Career Portfolio

What is a ‘Career Portfolio’?

Career Portfolios are used to document education certificates, work experience, achievements any other skills and organize in an orderly manner. It is basically an explosion of your resume. A career portfolio can contain up to fifty pages of information about a person. Candidates use Career Portfolios to apply to jobs, get a higher designation, better pay package and to track the professional development. They are more informative than a curriculum vitae or resume, which is used to summarize the above in one or two pages. A Career Portfolio is an excellent document which serves as proof of one’s skills, abilities, and potential in the future. Career portfolios are becoming common in workplace environment. Career Portfolios helps to get a good job or acceptance for an interview call. A Career Portfolio should only contain personal and critical information, work experience certificates, achievements and acknowledgments. Career Portfolios are often kept in a leather folder and in an electronic form and updated often. A Career Portfolio is used as a marketing tool in selling oneself for professional advancement. In some companies, employers commonly request a Career Portfolio, so it is a very wise idea to have it kept prepared and ready. Career Placements team helps in preparing a complete document of Career Portfolio before moving on to the next level in life.

Why do a Career Portfolio?

•  By making a Career Portfolio is self-realization about your past. It is a Reflection of your values, interests, and skills that lead you to identify your qualities that you may not have thought before.
•  A Career Portfolio organizes all the evidence you have collected over the past years of who you are & what you can do.
•  During the initial working period a Career Portfolio will provide a track record of your career planning activities.
•  Your Career Portfolio provides proof of competency you will be more confident when applying for a job and asking for the better salary package because you have put in efforts and organized your documents.
•  Employers after they view your Career Portfolio will be very impressed in the first round of interview and there will be high chances of getting selected for the job.

What is the Purpose of Career Portfolio?

A Career Portfolio gives Hiring Managers a chance to see your background of work before you are hired. This definitely puts you at an advantage over other candidates who may have an excellent education and work experience, but no presentation style. For example, if you are a graphic designer, your Career Portfolio will contain art materials which you have done. The Hiring Manager can get a sense of your artwork before hiring you. A Journalist, photographer, architect or engineer can benefit similarly from a Career Portfolio of published work.

About the Organization you are seeking.

Review the skills and work experiences you have in common and then create a finer list of the skills a particular employer is looking for. You can contact the expert consultant of Career Placements and they will help you out to find what specific personalities an employer is seeking for a specific position. This will help you to organize your Career Portfolio in a better way and highlight the work that speaks the most important about your skills for a particular position. The Career Portfolio contains many sections and for different sections will have its own importance. For instance, for a journalist job your articles, features and stories you’ve written may be more important than your curriculum vitae. For a Professor Job, it will be vice versa, your curriculum vitae will be more important than your published articles. Organize based on significance and recreate your Career Portfolio as per the new job application.

What to Include in a Career Portfolio?

You must include a copy of your latest resume in the Career Portfolio, even if you have already emailed your resume. Include your entire educational certificate from the college or university you’ve attended and earned a degree and include a fact sheet that displays your skills and competencies. This fact sheet can be divided into categories. If you have attended or presented at professional conferences and workshops, include an article that supports the same. Finally, include document relevant to your interest. For example, if you are a photographer, include a sample of photos which you have clicked. If you are an author, include stories of published work. If you are applying for a trainer’s position, include a sample of your training and the feedback. If you have wide experience, your Career Portfolio might be very large. You should create a Career Portfolio which will be of relevant resources for each job to which you apply to solve this problem.

How to present in the best way possible?

Present the Career Portfolio in a professional format. Use a leather binder and laminated pages that are permanent like certificates, articles, graphical representation, feedback, etc. Take the Career Portfolio with you to an interview and when they point out your past experience you can direct in your portfolio. You can re-work on your Career Portfolio for each new interview call and keep it updated the latest articles as you build your work experience. Work on areas where you can sharpen your skills and then present these skills as future goals in the interview. Understanding that you are working on the areas of improvement will show the Hiring Manager that you are keen to learn than just getting a job. Further, a job-specific Career Portfolio will show the employer that you have done your research on the position that you have applied.

In what way would you be able to apply a ‘Career Portfolio’?

•  To compare the abilities and work experience you have had to the aptitudes and work experience you need to have.
•  To review the kind of job positions you’re currently prepared for.
•  To be prepared for an interview.
•  To answer the Hiring Manager in a very confident way, questions like “What’s the greatest achievement in your present place of employment and how did you achieve it?” You can show the Graphical representations of your work experience. They may also ask questions like “What are your weaknesses” This you can answer them in a very positive way.
•  To coordinate and evaluate your progress and implementation of skills, by expressing objectives and surveying advance with all documentation.