Portfolios aren't just for the artists and graphic designers of the professional world. Anyone can see the value of a good portfolio when they know just how to use it. Here are a few reasons a portfolio may become one of the most important parts of your professional resume:
It Is a Method of Self-Discovery
While many people create a professional portfolio to highlight what they already know about their career, your portfolio is at its most useful when it helps you discover more about yourself. Unlike a resume, a portfolio follows your career journey. It offers more than just the facts and proof of your experience, it also shows your reflection on these experiences. For that reason, several professions and many universities require students to create a portfolio as a part of their programs. In fact, students who created a portfolio in Queensland University of Technology's postgraduate library and information management program found that it helped them solidify their professional goals and build confidence in their ability.
The professional portfolio is also just one of many portfolio types. Another is the personal portfolio, which you can complete as a method of mapping out your personal history and development. Both can help you learn more about yourself for better direction in the future. Not sure how to begin the reflective writing process that a portfolio requires? This Facilitators Guide to Reflection and Portfolio Development includes detailed directions on how to get started.
It Puts Every Career Accomplishment Under One Title
A resume is about your work experience in cold and impersonal terms. A cover letter hastily fits the juicier parts of your experience into a couple of paragraphs on why you would be a great hire for a specific company. A complete professional portfolio, however, encompasses every part of your career and how it has brought you to where you are today. Plus, once you've created a full professional portfolio, it is so much easier to create a smaller one for a specific interview.
What should you include in your portfolio? While the field may vary, every paper portfolio will include a title page, a table of contents, and a personal career philosophy. A salesperson changing jobs could include charts that highlight their best numbers while a corporate office worker looking for a promotion would highlight specific difficult projects or problems that they worked on. Someone completing their Master's in Nursing could highlight impressive patient conditions they helped treat, rare conditions they've dealt with, stand out moments at work, and more. McGraw-Hill has an entire chapter available online that can help nurses complete their professional portfolio so that they have a complete picture of where they have come from and where they want to go.
Your Portfolio is an Excellent Interview Tool
When interviewing for a job, a portfolio can help you stand out from other applicants by giving the company visual proof of your experience. As interview expert Laura DeCarlo said, people remember 11 percent of what they read, 20 percent of what they hear, and 52 percent of what they both see and hear. For that reason, Ms. DeCarlo recommends that you bring multiple copies of everything in your portfolio so that if the interviewer would like to keep one of your pages or documents, you aren't losing the original.
Remember, the interview portfolio isn't your complete portfolio. It is a 5-10 page smaller portfolio that is made up of the best of your work and your most job-specific information. Like resumes, each interview portfolio should be tailored to the job. For example, a teacher might include sample lesson plans, any extra awards or certificates she received, and her personal philosophy on teaching. For more help on what you should include in an interview portfolio, Cheryl Priest's page on sample interview questions and supporting portfolio documents can help you prepare your portfolio for an interview.
Have you created a professional portfolio? How has it helped or impacted your career?
("portfolio" by Erich Stussi licensed by CC BY-SA 2.0)
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