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Punch up Your Portfolio By Liz Miller
The 90s job market taught most of us to keep our resume a work in progress so that just a couple of mouse clicks can send it winging to the in-baskets of our favorite networking buddies. Do you present your best professional image every day at work and among colleagues? If not, scrutinize your promptness, dependability, and grooming now, because job security isn't what it used to be! How can you make your interviewers say, "Wow!"? What about your portfolio? Keep your portfolio polished and current It's important to keep this Wow! opportunity polished and current, because it can be even more powerful at marketing your abilities than your personal charm or curriculum vitae. Every deliverable that has been worthy of your creativity on the job is a candidate for your portfolio. The more pieces you have to choose from, the more you can customize a package to impress a specific interviewer. Customize your portfolio before each interview Sift through every item before each interview and only bring along those that best demonstrate how your experience and skills meet the job to be filled. Resist including work that is so old it may cause doubt about your current talents and skills. This is no time to be sentimental. Electronic formats Much of what we create as technical writers ultimately reaches our audience on paper. But in an age where documentation is increasingly distributed in electronic formats, paper alone is insufficient to represent your versatility. Here is a checklist of electronic portfolio items and suggested formats for bringing them to an interview:
Keep your electronic portfolio on easily accessed storage media. Organize it so you can quickly find and select items to copy to a diskette that might convince a key interviewer of your value. The Wow! factor As you update and electrify your work portfolio, evaluate it with an objective eye to identify your own personal Wow! sample. If your best portfolio piece is a website, besides sharing its URL, full color screen shots in page protectors can show it off during an interview. Commercially published work such as magazine articles, illustrations, and books can evoke a big "Wow!" On the other hand, something so simple as a "before and after" comparison can demonstrate volumes about your abilities. Whatever you choose, the more unique and well presented the piece, the more memorable your impact will be on your interviewers. As for my own Wow! factor, I am the author of three sports-related paperbacks. I bring them along to demonstrate capability and drive to attain a major goal: illustration talents and "technical" writing for entry-level readers. One book--a 300-destination skate tour guide--I wrote in an Access database, exhibiting a creative use of resources. Portfolio pay-off What work sample can you play up to make your interviewers say "Wow!"? Once you identify the one piece that best presents your skills and value, that, along with your personal assets and history of work experience, will ensure you are taking full advantage of all opportunities to wow prospective employers.
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The Devil Mountain Views -- Nov/Dec 2001 |
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There are always three great opportunities to wow a prospective employer: your
personal first impression, your resume, and your portfolio of work samples.
Can you showcase an unusual piece of work that no other candidate is likely to
match? Something that demonstrates your professional versatility, your ability to work hard for far-reaching goals, your marketability as an author?