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 What is Portfolio?
Whether electronic or paper, portfolios are more than a scrapbook, and not merely a container for storing and displaying evidence of a one's knowledge and skills. An online portfolio provides a way to reveal your credentials to the world. It allows you to package the best evidence of your candidacy for employment such as your resume, artwork, reports, lesson plans, transcripts, certifications, articles, letters, and more in a form easily accessible via the Internet.
Who uses portfolios?
The concept of using a portfolio originated in occupations where creativity is a necessary skill. Employers seeking to hire persons in jobs related to art, advertising, and journalism often require a portfolio in the hiring process to demonstrate their work. However, a portfolio can also help document work experience, achievements and skills in any field. In fact, developing a portfolio during college will help you to evaluate yourself and your career decisions. It can help you explore careers which match your interests which are documented in your portfolio. In addition, it can help you to compare your skill level to the level needed for your chosen career. Following completion of college, your portfolio can serve as an invaluable tool for you to demonstrate your skills to a potential employer during an interview.
The Purpose of a Portfolio
A well-prepared portfolio provides "evidence" to an employer of your accomplishments, skills, abilities and it documents the scope and quality of your experience and training. It is an organized collection of documentation that presents both your personal and professional achievements in a concrete way. Portfolios can range in from something as simple as an online version of your resume to a web site full of materials.
Types of Portfolios
Although Wolf & Siu-Runyan (1996) originally described three different portfolio models including ownership, accountability, and feedback portfolios, Wolf & Dietz (1998) changed the names of these three types of portfolio naming as learning, assessment portfolio and employment portfolios. However the original purposes of these portfolios stayed same. While learning portfolio includes collections of artifacts selected by the owner to reflect on their own learning, assessment portfolio is focused on the artifacts that are related to program standards, and employment portfolio designed by owners to represent the “collection of best works” to be used in the hiring process. (You will learn about different types of portfolios and see examples on the following pages)
What are some characteristics of effective portfolios?
The format of a portfolio varies considerably. An effective portfolio should be well documented and organized. The American Association for Higher Education (AAHE) suggests that a teaching portfolio should be structured, representative, and selective.
- Structured
A structured portfolio should be organized, complete, and creative in its presentation. Some questions for you to think about might be: Is my portfolio neat? Are the contents displayed in an organized fashion? Are the contents representative for the purpose that it is intended?
- Representative
In addition to attending to structure, a portfolio should also be comprehensive. The documentation should represent the scope of one's work. It should be representative across courses and time. Some questions for you think about might be: Does my portfolio portray the types and levels of courses that I have taught? Does my portfolio display a cross-section of my work in teaching?
- Selective
The natural tendency for anyone preparing a portfolio is wanting to document everything. However, if a portfolio is being used either for summative or formative purposes, careful attention should be given to conciseness and selectivity in order to appropriately document one's work.
Why Do I Need a Portfolio?
Although the reasons for owning a portfolio vary, followings are the most common ones.
- Your school/college/program requires building a portfolio as a graduation requirement :)
- It allows you to expand on your résumé in a more comprehensive manner. With résumés, we are usually limited to one or two pages. Having a portfolio allows you to expand as fully as you want to on any area of your expertise.
- Your portfolio can demonstrate tangible proof of your skills and abilities. Instead of just talking during a job interview about what you have done or can do, you can actually show samples of your work or letters of commendation testifying to the quality of your work.
- It helps you keep all of your essential work-related samples and documents in one place and protected so that you can easily find and access those materials when you need them for a job search, performance appraisal, or application for a promotion.
- Employers aren't used to seeing portfolios on a regular basis. When you put one together, it will really help you stand out from the crowd.
- In job interviews, it can act as a reminder of the things you want to highlight in promoting your skills.
- You can be more creative in your portfolio than you are in producing your résumé and cover letter. Most experts recommend using plain white paper for résumés and cover letters. But in your portfolio, you can use a variety of paper, graphics, and colours to display your work to its best advantage.
- Preparing a "master portfolio" allows you to more easily pick and choose items for a "sample portfolio" that is custom-designed to suit a particular job you are applying for (more about master versus sample portfolios below).
- Your professional portfolio will distinguish you from the competition.
- It will clearly show your experience, and that you are serious about your career, and job search.
- The professional portfolio will show an example of your unique strengths, and pique the interest of the interviewer.
- Creating your portfolio will help prepare you for the interview. It will refresh your memory of all your many college accomplishments, and hands on experiences.
What goes into a portfolio?
Examples of what might be contained in each section include:
- Your career goals or career mission statement.
- A copy of your résumé.
- A list of your skill sets or competencies.
- Letters of reference or recommendation from previous employers, from volunteer work, from work-study programs such as campus jobs, internships, co-op programs, summer jobs, Peer Tutoring, and so on.
- Transcripts.
- A summary of community service or volunteer work you have done.
- Academic awards.
- Copies of educational certificates, diplomas, or degrees.
- Copies of positive performance appraisals.
- E-mails, thank you letters, and handwritten notes complimenting you on a job well done.
- Company announcements of promotions, awards or achievements.
- Documents you may have designed-brochures, flyers, pamphlets, report covers, reports.
- Flyers, conference brochures, or other materials describing presentations, workshops or seminars you have presented.
- If you are into creative arts, you might include a video you have made or photos of a display of your work.
- Photographs representing projects you have been involved in. (For example, a photograph of a conference display booth you created for a previous employer.)
As you gain more experience, you will want to include:
- A list of articles you have published.
- Samples of articles you have published.
- A report on research you have conducted.
- Articles written about you or projects you have been involved in (newspapers, company newsletters, etc.)
- A list of professional memberships or associations you belong to that are work-related, including any special committees on which you serve.
- Copies of evaluations from a workshop you presented or a speech you made.
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