What is a Career Portfolio?
Development of a career portfolio is an ongoing process of collecting samples of your work that demonstrate your best skills and experience. If prepared during the college/university years, it can be used to assist in making a career choice, as an aid in applying to graduate school, and to help prepare a portfolio for the job/internship search.
What goes into the Career Portfolio?
- A copy of your resume
- Letters of recommendation from employers, faculty, staff, supervisors
- Examples of class work/projects that demonstrate teamwork
- Examples of your involvement and leadership in Campus activities
- Certifications, awards and recognition of other achievements
- Unofficial academic transcripts
- The Student Activities Transcript
- A personal statement that describes you, your special traits, qualities, personal, career and educational goals
- A list of involvement in community activities
- Examples of your work in part-time or summer jobs or internships
Career Portfolio Tips
- Use a three (3) ring binder with a nice leather look cover with pockets to store additional papers.
- Create categories and use section headings to separate materials into an organized fashion.
- Make your portfolio easy to read, attractive to look at and creative (but, not too cute or overdone).
- Have a table of contents to lead the reader to the right sections easily and to keep yourself organized.