Portfolios

Portfolios & Work Samples

Do you want to knock their socks off when interviewing for your dream job?  If so, stand out from the crowd by creating a portfolio of your work.  Regardless of what you do for a living, you can show your future boss or clients that you are perfect for the job.  A portfolio with real examples of your work communicates more than just the quality of your work.  It demonstrates better than words your passion and commitment to your profession.

A portfolio is a collection of items that illustrate your skills and experiences. It is a portable, creatively assembled tool shown to employers during an interview. Portfolios are becoming more important in today's job market as job seekers in all fields are being asked to provide examples of their qualifications to prove they are the best candidate for the job.

Employers want to learn as much as they can about you. If you have a visual representation of a project you would like to share, consider preparing it for presentation. This is an opportunity to bring your work to life. Take a moment to reflect on past academic, personal, and work-related projects. Choose a project that displays skills or interests relevant to the employer. If you are a writer, you may wish to share a report, proposal, press release, or brochure. If you are a designer, you may wish to share 1,2, or 3-D projects in print or electronic form. If you are in the College of Design, you have been steadily working on your portfolio. Studios, internships, and personal projects are experiences to draw from as you build and refine yours. Show the range and depth of your abilities and interests. Title projects with a brief explanation of the problem you were solving or the situation that inspired you.

Electronic portfolios are also becoming more popular. These portfolios use interactive multimedia to increase the type of materials that can be included as evidence of learning and skills. Electronic portfolios may include text, graphics, animation, sound and video. The information you include varies according to your career field and may include:

• Academic Materials - transcripts, certificates of attendance at professional workshops and conferences, class projects, awards, scholarships, admission test results, professional examination results, licenses or certifications
• Evaluations - letters of recommendation, performance reviews, notes of appreciation, supervisor or co-worker feedback
• Creations - publications, workshops or materials you designed, research or scholarly papers, presentation outlines and materials, samples or photographs of artistic work, original computer programs
• Marketing Materials - resume, curriculum vitae, list of references, formal writing sample

The benefits of having a portfolio make investing the time to create it definitely worth it.  Many times, all the candidates say the same thing and there is little separating most of the applicants.  So what employers look for are the stars, the dream candidates who make it obvious they are a perfect fit for the job.  One way to spot a good applicant is to see who invests the time to learn about the company and its needs.  This investment shows real interest because the applicant invested their own time.  Another way to spot the dream candidates is to look beyond work history and focus on what a candidate excels at.  Because, in the end, a hiring manager really cares about what the person can do for the company in the future.  And the best indicator of future performance is the past work, like the items included in a portfolio.