Creating Your Career Portfolio
Posted in Job Advice
A large part of impressing your future employer and getting the job has a lot to do with having a beautifully designed portfolio. A portfolio is simply a collection of your work samples that you let a prospective employer see and examine what you ahve accomplished so far. Through your portfolio, you will be able to display the level of your skills and your abilities that may be relevant to the job that you are applying for.
Keeping a portfolio is a better way of showing employers what you can do rather than just providing them a list of your skills and abilities without any proof whatsoever. In short, your portfolio should at least contain specific work samples of certain projects that you have done in your previous jobs. This would further improve your marketability on the job market.
If you think that you have compiled enough work samples enough to impress your prospective employers, you now have to proceed on how to design your own portfolio. Here are some things that you should consider.
Try to gather all the data that you will be using for your portfolio
Make a detailed list of all the previous projects that you plan to include into your portfolio. You can then choose later on what work projects you would be including in your portfolio and what's on the list that need not be there.
Decide on what type of media your portfolio should be made of
There are several options from where you can choose from. You may want to create a conventional portfolio, one which looks like a binded book containing your personal information, work experience and sample work projects assembled and compiled in the order that you wish.
You can also wish to construct an online portfolio, one that you can make and post on the internet through your own website. But this might require a certain skill in web design perhaps if you wish to do it on your own or you can always have one designed for you.
If you want to be even more unique, you can have your portfolio done as an audio-visual presentation that you bring along with you to interviews. This unique idea can do a lot to impress your prospective employers. As each type of portfolio options may have their own pros and cons, you must be aware of what these are before deciding on what type of media you would finally be using.
After you have decided on a certain portfolio option to use, you should now try to plan and decide on the design and layout of your portfolio
You need to know how to present your portfolio in a way that employers would notice. Your skills and your work experience may be very impressive. But you still need to get noticed by employers before they can check up on your work experience.
You have to attract them first to your portfolio in general and be impressed by it from the outside before they can even take a peek of what can impress them inside its pages. Having an attractive portfolio would be able to do this for you.
A great design and layout can help make your portfolio stand out. Here are some things that you should consider in making your portfolio really stand out and get noticed at first glance.
Color
Try using colors that are cool to the eyes. Choose colors that are not too bright and yet not too dark either. You still need to use a catchy color or even dabble in a striking combination of different colors you think would make your portfolio look catchy.
You can use those colors wherever you like- for the portfolio cover, for the paper used or even as the background for your sample works among other things.
Font
In designing your portfolio, try also to consider what font to use. The use of the right fonts can be an added attraction to a portfolio.
Therefore you should try to decide on what type of font from the hundreds available that you think would make your portfolio come alive. Make sure that you choose a type of font that won't clash with your whole portfolio design.
Choose a font type that goes well with your planned design and layout. Try also to use an ideal font size that not only would be attractive to look at but readable as well. Remember, it is also important that your prospective employers be able to read your portfolio and not just be impressed with its design.
There are many other things to consider when it comes to building up an impressive portfolio. These are just but part of the basics that you should consider, no matter what type of media your portfolio would come out as.
Remember, design and having a proper and yet impressive layout are one of the keys to having a portfolio that will really stand out from the rest.
