A portfolio contains samples of your past work, which can range from reports and proposals to writing and design projects. These can be submitted as part of your resume.
They can also be requested at the interview stage. In the past, in a typical face-to-face interview, a candidate would bring a physical file of such documents into the room.
Today, the advent of the Internet has given candidates a useful platform to design and Organize your portfolio, like online resumes, with a kind of flexibility like never before.
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Why is a digital portfolio important?
Digital portfolios give recruiters easy access to candidates’ work during the selection process before and after the interview. A click on a link within a resume directs the recruiter to a web page with samples.
The interview stage itself can also become more productive with digital portfolios, especially in today’s virtual age. Imagine jumping into a video interview with all your print samples ready, only to realize you can’t show your work to your interviewer at all.
An online portfolio allows recruiters to view samples instantly on his butt during the video interview. Even better, you can share your screen through telecommuting software and present your portfolio to the employer while discussing your work experience.
How do I create an online portfolio?
Creating an online portfolio is easy and, for the most part, free. Here’s a quick guide!
1. Check Out the Strongest Work Samples
First, choose the samples that effectively illustrate your capabilities. Recruiters want to look their best and not have to go through an extensive portfolio to find something that piques their interest. Think about the following:
- What are the basic skills needed for your career?
- This will help you organize your folder into easy-to-digest sections.
- How old are these samples?
- A general rule of thumb is to choose samples that are no more than five years old.
- Do you have permission to post them online?
- Contact your previous employers if there are any confidentiality agreements about your work.
Read more: 5 Tough Questions from the interview and how to approach them effectively
2. Choose a free website builder
The easiest way to set up an online portfolio is through a free website builder. They offer a selection of features sufficient to establish a strong online portfolio. Some include:
- WordPress
- Weebly
- Wix
SEE: Looking to pick up new skills digital? Here’s how to ease the learning curve!
3. Design your website
Choose a design that offers the best user experience and represents your professional self. There are many templates available on these website builders, so choosing is easy.
When planning your design, you should consider the following elements:
- A landing page with a summary of your professional history.
- Subpages organized by your skills and other relevant experience (i.e. videography, writing, client proposals, etc.)
- Contact information, such as your email address and access to your LinkedIn profile.
4. Organize your shows
There are two ways to organize your shows on your subpages:
- Industry-specific: If you’ve worked in multiple industries, organize your shows samples between them will give you a good snapshot of your experience in the industry.
- Chronological: Especially useful for those just starting out, chronological order, with most recent at the top, will allow your recruiter to see your professional progress.
5. Add information about your samples
When you create a portfolio, you not only want it to impress your recruiters, but also to speak for itself. This means that you need to add information about your samples.
However, provide only enough to pique the interest of employers so they can contact you to discuss more. Again, take note of how much you can disclose based on the permissions your previous employers gave you.
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6.Create hidden tabs for employer-specific portfolios
Much like a resume, you want to provide a customized portfolio for the position you’re applying for so you can better convince the employer of your capabilities.
While keeping your overall portfolio intact, you can create a separate page with relevant samples pared down from your existing pool, and add more details and custom captions for the work itself.
This page can be hide from your website menu and can only be accessed when a link is provided.
Of course, your general portfolio can also be accessed from that link; there is nothing wrong with allowing your recruiter to explore more of your work!
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