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In today’s job market, having an online portfolio gives applicants a significant advantage. Not only can employers have access to samples of your work, but they also can get a sense of your personal style. When first organizing an online portfolio, it is important to chose which individual aspects you specifically want to showcase. Selecting an overall theme such as progression, creativity, or a particular set of skills will help bring cohesion to your site. As discussed in WordPress 24 Hour Trainer, making sure you have a balance between functionality and design is key to your portfolio’s success. Often times, less is more. Sticking to a more simplistic design will look professional and still demonstrate your individuality.
There are many different sites with which you can create an online portfolio, but my two personal favorites are WordPress and Wix. WordPress offers multiple features like plugins and widgets for the ultimate customization, while Wix gives you a lot of templates for inspiration. Both sites are very user friendly and allow you to create a unique and professional online portfolio. What are some of your favorite portfolio-making sites, and why?
As students, we have a tendency to think about our work as “for this class” or “for that class.” Chapter 2 in PTPC, “Creating a Portfolio Identity” emphasizes the importance of shifting our mindset, especially when developing a portfolio. This chapter suggests that one must first analyze their own personality and what they would like to represent about themselves. In two sentences: discuss aspects of your personality while making connections between these traits and your career goals.
This chapter also suggests that one analyzes the rhetorical situation of his/her portfolio. Since we are past the midway point this semester and have to be thinking about our portfolios anyway, let’s each attempt this analysis.
Purpose: : What skill set would you like to put the most emphasis on? (Table 2.1 pg. 29) What materials will you use to represent this skill set? What exactly will they show about you?
Audience – How will you market your skills to attain a specific job? What type of job are you looking for? How will your preferred career fit your personality?
How can you represent the skills not only through the work represented in your portfolio but through the development of the porfolio itself? Designing an online porfolio will definitely speak to your graphic/technological skills whether you want it to or not. Start thinking about the design. And, as mentioned by one of the other discussion leaders, it may help to look at some porfolio-making sites. Hopefully, the spouting off of class favorites will give you a few options.
Having an online portfolio is a great way to get your work out to the public. In my multimedia wrtiting class we not only created a webpage from scratch using photoshop and an online tutorial but we also uploaded our class work to this page. As tiffany said its hard for a college student to see their work as portfolio items and not work for a particular class. I had to put together a small portfolio of my work when I was applying for internships. Deciding which works to send out via e-mail was an interesting task. As I read the documents I had saved I had to get out of the mindset that these docs were just homework assignments. For the online portfolio I created in my 303 class we posted the different assignments we had completed to the webpage. Having a webpage like this is important for future employers. More than likely they are going to scan through your documents to get an idea of your writing style. They will want many differnt examples of your writing and having them on a webpage provides easier access to the documents. The webpage also has all your information so it is simple for your future employers to get in touch with you.
I have had an online portfolio or two and I always dreaded them. Like Tiffany and Andrea said, I really did always feel like the papers I had written were just for class. As I went for interviews, I felt inferior, because all of my works were from class. I didn’t have any actual works to show. However, now I am becoming more comfortable showing class works, because I understand that I am still a college student. I have little actual works to show, because I haven’t really had a job related to writing papers and the like.
I do like the idea of an online portfolio, because it allows for an easy access. More people would be able to see it, as well as forwarding it to others. Plus, it cuts down on paper! I bet a lot of companies would enjoy the eco-friendliness of an online portfolio and the fact that they don’t have to worry about paper cuts. Yeah, paper cuts, not a lot of fun. Another problem that it will solve is losing parts of the portfolio if they are ripped from the staple and lost in a dark abyss.
Also, the online portfolio can show off your webpage and layout design skills. Even if you are only able to do the basics, a company can still admire a nice organized and simple portfolio.
Having an online portfolio is a great way to promote your work, and I think there’s something very professional about having an organized, well-developed online portfolio. It’s easily accessible and maybe (that’s a big maybe) someone who has some great connections will stumble upon it.
Like a few others have mentioned, it is a little strange because any portfolios or sample work we’ve pulled together in the past have mainly consisted of class work. The feeling of inferiority and uncertainty about class work started to fade, for me, over the past year or so. Classes in the PWE program have given me sample work that is just as professional as any work I’d be producing at my current internship. I can now feel more comfortable using sample work from my classes.
Chapter 2 in Portfolios for Technical and Professional Communicators brought to my attention some of the aspects of writing and portfolios that I have known and learned throughout my college career. First, I must admit, I LOVE taking personality tests and I often find things about myself that I didn’t even know! However, it is hard for a machine to “know” you. It could give you a completely different outcome than the one with which you define who you have been for all these years. They aren’t always bad though, and you can use these things to help figure out where you want to go in terms of your career. Understanding the rhetorical situation is important in each and every document you make including your portfolio. You have to know exactly what you want your portfolio to do, and if you don’t yet it will come to you. You already know your personal set of skills, what you can and cannot do, and what you have experience with. Using those skills will give you a good idea of where you’d like to be career-wise, so you can use those to tailor your portfolio towards the job you’d like to have, or the group of people you want to work with. An especially important part of portfolios is for your portfolio to have life, an identity. It should speak for you! Personally, my favorite portfolio building website is Weebly.com; I currently have a page there that has some of my technical documents on it from my business writing class. It was the easiest one to use, and so far, WordPress confuses the hell out of me.
When it comes to choosing and customizing themes, you want it to look good, and pretty, and dazzle the reader into choosing you for the job, but you must also remember to keep it simple. You have to take into consideration that there may be a reviewer who is bothered by your color choices, or can read it at all because of the font you used. At the same time however, you also want your portfolio to have some flair and reflect who you are as an individual. I often find it hard to draw that line, because I love color and pictures and pretty things, and it will be hard to incorporate those aspects of my personality into my portfolio while still keeping it professional.
As for plug-ins and functionality, Weebly has a few, like the usual Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn widgets. I’m unclear as to whether or not they offer more, as I only have limited experience with them. Plug-ins can be an important part you your portfolio. For example, you can use polls and ask questions to your readers such as what could make your online portfolio more accessible, etc. Which in turn, gives you the perfect opportunity to learn what reviewers want to see!0
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I thought that Chapter 2 in PTPC was very enlightening and prompted me to view the process of making an online portfolio in a new way. Previously, I’ve always assumed online portfolios were just collections or samples of your best work that you present to prospective employers. However, I now understand creating a portfolio is much more complicated. I especially like the part that points out the importance of understanding the rhetorical situation (purpose, audience, subject) and context of your portfolio according to your career goals. For the most part, I think people (myself included) automatically assume a portfolio’s purpose is to convince employers to hire you, its audience is prospective employers, and the subject is whatever its content includes. I believe many people ail to consider the larger context all together. But, this thought process is a severe oversimplification of portfolio creation. First of all, it’s important to analyze and understand your personality and career goals. The chapter suggests using online personality tests like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and Keirsey-Temperament Sorter. Even if you don’t think the results of the tests are accurate, they still get you thinking about your personality and goals in a deeper way. Considering these two factors is vital, because you should tailor your portfolio content to fit a career in which you can be reasonably happy and successful. Also, identifying the context of your portfolio is an advantage, because it helps you understand the environment and attitude of the job field you are trying to enter. For example, if there is a growing demand for graphic design specialists in technical communication (and you have strong graphic design skills), you should definitely emphasize graphic design skills in you portfolio. Other than deciding which pieces work to include, customizing the design and adding plugins to your portfolio can add further depth and appeal. WordPress 24-Hour Trainer discusses many different options in relation to plugins. I appreciated the fact that they offered an initial explanation of the purpose and advantages of plugins (fee and easy to add/delete) since I’ve never tried to add one before. In my opinion, the most relevant plugins for someone designing a portfolio are ones that allow social media use, mobile viewing, and search engine optimization. So, overall, this week’s readings helped me understand that you should put as much thought into the creation of an online portfolio as you did in writing the pieces of work you want to include.
Like Lea Ann, I really enjoy personality tests. It’s particularly difficult for me to translate my interests and skills into workplace language, though. I also have a hard time determining what jobs would be the best fit for my skill set; it seems as though I only truly enjoy obscure jobs (such as quitely editing articles and documents or setting up Doodle polls for group meetings). However, it seems as though the chapter in PTPC is a good jumping off point for learning how to ask the right questions.
As a few of us have mentioned, I think it’s very important to keep the rhetorical practices in mind. It is easy to just list your accomplishments and writing samples on portfolios, but they really are telling the story of yourself and even selling yourself. I think it might be helpful for myself and others to look into and study the resources available to us from these readings and each other. For example, from reading the other posts, I’ve learned about some blog sites I may not have encountered otherwise that may provide more of what I’m looking for in relation to posting and organizing my blog and making it user/potential employer friendly.
Having an online portfolio isn’t just convenient for yourself and possible employers; it gives you so many more options to customize it as you want. A paper portfolio is limited to what it can contain and display. For example, if your portfolio includes work that you have done with video, you can’t put that in a paper portfolio. An online portfolio has so many options, possibly making it so no two online portfolios can be same. This is good news for us because it means we have a better chance to make our portfolio and work stand out. It can be as unique as we want it, with a wide breadth of options.
I, too, have had experience where I’ve applied for an internship and needed to give a sample of writing. At the time, I didn’t have an online portfolio and the only writing samples I had were from class. I did feel like that work was inferior because I only saw it as a homework or paper assignment but it was all I had. In the end, I just had to select the works that I thought best displayed my abilities as a writer. I suppose I chose correctly since I got the job.I think the best rhetorical aspect of an online portfolio is the potential for self-branding. With a little designing, your portfolio can take on a consistent appearance that expresses who you are and who you want to be as a writer. The added opportunity to give your viewer context for the documents only furthers this ability.
When I applied for my job at The DA, I was prompted for writing samples. I had only class essays. They didn’t exactly feel right for a journalistic context. I had no experience as a journalist, and unlike many applicants at The DA, I was not a journalism major, whose class writing would apply. This bothered me, because I had no opportunity to explain why my writing samples were comparisons of the Earl of Rochester and the Canturbury Tales and responses to David Sedaris. That was for the reader to figure out. With an online portfolio, I decide how these can relate to any job I may apply for. I decide what I gleaned from my experiences, and I can tell the person reading why they matter.
Context is everything.
i’ve spent a lot of time getting to know myself and discovering how others perceive me. it is an ongoing process. much of the early years were spent developing the ability to accept being often dismissed as too weird, creative, or, sometimes, difficult. an online portfolio allows me to present the professional side without bias against the qualities that create negative opinions. it also prevents me from using them to a good advantage in the situations where they work in my favor. this is the hardest part of creating my online theme. my outside-the-boxness is less attractive in light of the legal writing aspects of the work i wish to do; however, it is that very quality that makes me an ideal candidate for networking and securing attention and funding for the causes i wish to support through my work.
perhaps it is because i am looking in on their scenarios, but it seems that the readings focus on people who just need to figure themselves out to figure out their jobs, rather than how to present the odd duck they are once they’ve figured out they are odd ducks. the advice is good, but seriously, i could use round-hole-square-peg advice. everyone has quirks. i seem to be nothing but, and if i’m not, or if everyone else is, i’d like a clue as to how to make it look like i fit in a little better. making oneself stand out in the right way is very different from standing out, just like knowing what you want and being qualified to get it don’t always go together.
to the direct question in the original post:
while options for online portfolios have similar components – documents, videos, feedback, “decorations”, etc. – there are actual and perceptual differences. as i choose the venue for my portfolio (and other projects), i am conducting qualitative research. i am constantly meeting and conversing with people who work with media, including a woman who designs websites for the government. before i could even finish my comment/question, she said “wordpress – i love it. it works, it’s easy, it does what it’s supposed to for me and for the audience.” i got a similarly enthusiastic response from a fellow student here who has three wordpress sites.
i was the editor for a group project last semester. our site was in google blogger. omg, what.a.pain. format editing was a nightmare. i would use the site if it’s my only option and be thankful for it. from an audience standpoint, it is fairly easy to navigate and certainly is better than not having a site, but from a creator standpoint, i didn’t care for it.
i also find that google has a subtle “oddballs know how to use it” reputation, especially among government circles. as i hope to be working with people inside all levels of government, i want to use a site that they recognize as acceptable among their own peers – even if they don’t realize it. so far, everyone i’ve asked who works with or for the government in any capacity uses wordpress, nearly exclusively.
i have been hesitant to really get into looking at the additional options, partly because i got a little burned out with google, and partly in relation to the matters of the previous paragraph. if i find some absolutely wonderful site that i really like but government and related organizations do not consider it as valid, serious, etc., and i use it anyway because it’s just so great, i will have potentially lessened my audience and/or undermined my credibility. looking into other sites will have to wait until i have established a foundation. then i can try my hand at trend setting in government media options. i’m not cory booker. can’t play his game. yet.
from the overall feedback, and because i have the book and an account now, i will most likely use wordpress for several projects in which i have full creative and content control.
to wrap the two topics together, sites and online presentation, the fellow student with three wordpress sites is an excellent example of the difference between establishing the online presentation and personal impression. i would never expect such a bubbly, seemingly silly but dear person to be the author of any her online work. she and i are very different but our independent differences from our professional abilities are equal. this is encouraging for me and gives me even more confidence that i can figure out a way to really shine online – using wordpress, most likely.
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“Creating a Portfolio Identity” from Portfolios for Technical and Professional Communicators textbook discusses creating a professional identity. I do not remember creating an online portfolio other than for class. Reading about this was useful because it reminded me of the importance of maintaining a professional identity that appeals to different employers. In a way an online portfolio is a version of an interview because it highlights the different skill set that you are capable of and showcases your past experience. For example, a person that creates a website might have a link of that in the online portfolio. This website would then have transferable job skills like being creative, organizing and analyzing information, critical reading and writing abilities, graphic design, etc.The difficult part is the fact that in an online portfolio, one is trying to appeal to many different audiences. With a job interview, you can tailor your resume for that particular company. However, with an online portfolio, you have showcase skills that are going to be appealing for different employers. In the book, it talks about how the way you talk to a 4 year old is different than if you were talking to an adult and similarly using the appropriate language. The student example, Amy, shaped her portfolio to have a little bit of everything and in doing so made her work flexible.
Also, the work I do for this class or another is not simply just homework, but potential elements of my professional work in the portfolio is a good thing to remember because the more complete and thorough my online portfolio is, the more evidence I have to back up that a particular company or employer should hire me.
It seems most of us like the idea of online portfolios. I think it is a great idea, and it is one that I had never thought of before this class. I think WordPress is a great site for a project such as this. It is easy to use and can do a lot of things, like the plugins. And really, you can figure out how to use it on your own. The book of WordPress that we have for this class is helpful, but all the basics of WordPress seem pretty self-explanatory to me. And they should be to anyone who has used any type of blog site before.
As someone mentioned earlier, it is awesome for having a writing sample that you might need for an interview. Our online portfolios will be more comprehensive than anything that we might be able to print out and actually bring to the interview. Do you think, though, that giving an employer the link to your online portfolio is good or will they see it as weird or being unprepared I can imagine people would react in many different ways.
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