There are different methods that recruiters and employers use to select job candidates. Thus, it can be a two- or three-step interview, test tasks, competitions, or providing a recommendation letter. But one of the most proven and reliable methods is the portfolios.
What is characteristic is that it determines the employer’s final decision regarding your candidacy, especially if you are a master of a creative profession. In this article we will talk on this topic in more detail: namely how to make a portfolio, what “do’s and don’ts” should you remember, when creating it etc. Besides, we will also tell you how to write it and how to present it to the employer so that he chooses your candidacy.
You've probably seen some jobs where recruiters ask candidates to provide profolios. As a rule, there are vacancies for photographers, artists, architects, and models.
In essence, this concept means some samples of your work, that is the case. Actually, the word “portfolio” is Italian and means "a case". It can be literally a case of documents, or some examples of photos, drawings, or texts in offline or online formats.
Currently, the most popular format is creating an online portfolio. This may include:
In short, you can include everything related to your work and vacancies and everything that may be of interest to your potential employer. Thus, a portfolio is also a self-presentation, where you can demonstrate your knowledge, skills, and work experience to the employer.
Sometimes a candidate can wonder how to make a online portfolio for themselves (it calls also an individual portfolio) or for a company to demonstrate your services to a potential customer.
A resume is a brief portrait that characterizes you as an employee.
It lets your potential employer understand:
As a rule, the resume is a document with a volume of at most 1-2 pages. Actually, it should be short, and clear and give the recruiter an idea of who you are and what can you offer for their company.
But the portolios, in turn, should demonstrate your hard skills and show a potential employer:
That is, as a rule, professionals whose work results will be visible to employers, as well as to customers or clients should demonstrate their examples of the work in their portfolio.
Also, unlike a resume, not all kinds of jobs require a portfolio from the candidates. For instance, you don’t have to create portfolio, if you are an accountant, call-center operator, medical worker, or fireman…there are a lot of professions where you shouldn’t (and actually, can’t) make portfilos.
This regards rather a creative specialist, who makes some products, demonstrates them or gives some services from marketing, the beauty industry, or art. That is, who has to create it and how to make portfolio :
Sometimes the portfolio can even be made up of people from medical professions: cosmetologists, rehabilitators, and massage therapists, to show the results of work with patients: what was the situation before the conversion and what happened after.
In such cases, a portfolio will not only demonstrate your achievements and characterize you as a professional. It will also confirm the authorship of your works and substantiate your salary wishes.
In fact, a portfolio is a business card of your professional skills. And your success at the interview depends on how well and attractively it is written. We offer to take into account these 10 tips on how to make a portfolio online and offline and what you need for this.
It’s better not to select your best of the best jobs to impress the recruiter. After all, if your portfolio will consist only of the top works, then the employer will always expect the highest level of results from you.
And then you will have to always give your best and the work with even just a little worse quality will make him think that you started to skive.
The opposite extreme is when the candidate adds mediocre work to at least somehow fill the volume and add solidity to his portfolio.
In fact, it will only spoil the impression of your resume and portfolio and show your disdain for work. That will definitely not increase the chances of a successful interview and add you a reputation as an irresponsible person who makes his work slipshodly.
This advice may seem too obvious, but you should not even include the work you did together with someone. First, you can be exposed to plagiarism.
Secondly, even if you will pass the selection and get this job, you have a risk that your deception will be revealed just after registration, which will make you feel awkward and even make your job loss.
When putting together a portfolio for work, review it for mistakes, inconsistencies, or any mistakes. Pay special attention to the little things, even if they seem insignificant and insignificant to you. You may consider them insignificant, but they will immediately catch the recruiter's eye.
Especially if your profession is creative and you need to emphasize it. Compiling a portfolio for work in the form of a presentation is a winning step and a good field for imagination.
Especially if you want to use some editors or sites on how to make a portfolio online as a presentation, video, or some online document (pdf, txt, doc.)
The style and features of how to make an online portfolio depend on your work specifics. For example, designers or photographers have to present their works in the form of presentations: they are easier to view and they are visually easier to perceive. Actually, every specialty has some nuances in portfolio creation.
A copywriter, at the same time, has to compose in the form of a series of text documents or one text document with unique sales offers. Therefore, to begin with, see how to make a portfolio sample specifically for your specialty.
You never know when you will need to show off your work. Compiling a portfolio and having it at hand is a good habit. Moreover, you need to update it periodically by making new and new work examples. Save it on a flash drive, in the cloud, or you can place it on a website you created yourself or on a job search resource.
Also, you can use some special resources on how to make an online portfolio and save it in order to always have an access to your case to update it and demonstrate it if needed.
Sometimes some candidates can encroach upon your work’s uniqueness and originality of your work. Roughly speaking, they can copy them and show them, recruiters, as their own. You can deal with this in different ways:
Of course, these are not all recommendations on how to make portfolios.
It is important not only to demonstrate them but also to introduce the recruiter in more detail. For each work, whether it is a photo or a text, add a small explanation:
This will help the recruiter understand your approach to work and your effectiveness as a professional.
Any document, be it a portfolio or resume, should have structure, clear and truthful data, and good design. What scheme does any portfolio design sample offer:
Do not forget also to make sure that it is easy to view and perceive visually, and also make sure that you have compiled a competent and professional portfolio in English, without mistakes.
If a resume is a short self-portrait of you as a potential employee, a portfolio is a presentation of your skills. And the better you demonstrate examples of your work, the more chances you have to get a good offer.
We hope that these how-to-create online portfolio tips will help you impress your recruiter and show yourself as a high-class professional. The main thing — is to show your real samples, don’t be afraid to demonstrate creativity and protect your originality.
