What to Include in a Portfolio

(Created by Nelson Education)

What you will find in this Section

The Career Center: Creating a Portfolio What to Include in a Portfolio section provides some suggestions about what to put in a portfolio.

What to Include in a Portfolio

You have started to save your money to buy what is necessary to put your portfolio together, and now you want to decide what to include in it.

How to Get Started

• Start a "portfolio collection file": this file can literally be a file folder where you will put copies or originals of your work that you think you might want to include in your portfolio, or you can have a box that you fill with work. Basically, you can use whatever you want to use to hold your possible pieces.

  The point is to start a collection of work. This collection doesn't have to be the definitive pieces you decide to use, but merely a collection of pieces you like, at this point.

• Keep in mind that this work doesn't have to be limited to school assignments: you can collect work from past job experiences or an internships. Plus, no one says you can't make a hypothetical brochure to show your skills with a certain software application, and that is also a good way to show off your design skills. Also, if you see a flyer that you think needs a redesign, then redesign it and put it in your portfolio along with a rationale of why you redesigned it, or be prepared to discuss this rationale with an interviewer.

  When it comes time for you to fish through all of your work for your portfolio, choose only your best work. Be sure to save multiple copies of your work. You will need to replace wrinkled pieces as you begin showing your portfolio during several interviews.

• You should have an introduction page. Include your name, address, and/or any other information you want to include
• Resume and/or a vitae
• Giveaways
• Examples of your best work
• Entry cards
• Section dividers

Entry Cards

Basically, an entry card is an introduction to a piece that is included in your portfolio. Suggested components of the entry card can be as follows:

Entry Card Component
Title	Visual C++ -- Program I
Description	The first program introduces comments, assignment statements, input and output streams, #include, int main(), literal text strings, variable declarations, if-then-else statements, and arithmetic expressions. It also introduces the notion of a fuzzy set.
Course	Computer Science 1462: Fundamentals of Computer Science I
Instructor	Dr. Bob Jones
Date Completed	4 March 1998
Objectives	1. Comprehend a problem specification and design a solution to the problem 2. Create, debug, and submit a C++ program that implements a design 3. Use elementary C++ statements (assignment, I/O, if-then-else) 4. Create a program that takes as input from the keyboard four real numbers which define a trapezoidal membership function of a fuzzy set. The program must also take as input a fifth real number, x, and output to the screen a message indicating the degree of membership of x in the fuzzy set.
Note	The assignment is on the first page of this section. The second page contains a listing of grading criteria. Following that information is my top-down design and my code.

This particular entry card was printed directly onto a cardstock section divider. You can adjust the entry card components to suit your needs, and you do not have to print the information onto section dividers. The point of these cards is to provide adequate background of the piece in order to introduce it and give the interviewer a context for the piece.

Suggested Pieces to Include

• Hardcopy (print) or online design or layout projects
• Brochures or flyers
• Marked up editing pages
• Reports
• Articles
• Programs
• Teaching or training materials
• Surveys
• Graphics
• Awards
• Redesigns

General Tips

If a piece is especially long, you might consider including only a sample of the long piece. You can bind the long piece and insert it into a side pocket, just in case the interviewer wants to peruse the full piece, but samples are usually fine for interview purposes. An example of this is a usability report. The report itself is quite long, but if you pull the first portion of the report to include in your portfolio, that will be enough to show the purpose of the report and the conceptual framework of the piece.

You should include some pieces you can "give away." If there is a piece that shows your best editing, you might make additional copies of that to give to the interviewer. Or, if you designed a Web site that illustrates your use of graphical design and firm grasp of online design and navigational strategies, don't hesitate to put that work on a disk and give it away during the interview. It is helpful if you print out a few pages of that disk copy to show the interviewer what is on the disk. An added touch is to design your own disk labels. For the technical writer whose expertise is in the multimedia production realm of the field, especially instructional design, don't hesitate to burn a few extra CD-ROMs of your work and give those to the interviewer. Again, designing your own label for your CD-ROM pieces is a nice added touch.

You should include a sheet-protected copy of your resume and list of references, and you should always have give-away copies of those in your portfolio. Plus, sheet protected copies of your transcript(s) are recommended, as well as a few giveaway copies. While the transcript is a not an overwhelming popular giveaway request, it is requested, nonetheless. It is best to be prepared.

Also, have several people you trust look at your portfolio. Get as much feedback as you can before you show it at interviews. Show it to your teachers, friends, or the Career Center at your school. This will give you time to make any necessary adjustments.