How to Create a Professional Portfolio When You Apply for Jobs

A professional portfolio is a collection of examples and evidence that demonstrate your experience, skills, and potential employment and professional development opportunities.

Your portfolio should contain written and visual reviews of projects and a significant part of the work you have managed or taken part in. It should also include an idea of ​​your skills, the methods you have used, the impact of your work, and the relevant results and/or lessons you have learned.

From an employer’s point of view, a professional portfolio shows that you are reflective and proactive in your development.

Where to start

Identify the appropriate examples and evidence that best fit the job or development opportunity sought.

Organize your portfolio into categories such as personal statements, work experience, training certificates, volunteer experiences, and testimonials. Select the best examples and evidence to support your application.

You can make a positive first impression on a potential employer through a portfolio, especially if it’s available online, as it can help you relive your career story. Creating an online career portfolio is relatively easy and allows a wider audience to see the visibility of your skills and experiences.

What you want to include in your portfolio

• Personal Statement -This is an overview of your career, inspiration, basic skills, and career goals.
• Reports, assessments, research summaries, or visual presentations (graphs/tables )
• Published articles that you mentioned.
• Photos of products you co-design or works of art created for clients.
• If necessary, ad images of the goods.
• Awards and certificates.
• Appropriate professional license.
• Contact information for personal and professional recommendations, or their written recommendations.
• Customize your portfolio with samples and evidence gathered during your career or college, not your favorite TV shows, pet photos, or other inappropriate information about yourself. Some employers may reject your application if other information distracts you from work-related content.

Create an online portfolio

Many companies and employers are actively using online platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to build professional relationships, grow their businesses, and hire employees. Such social media is an excellent opportunity to feature your profile and portfolio of international companies and executives in organizations, as well as to join freelance social networks.

Make it easy for others to see your information, use basic English, and check spelling and grammar.

Career and recruitment services do not endorse or endorse the listed websites, but offer them as examples of online portfolio tools.

Professional networking site

LinkedIn allows people to create a profile where they can add career examples and evidence, highlight key skills, share their work history, connect with companies, and get recommendations to enhance their career development. Such websites require your participation to create professional links, join groups and advertise via likes/shares and comments on articles and posts. LinkedIn also offers a blog for creating a personal profile/portfolio.

Individual portfolio on the website

This can be created using a website like About Me. You don’t need extensive web knowledge, but you do need to promote and promote your portfolio. This is perfect for freelancers who don’t want to limit themselves to LinkedIn profile templates and want a personalized portfolio.

The multi-page website with a portfolio

You can specify a domain name and template options for different industries. This is suitable for people with small businesses or for people who want to display a photo gallery with their work. Portfolio Box is an example of a multi-page portfolio website. You have to manage the website yourself.

Video and animation formats

It can be created with a service like Visualize. me. This is a great way to present your portfolio in a visually appealing format. She is often chosen by people looking for opportunities in the creative and media sectors.

Blogs and websites with templates

With a site like WordPress, you have more control over your digital portfolio. They are easy to use and offer a variety of website-building tools called dashboards. Many people and organizations build their websites with WordPress.

Several features let you add sections and links, create comment fields, upload images, and choose from a variety of templates. If you choose to use a personal domain name that’s not in the toolkit, you’ll have to pay extra for it, but the website address looks more professional. Like other similar websites, you need to promote and promote your portfolio.

How to use your portfolio

Promote as much of your portfolio as possible

You can promote your portfolio on social networking sites like Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. You can apply for general and industry-specific vacancies where you can only upload your resume which will be sent to employers. If necessary, you can include a web address in your complete online portfolio on your resume. Many sectors (eg psychology) have professional organizations and websites where practitioners can advertise their services, and provide summaries of relevant subject areas, and contact details.

Market ​​your portfolio to potential employers

Regardless of whether your portfolio is online and/or on paper, it may be appropriate and tempting to contact potential employers directly by inviting them to view them in person or by providing them with a resume with a link to view yours online. -Send version.

Many industries are constantly looking for the best candidates for jobs, including hospitality and catering, business, sales and marketing, science and technology. Check to see if the employer welcomes speculative applications or doesn’t want to accept a resume or wallet unless a job is advertised.

Make sure it’s accessible

Save your portfolio in an accessible location or format. Make sure it is easily accessible via social networking sites or a simple web address to enter search engines. Instead of putting paper sizes in the closet and forgetting about them, you’ll be more likely to update your online portfolio. You can manage and update your information, and add good examples of when and when it appears.

Always update

Remember your career is ongoing. Therefore, check and update your portfolio regularly to show your continuing professional development (CPD). Your portfolio should be ready to fill out applications, attend interviews and make an impact while working online.

Portfolios are designed to be in progress.