These days, a job market is one of the most competitive ones, thus, in order to succeed in a chosen field and professional development, one should know techniques that can help him/her stand out from the crowd of numerous applicants for a position. To pass an interview for a job successfully, one should provide a resume, show himself/herself during the interview and present a portfolio.
Indeed, a professional portfolio is very important in today’s career. It can ensure a successful path to a desirable career. In this paper, we are going to discuss the importance of the professional portfolio, provide the algorithm of composing a great portfolio, discuss the use of portfolio in today’s career and focus on the question of Online Portfolio Systems.
The first question under consideration is the importance of portfolio in today’s career. Thus, demands to applicants are very high these days. Apart from traditional resume and interview, portfolio provides the evidences of one’s validity and credibility of his/her professional qualification. Thus, the first step to the career growth is to make a good resume.
Once it is accepted and an individual is invited to the interview, he/she should confirm his words with evidences. As it has already been mentioned, the best evidence is a professional portfolio. First of all, it shows to the employer that a candidate is serious about the job, that he/she prepared for the interview, thus, he/she is responsible and hard-working. Moreover, the way the material is represented in the portfolio demonstrates the applicant’s creativity and organization:
A portfolio is a purposeful collection of work that exhibits the efforts, progress, and achievements in one or more content areas for the individual developing the portfolio. The collection must include the developer’s participation in selecting contents, the criteria for judging merit, and evidence of the developer’s reflection (Cox, 2005, p. 2).
Thus, the importance of the professional portfolio cannot be argued, as it gives an applicant benefits and help him/her stand a competition in the job market. In addition, it presents the applicant’s accomplishments in previous work place, ensures that one possess skills mentioned in the resume and demonstrates how the applicant can apply them to new occupation. In fact, portfolio speaks for the applicant much more than he/she can say about himself/herself.
The next issue deals with the question how to write a good professional portfolio? Indeed, this question bothers every student and every applicant who wants to get a good position. So, let us discuss the issues that should be included into a career portfolio. One should remember that, “you will include in your portfolio all of your accomplishments—most recent ones are best, but anything you think is still relevant is appropriate” (“Career Portfolio”, 2003, p. 1.).
In general, there are many things that one should include into his/her portfolio, but the most common and essential, in fact are: professional photo of the applicant, record of the outside work (something like committee or volunteer work), “Thank-you” notes from customers or clients on a job well done and from other divisions or executives, examples of the applicant’s works, not more that a three year’s evaluation of the previous occupations, one’s statement and goals, resume (copy) (Burge, 2009, n. pag).
Other sources like “Career Portfolio” (2003), also recommend including an “official high school transcript and copies of your personal interests and achievements” (p. 2). However, these are not the only “issues” that can be added to one’s career portfolio.
One should remember that the portfolio will stay with him/her for an entire professional life and he/she will add to it on a regular basis because new skills will be acquired during a career. One more important amendment that modern specialists suggest to include into the career portfolio is an emotional intelligence assessment which “gives you concrete and valid evidence that complements your résumé and provides tangible proof to a potential employer” (“Emotional Intelligence and Your Career Portfolio”, 2010, n. pag.).
Having an emotional intelligence assessment will benefit to one’s professional development as, first of all, it gives one an insight into what he/she can do for the occupation, helps during the interview and gives a possibility to define personal strong points that can be applied to the chosen position.
This test should be retaken every two or three years which helps to reevaluate one’s achievements. There are many such tests and one can choose whatever fits him/her, but the test should include such sections as assessment of interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, stress management, adaptability, and general mood (“Emotional Intelligence and Your Career Portfolio”, 2010, n. pag.). Thus, it would be beneficial for every applicant to have this “addition” in his/her career portfolio.
Let’s skip to the use of the professional (or career) portfolio in today’s career. First of all, as it has already been mentioned, the main purpose of usage of the career portfolio is a job-hunting.
However, these days, it has other uses as well. For example, one’s portfolio can be focused not only on the past achievements, but it can include plans for the future and future projects, such as ideas for the improving of the job. Thus, “in this light, the portfolio can begin to take on the look and feel of a business plan, a project proposal, scrapbook, or brochure” (Kimeldorf and Hagy, n. pag).
A person can also use his/her portfolio to “market a proposal to his present employer or a brand new business” (Kimeldorf and Hagy, n. pag), thus, the portfolio can be a combination of a career portfolio with the business plan. Finally, portfolios often used to evaluate the employees and improve or re-structure the working environment and contribute to working efficiency. Thus, all members of the working team will feel themselves more meaningful and work effectively.
The last question under consideration is the use of Online Portfolio Systems in today’s career. Online Portfolio Systems are considered to encourage career planning and improve the structure and representation of the materials in one’s personal portfolio.
Thus, they provide the possibility to use “the entire array of multi-media possibilities (sound, animation, net surfing, etc)” (Kimeldorf and Hagy, n. pag). Thus, today many professionals use electronic portfolios to presents their achievements and accomplishments using a diversity of multimedia formats.
Moreover, an electronic portfolio demonstrates one’s creativity and proficiency in working with different computer programs, so, “online portfolio systems are a culmination of technological advances and current curriculum reform efforts” (Campbell and Schmidt, 2005, p. 931). The usage of electronic portfolios is acquires more popularity nowadays and employer prefer them to other types of portfolios.
Thus, in conclusion it should be mentioned that a career portfolio plays an important role in today’s career and provides a valuable contribution to the applicant’s occupation. It is used not only during the interview, but as a basis for employees’ assessment and improvement of the working process. It provides the in-depth information about the person and should include any valuable information that an individual considers important for his/her professional development.
References List
Burge, J. (2009).Show and tell: how to create a career portfolio. Office Arrow. Web.
Campbell, M. I., & Schmidt, K. J. (2005). Polaris: an undergraduate online portfolio system that encourages personal reflection and career planning. International Journal of Engineering Education, 21(5), 931-94.
“Career Portfolio” (2003). Maine Career Advantage. Web.
Cox, A. A. (2005). An application portfolio assessment in vocational evaluation and assessment. Web.
“Emotional Intelligence and your career portfolio”. (2010) Perry Marrel International. Web.
Kimeldorf, M., & Hagy, B. Quintessential Careers. Web.