Professional Portfolio Development

A professional portfolio is a tangible collection of items that illustrates the best examples of your most relevant skills and experiences and charts your professional growth. While a resume is a document that says what you can do, a portfolio enables you to demonstrate examples of your qualifications. The process of putting together your portfolio is just as valuable as the product. It helps you determine who you are, what you like to do, what you do best, and how you want to present yourself to your targeted audience. It is a valuable tool that you can use throughout your career to: assess your professional development, interview effectively, negotiate job offers, prepare for performance appraisals, navigate career transitions, and track professional growth. Employers value proof.

Creating a Portfolio
Step 1: Collecting
This is an on-going process. Activities Education Training Employment Identify and collect evidence of your skills and experience from: Projects Volunteer work Community Service Experiences abroad Accomplishments Participation in student organizations Internships Courses

Where do you find items? Rummage through your stuff at school, work and home. Consult your calendar, how is your time spent? Are there certain projects you work on at certain times of the year? Review past and current job descriptions. How can you demonstrate the roles, tasks and activities you performed in those positions? Design your ideal job description and gear your portfolio toward it. If you do not have evidence of your past accomplishments, you may want to consider reconstructing items. This may involve redesigning documents or creating new items that demonstrate your skills and expertise. Which items are best? Recent examples are usually preferred, but the most important documents are those that are relevant. Look for ways to show who you are as a person or a leader, your experience, your education and training, that you possess certain skill sets, that you saved money or time, came up with innovative ideas, solved problems, were involved, and demonstrated initiative. Quality is always more important than quantity. Make sure to obtain permission to use work samples, and delete proprietary or confidential information.

Step 2: Sorting
Typical elements of a portfolio: Title page Transcripts Table of contents Performance evaluations Resume Certifications Reference list Honors and awards

Letters of recommendation Research papers Presentations Group projects

The most effective portfolios are those that are targeted to the job or industry being sought. Take some time to carefully analyze your audience. What qualities, skills, experiences, involvements, and knowledge are wanted when hiring? Use a job description as a filter to sort your items into relevant skill/experience categories. Do not throw away items that you filter out. Keep them in a file box or binder in case you need them later. Use only pieces that prove you have the skills that the job requires.

Step 3: Assembling
Supplies you will need: Something to store your work samples in Clear sheet protectors Creative paper and card stock for captions and photos

Professional-looking zippered binder Divider tabs Post-It tape or glue

After you have sorted your items into targeted skill and experience categories, place your portfolio contents into sheet protectors and group similar items together. In each section, lead with your strengths because the goal is to be able to quickly find what you are looking for when presenting your portfolio. Create section divider pages and tabs: summary pages can be used at the beginning of each section to provide an overview of skills and experiences. Mission, values, and goal statements are optional, but can greatly enhance your portfolio. Use high quality paper for layout pages and strive for consistency and a professional visual identity throughout. Your portfolio should not resemble a scrapbook project. Color and photos can add interest. Photos can be scanned or mounted onto card stock. Borders can be added for additional visual appeal to photos, newspaper clippings, and other artifacts. Some documents are stand alone artifacts, meaning they do not need any explanation to someone reviewing the item-such as a transcript (unless you need to explain why you received certain grades). For those that are not stand alone, you will need to develop captions to communicate their relevancy. Brief captions should clearly state what you did or learned, highlighting results and accomplishments. Begin your captions with action verbs to avoid overusing the word I (see example on page 4).

Step 4: Interviewing
The best portfolio in the world will not help you if you do not know how to use it. The most effective method is to use the portfolio to enhance your answers during the interview. This way, you are not just telling the employer how great you are; you are showing proof! Before the Interview: Thoroughly research the organization and position. Visit the employers website to learn more about their mission and values, products they make or services they provide, the history of the organization, the culture, future trends, and competitors. Construct 10-15 specific examples that target the employers needs for the position. Use the STAR Technique for your examples; this is a model for constructing good examples and stands for Situation, Task, Action, and Result. Know your portfolio; be able to quickly locate items that back up each of your STARs Visit Career Services to role-play using your portfolio in a mock interview with a Career Counselor or Peer Advisor. During the Interview: Do not push your portfolio at the beginning or end of the interview because it is important to develop rapport with the interviewer. Expect to use your portfolio 3-5 times throughout the course of the interview, it is important not to overuse it because you want the focus to remain on you and your qualifications, not your portfolio. Steps to using your portfolio: 1. Respond to the question you are asked, providing a specific example using the STAR Technique 2. Inform the interviewer(s) that you have an example to share, remove the individual item and hand it to him/her, and close your portfolio leaving it unzipped for future use 3. Explain the relevance of the document and pass the artifact around so everyone can review it 4. Let all the examples collect and put them back in your portfolio at the end of the interview After the interview, do not leave your portfolio behind. Instead you might want to create a mini portfolio to leave behind. 2

STAR Technique - Prove by Example!

An increasing number of employers use behavioral-based interviewing, which rests on the premise that past performance predicts future performance. Past performance examples may come from work experience, internships, activities, hobbies, volunteer work, family life, etc. Prepare for the interview by having several different STARs in mind.

Situation: Task: Action: Result:

Example:

Describe the specific situation. Set up your story. What was the task you were trying to accomplish? Tell who, what, when, where, and why (include only relevant details!). What did you do to solve the problem or meet the task? Specify results. What happened? Give numbers, volume, dollars, etc. Link the skills you were demonstrating in this example to the specific job. Tell how the employer is going to benefit from hiring you. Please tell me about your ability to work as part of a team.

Situation I have a great deal of experience working in teams. In particular, during my senior year, I took a marketing research class. Task For the class, we had to complete a group project where we conducted research, analyzing the marketing techniques and identifying problematic marketing within local organizations. Our group chose to investigate why students did not utilize Career Services on campus. Action To do this, our team decided to survey students as they entered and left the campus library, asking them questions addressing their use of Career Services. We had to work well together to develop the survey as well as coordinate times that we stood outside the library. In particular, I was in charge of creating the schedule for the library and contacting the library staff to inform them of our research. Result As a result, our group gained a better understanding of why students under-utilized Career Services. We also shared our data with Career Services allowing them to create effective marketing strategies. Also, our group received an A on the project. Relate I understand that this job requires someone who is detailed-oriented and able to work well with others. I believe my education and work experience have prepared me well, as I have been required to work with a variety of groups in each of my courses and jobs. (Hint: open your portfolio and pull out the appropriate example to show the interviewer).

Sample Sections and Artifacts

Credentials
Resume Letters of recommendation List of references Transcript Deans List letter Nomination letters Performance evaluation Letter of acceptance into college/university Letter commending your skills

Creativity
Flyers you created Classroom projects Websites you created Logos Table tents Marketing strategies used

Community Services/Volunteer
Pictures of you volunteering Flyers of events Certification of involvement Before and after picture of a service provided Program or outline of event you attended

Communication
Program of an event you spoke at Emails you sent out Presentations Graded artifacts from class including: o Case studies o Papers (only include the first 1 or 2 pages and the abstract) o Speech outlines/evaluations o Group projects Articles in newsletters or the Student Voice Press releases on UWRF website Picture of you on WRFW or Campus TV

Computer Skills
PowerPoint Microsoft Access or other databases Graphic design software: Photoshop, InDesign, Adobe Illustrator FrontPage Fireworks Dreamweaver

Leadership
Agenda of a meeting you were a part of Job/position description of position of a committee you served on Military awards or badges Brochure of a leadership conference attended Student/Employee of the Month certificate Program of an event for members of a professional organization Letter of nomination for a leadership position

Research
PowerPoint of presentation delivered Outline of presentation Papers written (only include the first 1 or 2 pages and the abstract) Flyer of conference attended

Diversity
Pictures volunteering Study abroad brochures/pictures Flyers of activities/organizations Training certificates Website of an organization you belong to

Teamwork
Group PowerPoint presentation Agenda of a group meeting Picture of a sports team you were on Program of a sporting event you were involved in Picture of group working together

Honors/Awards
Merit Awards Chancellors Award Student of the Month nomination Thank you notes received Certificates of achievement/accomplishment Employee of the Month nomination Scholarship certificates

Sample Portfolio Artifacts

Section Divider