Focus On The User Experience
Dont force a hiring manager to spend a lot of time clicking and scrolling. Also, dont be afraid to use white space. A clean look is always better than a cluttered one. As for the overall format of your digital portfolio, consider using one of these simple but effective approaches:
- Industry-specific As an example, if youre applying for a position at a hospital, lead with your healthcare-related samples or other work thats in a style or has functionality similar to that industrys standards or that could improve on industry standards.
- Chronological This format works best for entry-level creatives. Start with your most recent work to show off your best samples.
Content: What Goes In A Portfolio What Do Employers Want To See
Things to consider: Who will view your portfolio? What skills do you want to market? What is your purpose? Does your portfolio reflect your accomplishments? Your career field? You may include:
-
Projects you have worked on as a class assignment or in a job
-
Reports or research summaries relevant published articles
-
Graphics/technical project print outs
Guide To Creating A Digital Portfolio: Strategies For Students And Professionals
Contents
Maintaining a digital presence in the form of a portfolio website can be integral to embarking upon and forging a successful career in a variety of fields, including communication and media, design, business, and engineering. In the communication industry in particular, which encompasses fields such as advertising, journalism, marketing, public relations, social media management, and technical writing, a portfolio is crucial as both a reflection of ones professional qualifications and as an important reflective exercise when considering ones career journey and how to craft a strong narrative and personal brand. Employers who are looking for candidates with training in particular areas often want to see examples of a candidates work, while also getting to know something more about the person and his or her values, goals, and ambitions.
Don’t Miss: What Are The Best Interview Questions To Ask A Candidate
Presenting Your Professional Portfolio In The Digital Age
Writers, designers, artists and photographers face the constant dilemma of showing potential employers or clients exactly what kind of genius theyre capable of. The portfolio is an integral part of your effort to market yourself to those who can benefit from your services. Over the years, my portfolio has morphed as often as my job titles, and I clearly recall the angst of having to show what I could do despite having practically no working experience. Nowadays, my angst tends more towards answering the what should I include, and how far back I should I go questions. So, whether youre new to field, or a veteran looking for new opportunities, youre probably considering how to build or rebuild a portfolio that shines a welcome spotlight.
Build And Maintain Your Portfolio
These 5 steps will help you create a master portfolioa complete collection of all your relevant information and proof of your abilities and skills. Once you have your master copy, you can pick and choose items to create different versions of your portfolio for specific employers.
It can take a lot of time to create the master version of your portfolio, but its well worth the effort.
Don’t Miss: How To Prepare For An Administrative Assistant Interview
Content Marketing Portfolio Example
Lauren Marinigh is an experienced content marketer and social media manager. She created a pretty cute one-page website for her services and work samples.
Highlights:
- There is a separate section with information about education.
- The site has a blog and customer reviews.
- Each example of work opens in a new window.
Visually Organized Resume Content
Kens more simple resume is visually organized. This makes the content easier to read and digest. Once the scanning stops, the reader has to decide if it is going to be easy to read.
This resume model is organized into three sections.
Resume header
Much like a website header, this resume header gives a visual sign of order and a quick overview. The picture is a powerful way for someone to put a person to the page.
Resume sidebar
Kens resume model makes effective use of a sidebar that is visually separated by the background color. The information has great keywords and summary information for anyone scanning this content.
He further separates the content into sections with headers. Easy to scan and easy to digest.
Main resume content
Ken separates the main content with a white background. He further organizes content with separators. Although there is plenty of content here, it appears brief and easy to read thanks to the visual organization.
Ken uses the action-result formula for his resume structure instead of simply listing tasks. He quickly tells a story of the value he brings to the business.
Read Also: How To Interview A Caregiver
How A Professional Portfolio Works
Come up with some interesting ways to demonstrate yourself personally and professionally, and youre on your way to creating a professional portfolio. But why? How does it work to your advantage?
The job market is incredibly competitive. Everyone wants to come up with something that makes them stand out from the competition.
A professional portfolio can do that by not only showcasing the work youve done but actually showing your process as well. You want your future employer to be able to visualize you in the job. Thats one step closer to you actually getting the position.
A portfolio differentiates you from the competition. Even if every candidate has a portfolio, yours shows how you work, which will be different from other people. It also lends credibility to your resume, reinforcing what you stated as your job duties with examples.
Employers love seeing portfolios because it helps them verify your resume and cover letter claims.
You can say youve spearheaded a campaign, but that doesnt mean too much. When the employer can see your starting point, your graphics, analytics, etc., then they understand the depth of your expertise.
Build a professional resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your resume.
What You Should Include In Your Digital Marketing Portfolio
Now you have a good understanding of what a Digital Marketing portfolio is, heres a list of what you need to include in it:
Introduce yourself: Introduce yourself and your work, highlighting your interests, soft skills, personal qualities, background and experience.
CV / Resume: Add your Digital Marketing CV to your portfolio and explain your experience in greater detail. Be sure to include all the the usual information in a CV. If you need some guidance weve got some tips to help you write a Digital Marketing CV that stands out.
Contact details: The goal for your portfolio is to have people contact you for potential work opportunities, right? If that is the case, you need to make it as easy as possible for them to contact you. Make sure to inlcude your phone number, email address and links to your social media accounts.
Examples of your work: This is the section of your Digital portfolio where you highlight your most successful work by sharing examples of the best projects youve worked on. Explain your thought process and methodology behind each project and how successful it was.
Testimonials: Sharing testimonials from previous colleagues, managers or companies youve worked for is a great way to build a strong first impression. Positive testimonials help to establish your credibility and reliability.
Also Check: What Are The 10 Most Common Questions In An Interview
What To Say About Each Project
Start with a brief summary of what the creative brief was. . Explain your role on the project, and if relevant, who the other key players were. Then explain what youre looking at on the screen, advancing to the next screen as you walk through it.
Before you present each piece, state why youre showing it. This is my favorite campaign because the client was so much fun and encouraged us to try things we had never done before. or This next campaign is for the same target audience that your client is selling to.
Writing Case Studies As A Visual Type
So, the big question remains: How will you do all these things? And what if writing case studies doesnt really come to you as more of a visual person? I think I can help.
Many designers start to build a portfolio looking around WordPress templates.
Dont.
They will because they saw some good design stories in your portfolio. OK, dont believe me. Ask industry veteran Jared Spool or design sprint inventor Jake Knapp. So dont start coding, but rather find a good tool that helps you build your online portfolio.
Read Also: Should You Email After An Interview
What Is A Digital Marketing Portfolio
A Marketing portfolio is a compilation of material that shows examples of your work. Portfolios are often associated with writers and artsits a collection of artwork or a previous books they have written. For Digital Marketing professionals, this may be a collection of some of the best projects you have worked on, your qualifications, training and your experience in general.
Rather than printing off pages of your work and experience, youre better off creating a personal marketing portfolio and putting it online on a website.
How Much Should You Include
Here is one that has been a challenge for me. Ive worked in a number of industries, doing quite a variety of work over the years, and Ive been at this for quite a while. So how many samples of those really awesome help systems Ive produced should I really include? If youre a long time TechWhirler, you know the answer is it depends on the type of position youre seeking, the industry youre trying to get into, your level of experience, and a lot more. You may want to put together a portfolio matrix that lists the areas you want to highlight in columns, and list your best samples in rows, marking the cells where the area and the sample converge.
Don’t Miss: How To Prepare For A Cultural Fit Interview
Site Speed And Tech Support
Your website loading speed is also important. You don’t want to lose visitors just because your site takes a long time to load. Twenty-four-hour technical support is vital if you’re creating a website yourself and need help when you get stuck, even if that’s the middle of the night. Finally, although pricing shouldn’t be the main yardstick you use to measure a good website builder, you don’t want to pay too much for a mediocre website builder, so compare prices as well.
Make A Lasting Impression With Animations
Chances are when youre applying for a job, there are lots of other applicants who are also providing high-quality portfolios. However, with Canva 2.0, you can now ensure that your digital portfolio stands out by enlisting the help of our Animation feature.
Once youve created your design using Canva, click Publish. Next, a drop-down menu will appear. From there, click Animation. You are now able to choose how you would like to animate your design. Watch as your creation fades and rises across the screenand all with one click. You can choose to export the file into an MP4 or GIF format.
Don’t Miss: How To Prepare For Product Manager Interview
Tips On How To Build A Professional Portfolio
Now that you understand the importance, its time for some tips on how to build a professional portfolio. Use one, use all whatever you need to develop a portfolio that youre proud of.
Our resume builder tool will walk you through the process of creating a stand-out Architect resume.
The Importance Of Creating A Digital Portfolio
To provide students and professionals with advice and insights on why they should consider creating a digital portfolio, we interviewed five professors who either teach or are involved with masters programs where students complete a digital portfolio as part of their graduate program. While the professors we interviewed are from communication-related graduate degree programs, their advice and the information included in this Guide are relevant to students and professionals in a variety of fields.
A digital portfolio is more than just a website with someones resumé and brief biography. On the contrary, it is an opportunity for applicants to tell potential employers who they are, and why they are the right person for a job. Jeanine Turner, Ph.D. is a Georgetown University professor who has spent the past 15 years teaching in the schools Communication, Culture, and Technology masters program. In one of her courses Digital Presence and Strategic Persuasion students spend a semester creating a digital portfolio. In the course, we focus on the power of narrative and storytelling in the context of a portfolio, Dr. Turner explains. We also focus on personal branding And we talk about persuasion and influence. All of that is centered around creating a portfolio that accurately represents who you are and what your skills and interests are.
Jeanine Turner, Ph.D. Georgetown University
Read Also: How To Start An Interview As The Interviewer Example
Find The Best Medium To Create Your Portfolio
There are many different mediums that you can use to create a portfolio. For example, a web designer may create a website to use as a portfolio for showcasing their design skills and capabilities. On the other hand, a writer may use a platform that allows them to include links to their published articles. Use the platform that serves you best to showcase your work.
What Skills And Achievements Do You Want To Highlight
While this would appear to be a no brainer, take some time to think about the specific skills you want to highlight, and choose portfolio pieces that accomplish the task. If you have been involved in a lot of software development, but are planning to move into process, policy and procedure work, multiple samples of online help or design documents are probably overkill, and could send the wrong message. Start with the list of competencies or qualifications at the top of your resume to determine the categories of samples you want to include. You may choose to include a sample of a completely different area than what you are shooting for now to show the breadth of your skills, but providing a whole section devoted to writing FAQs when you want to do content strategy work would be of questionable value.
Also Check: How Hard Are Google Interviews
What Should Your Product Design Portfolio Signal
So, what do professionals want to see in your product design portfolio? Besides nice images , they would like to hear the story behind the making of a product.
- How you got to know your target group?
- What customer insights did you gain?
- What problems did these people face?
- How did you turn these insights into feature or product ideas?
- How did you experiment with these ideas?
- did you do prototyping and testing?
These are the main questions that the case studies in your portfolio should answer. Now lets move on to a product design portfolio template that you can use to tell great design stories.
Checklist For Creating A Winning Online Portfolio
First things first get your ducks in a row. Heres a 6-point checklist of all the info you can put in your digital portfolio:
An opening zinger to catch the eye of an interviewer
This is a statement which is meant to intrigue, to arouse the curiosity of the reader, and get them interested in what you have to say and show to them. In order to entice the interviewer into browsing through your online portfolio, its landing page has to set the stage. A bold line is just the thing to do that.
Do: My name is Priyanka Sutaria. I am a child of literature.
Dont: Im Priyanka. Reading is my hobby.
A section which details the kind of work you do, and your employment history
Once you have established yourself as an interesting candidate, you can hit the ground running. I have found that it helps to put more than just the bare details of where, when, and at what position you worked. Besides, jobs rarely play out as they are defined a photographer isnt hired simply to take photos, but to define the visual story of a brand, or an event. A succinct synopsis of your role, and all the bits and bobs it contains, will make it simple and informative for the reader. Plus, mention your skill set. Make it easy for the interviewer.
A selected work portfolio
A link to an extensive resume
Any testimonials or media features
Contact details and social media links
Also Check: What To Answer During Job Interview
How To Organize Your Portfolio For Your Job Interview
Depending on the job interview you are attending, you may be expected to bring with you your portfolio of work samples. This is usually the case for creative positions or jobs that involve sales, as candidates are often required to provide evidence of their work achievements, sales figures, creative work samples and so on, to prove to the interviewer that they are as talented as they say. A well-developed professional portfolio can also show if the candidates work can convey the companys voice and represent their image correctly.
Knowing how to compile a work portfolio is essential if you are interviewing for a creative job. You need to know how to pull together the most relevant, impressive and detailed documents in order to highlight your skills in the best possible light.
Here is a step by step list to help you organise your portfolio during an interview.
