I wanted to put some tips and recommendations for those of you looking to prepare portfolios for interviews with clients. This has been something a lot of designers and copywriters ask me about, but as CareerHub’s post says (and I second!), it’s not something that should be exclusive to the more creative professions.
An IT professional can showcase a project status report from a previous project. A financial executive can submit a deal sheet. A human resources executive can offer a benefits vendor analysis report. Operations professionals can develop a list of customer retention strategies and their success rates. Sales executives can prepare a presentation with graphs and charts to identify various metrics associated with business growth.
Basic rules of thumb for a portfolio (using the creative industries as a guide):
Be sure the presentation is professional. No three ring binders or manilla folders people! Like I’ve said before, it may cost a little bit of money you might not have, but you have to give to get, right?
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Your portfolio should include things you’ve done and things you’d like to do. If youre on the younger end, still looking to build an effective portfolio, there’s nothing wrong with including school projects you’re particularly proud of. I also recommend including spec projects that you’ve done to challenge your skills, knowledge and creativity. You might not have gotten paid for it, but it’s still part of your work scope.
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Which leads me to suggest, once again, getting involved in organizations in which you have an interest, non-profits, religious, or otherwise. Offer your services at no charge and then everyone wins–you add to your book and they get great pieces!
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Another thing to consider is the position for which you are interviewing. Employers want to see like-for-like. This means a corporate design department isn’t going to want to see your stellar retro-throwback to Rocky Balboa for the amazing ad in HairCutting Quarterly Magazine. They’ll want to see clean lines, logo and corporate compliance, brochures with long-copy, that sort of thing.
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Finally, it’s very important in today’s technology age to have a web presence. You can control how much information is made public, and how people are able to reach you. The spectrum runs from very minimal and passive (like having your resume posted on Monster.com) to more involved (like having pieces of your work (designers) posted on Coroflot or CreativeHotlist) to the most interactive: having a website and a blog and delving into the blogosphere, where you can merge your real-life personality and reputation with the virtual communities. Check out Jeremy Aaron Anderson for one example.
And don’t forget LinkedIn! I am still gathering additional articles and resources about the value and proper usage of the site for networking and job searching. Stay tuned!
Try it out-and as always, ask questions if you have them!
Technorati Tags: portfolios, Coroflot, CreativeHotlist, CareerHub, LinkedIn, blogging, Jeremy Aaron Anderson
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on Thursday, December 14th, 2006 at 2:51 pm and is filed under CM Access, Resume, Interviews, Design, Search Tips.
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January 29th, 2007 at 11:47 am
I am also going to get a iKarma Account to reinforce my LinkedIn account…