As you develop your career, you will have previous works that you can show off. Portfolio is a great way to show what you have created in the past. It is a good representative for what you can do, so it is for the best that you put your best foot forward. This page goes over how you can do just that.
What to put in portfolio?
If you are thinking of what to put inside your portfolio, you may consider some of these:
- Self Introduction – Explain a bit about who you are so the viewer of the portfolio gets a better understanding of you and the content.
- Artifacts of previous work (such as text, images, videos, etc.) – This is the type of stuff you would expect to be in a portfolio. They are the evidence that you can do what you can do and a perfect item for portfolios.
- Writing sample / documents – Maybe the stuff that resulted from your work is more like essays. You can totally have them in the portfolio.
- Projects from class – Don’t let the fact that it was made in class stop you from putting it in portfolio. It is a good pick for showing your learning process.
Types of ePortfolios
The purpose of the portfolio will influence what kind of items will go inside your portfolio. Establish what your portfolio will be for and keep it in mind when deciding the contents of it.
Learning / Capstone portfolios: These portfolios are for demonstrating learning. You will want to put in items demonstrating a variety of projects over the span of your career. The goal is to show improvement, so it is okay for you to put in old project that you might think no longer represents your current quality of work, as long as you have ones that are more recent and representative of current quality of work.
Professional portfolios: These portfolios are for showing your best work. Make sure to have recent and high quality items. Put your best foot forward to employers so that you have the best chance of success.
Things to consider before making the portfolio.
- What does the work belong to? Portfolio composed of school work would not be as good as one made of your own projects. It would make more sense to have items where you had more power over the process and product, so a more creative school project are also a good addition.
- Consider if it should be accessible globally. If you are creating an ePortfolio, you have the opportunity to have the portfolio be accessible to everyone. This allows you to show what you can do to many more people.
- Think about what will bring people to see the portfolio. Think about how valuable it would be for it to go to other people. Maybe you should consider sending it to others through email.
- Think about your digital footprint. It may be helpful for your work to appear when someone looks up your name on google. Also make sure to build a good reputation for yourself online.
- Think about its relevance in the future. Consider updating your portfolio from time to time in order to present your most recent and best work.
Example Portfolios
Here are some example portfolios for you to check out. Please feel free to click on the image to check out the portfolio.
