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How to Create a Portfolio | |
By Miki Magyar
July 2001
If you're just starting out and have to ask about what's in one, or if you?ve been working in companies where everything is highly proprietary, you probably don't have a lot of nifty stuff stockpiled. But you can still create a winning portfolio. Remember, the function of the portfolio is to give you something to point to while you talk to a prospective employer about what you can do, and how you do it.
Make sure the portfolio itself is good.looking. You don't need a leather one, or lots of bucks. Even a plain vanilla 3.ring binder can look good with a little creative effort. Use some nice color.border paper and make a well.designed cover. Make several, depending on the kinds of jobs you might apply for. A cover for a marketing job, for example, could have the glitz that would be inappropriate for a software documentation job.
Design a one.page flyer for your business, or make a mission statement, or something that gives the TV Guide outline of who you are and what you do. Make that the inside first page. You may want to make copies of this to hand out when you leave. Again, you can have different versions, depending on what kind of work you?re applying for.
Inside, use plastic slipsheets for each 2.page spread. On the left side put the 'before' example, and on the right, the 'after' version. You can change the pages depending on the job you're applying for. Make sure you collect good examples from every project. Even if the material is confidential, most employers will negotiate on letting you get individual pages that demonstrate your skills. I have forms I've redesigned, spec sheets that are now comprehensible, engineers' procedures, programmers' cryptic notes, and so on. If you've done any online help, print out a couple topics and include them. You might want to include the HTML code, if you?ve done that. And it doesn't all have to be from work, either. You can take stuff that comes in the mail and re.do it. Hey, re.write the instructions for your VCR!
If you don?t have a collection of articles, papers, etc., now is the time to start it. Write a short article for publication in one of the professional journals, SIG newsletters, or magazines. They always welcome new material. Offer to do some volunteer writing for non-profits, a local school, your homeowner?s association ? whatever you care about. The interviewer will probably not read any of it, but it will demonstrate your range. College research papers are probably not appropriate, unless the subject is relevant to the job you?re applying for.
If you know you want to work in a particular field, you can go to the technical or professional journals in that field, select a recent article, and write it up for a popular audience. For example, a Scientific American article could be rewritten for a newspaper. This will demonstrate your ability to translate from technical to non-technical, and also your writing skills.
In the back, I have pocket pages to hold such things as papers I've presented, sections from a tutorial, articles in newsletters, and so on. I have copies of letters of recommendation in the last pocket, along with a few annotated sample pages they can keep and my r?sum?. Considering how transient even the most 'permanent' jobs are, I recommend you get a letter from everyone you can, including SMEs.
Most interviewers seem impressed with this kind of portfolio. It gives you a chance to show that you understand the process, that you actually did the work yourself, and you can use it to talk about what made the job interesting, or difficult, or satisfying. I've used this as a model when teaching tech writing, and the feedback from the students is that it works.
Good luck!
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