Portfolios
A portfolio is a personalized collection of items that illustrates your skills and experiences. It is a portable, creatively assembled career/job search tool. A portfolio may be used as a tool for organizing yourself in preparation for your job search/interview, or as a marketing tool that is exhibited to a prospective employer during the interview. A professional employment portfolio could be just the thing that sets you apart from other job search candidates.
Portfolio types:- Career Portfolio
- Graduate School Portfolio
- Job Search Portfolio:
- Professional Employment Portfolio
Career Portfolio
The Career Portfolio from UB Career Services
Sample of Career Portfolio 
from Florida State University
East Carolina University Career Center's Directions to create an ePortfolio
Learn how to create your very own ePortfolio.
The Portfolio for Graduate School
Graduate School Portfolio from UB Career Services
The Portfolio for the Job Search - Print and Electronic
Apojigo
- Your personalized web space
Webgirls International
- Covers the print and electronic portfolio
Michigan State University
- Career Portfolio Guide
University of Wisconsin-River Falls
- Covers both print and electronic portfolios
Portfolios for the Job Search - by Industry
Architecture
UB School of Architecture and Planning
Art
Artist Portfolio Guidelines by Art Support.com
Higher Education
PhD's Teaching Portfolios by Univ. of California at Berkeley
>
Columbia University
Professional Employment Portfolio
Adapted from the Ball State University Career Center web siteA professional employment portfolio could be just the thing that sets you apart from other job candidates.
A well-prepared portfolio...- shows your achievements
- documents the scope and quality of your experience and training
- shows your skills and abilities
- Determine the skills necessary for the job you will be interviewing for.
- Choose items that will document how you have used those skills for the employer.
- Use a loose-leaf portfolio notebook (3-ring binder).
- Use plastic page covers to protect your materials and to make rearranging your portfolio easy.
- Arrange your portfolio to show how your abilities relate to the employer's needs.
- Label the different sections for ease of finding information in the portfolio.
- A copy of your resume
- An official copy of your transcript
- A fact sheet, in list form, that displays your skills and what you like to do
- A list of experiences that do not fit into your resume
- Certificates of awards and honors; special certifications for special training
- A program from an event you planned or in which you participated as part of a class project or campus organization
- A list of conferences and workshops you have attended and a description of each
- Samples of your writing
- Documentation of technical or computer skills
- Letters of commendation or thanks
- Letters of nomination to honors and academic organizations
- Newspaper articles that address some achievement
- Internship or co-op summary report
- Student teaching evaluation materials
- Sample lesson plans
- A videotape of your teaching
- Sample syllabi
- Pictures of bulletin boards you designed
- Teaching tools you have created
- Information about a field trip or other event you organized
- Pictures of yourself working with students
In addition to your traditional portfolio, you may want to create an electronic portfolio. You can make the electronic portfolio available to employers as a supplement to your resume. It can be on the World Wide Web or on a CD-ROM, floppy disk, or zip disk. You can set it up as a PowerPoint presentation or include a PowerPoint slideshow as part of your electronic portfolio.
Electronic portfolios are easy for employers to access and use, especially if they're on the web. By including a "mailto" link in your portfolio, employers can contact you easily simply by clicking on the link and typing in a message for you. Another benefit of having an electronic portfolio is that it shows employers that you are familiar with various types of computer technology and programs.
Before creating your electronic portfolio, create your traditional version. Include electronic versions of items from your traditional portfolio. For example, include the word processing files for your writing samples and your resume, scans of appropriate photos and certificates, and Adobe Acrobat (pdf) files of graphics such as brochures that you have designed. At several computer labs around campus, you will find equipment for scanning photos, digitizing images, and preparing other items for inclusion in your electronic portfolio. (Contact Computing and Information Technology (CIT) for more information.)
In addition to the kinds of materials in your traditional portfolio, you might include an expanded version of your resume, audio and video clips, an e-mail link, a link to UB's web site as well as one to your major department's pages, a link to the curriculum for your major, and other appropriate links. Avoid personal information and inappropriate links--anywhere on your web site. Remember that anyone with much web experience can explore more of your web pages quite easily beyond your portfolio if it's online. You might want to put your online portfolio on a different server to prevent this kind of browsing by employers.
Additional Resources:
Bostaph, C. and Vendeland, R., The Employment Portfolio: Identifying Skills, Training, Accomplishments, and References for the Job Seeker. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000.
(Available in the Brent D. Arcangel Career Library, 259 Capen Hall)
The Riley Guide
- Links to portfolio information on the web
To make an appointment with a career counselor regarding your portfolio, or any other job search issues, please call 645-2231 or stop by 259 Capen Hall.