewing for graduate school.
E-portfolio or Notebook Portfolio? Either a notebook portfolio or web based e-portfolio can be a terrific career tool for you. The most important thing is to start!!
Create Your Portfolio
1) Save everything, well almost....
It is easier to not include saved materials than find or create new materials in a short time frame.
Save documentation from classes, summer jobs, service projects and club events you are proud of. The documentation should be something you produced or illustrates some aspect of your active participation.
Documentation could be: a paper you wrote, a flyer from event you coordinated, a newspaper article about a project you worked on, printed agenda from a meeting you ran; your internship portfolio, before and after photos of a project you completed or a trip you led.
Save certifications, letters of reference or commendation.
For an e-portfolio, save your written work on your website or a disk. Scan certifications, letters of recommendation, etc. that you would like to include on your website
2) Self assessment comes first, resume next.
Have you identified your strengths — the knowledge, skills, and attributes you want an employer to know about you? Make sure you have accurately assessed these areas.
Need help? Pick up the CRC booklet Creative Job Hunting or check out a copy of What Color is Your Parachute?
Does your resume do a good job marketing you? Your resume should illustrate your relevant knowledge, skills and attributes. The CRC has a great booklet to get you started and lots of resume samples in the CRC resource room.
3) Organization is the key
Save lots of examples and documentation; when you assemble your portfolio you will select the best and most relevant to use
What to include:
- Let your resume be your guide.... Divide your portfolio into sections that support your resume and marketing strategy.
- Possible headings: Writing Samples, Project Management, Field Experience, Certifications, Letters of Reference
- Be sure to create an table or contents for your portfolio so it is easy for the viewer to understand how to find the information they are interested in
How to include it:
If it is not obvious from the documentation what is being presented, or what your role was, write a short “caption” or explanation.
Protect your portfolio material — use plastic page protectors. Keep a back up copy of your website.
4) Work it into the conversation
At an interview the phrase “as a matter of fact I have an example of that in my portfolio....” should work well!
5) Never leave it behind
If an interviewer would like more time to review your portfolio offer to wait while s/he reviews it. If they don't have time that day offer to bring it back at another time.
If all else fails offer to make them a copy. Just never leave it behind. If your portfolio were lost it would be almost impossible to replace
If you have an e portfolio, burn your website on a CDRom and send it with your resume when applying for the position. Bring an extra copy to the interview in case the one you sent got misplaced.
Sample Skills and how to document them in your portfolio
Below are resume statements followed by suggestions or how you could document them in a portfolio
Excellent abilities in identifying species of North American mammals, birds and waterfowl
- Paper written for North American Wildlife course
- Bird “life list” and poster from annual bird count with explanation of number of years of participation
- Portfolio from internship at Sunkhaze National Wildlife Refuge
- Certificates from special trainings you completed
Self motivated and well organized
- Before and after photos of trail repair project and crew you recruited and led; include short written description of your role
- Earth Day flyer and article with information about your leadership and organization role
- Letter thanking you for volunteering to help organize the wildlife museum’s mounted specimens
- Copy of your internship evaluation which makes special note of your motivation/organization
Excellent oral and written communication skills
- Copy of article you wrote which was published in college newspaper; or letter to the editor published in local newspaper
- Research paper written for class
- Agenda for meeting or workshop where you are listed as speaker; include outline for talk
- Outline of talk you gave on Oral Communications class on topic relevant to your field
Be sure to have a member of the professional staff review your final portfolio. The staff at the Career Resource Center in is more than willing to help you make your resume the best possible representation of you.
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