UMD Career Services

Developing and Using a Portfolio in Interviews

A portfolio is another tool to use in your job search. Traditionally, portfolios have been used by art and writing job seekers to showcase their works to potential employers. Today they are becoming increasingly important to job seekers in all fields. A portfolio is a purposeful collection of your work documenting your experiences and activities, training and preparation, and skills and accomplishments. A portfolio is used as supporting evidence of your skills and abilities during a job interview. How you develop and use your portfolio is dependent on the field in which you are seeking a position, therefore it is important to find out the current practices and expectations for job seekers in your field. A few basic suggestions can help you start thinking about how to put your portfolio together and how to use it.

Starting a Portfolio

• Gather together examples and documentation of what you are doing and have already done. Collect and file evidence of your accomplishments and skills, assignments, internships, special training, workshops, and other activities in your life.
• If you need additional examples or evidence of your skills or if you have only a few items, reconstruct or create items. Retype or redesign documents from memory or from rough drafts. Write or create pieces and have others review your work, refine them and then include them.
  
  Possible items to include:
  • Resume
  • Transcripts
  • Writing samples
  • Items created through class projects
  • Evidence of awards or honors
  • Laboratory work
  • Synopses of term or research paper
  • Papers with instructor comments and grades
  • Certificates of attendance at seminars or workshops
  • Documentation of leadership experience
  • Agendas of meetings you conducted
  • Flyers or other promotional materials you designed
  • Evidence from volunteer, internship, and paid experiences
  • Licensure or certification documentation
  • Positive evaluations
  • Letters of recommendation
  • Philosophy statement
  • Personal mission statement
  • Professional organization involvement
  • Examples of program development
  • Grants and proposals
  • Sporting awards
  • Photographs
  • Audio tapes
  • Computer disc with work on it
  • Video tapes showing you in action
  • Reports on topics of special interest
  • Outlines of and overheads from class presentations
  • Printouts of web pages you created
  • Anything that adds value to or is going to elicit additional conversation during the interview

  Consider editing your work if it is very lengthy, you may not want to include an entire term paper.

  Teacher candidates may want to consider additional items such as:
  • Lesson plans
  • Samples of students' work
  • Conference programs
  • Teaching evaluations
  • Professional development plans
  • Evidence of involvement with parents

Organizing a Portfolio

There are different ways to organize your portfolio, depending on your experiences and activities and the field in which you are seeking a position. Two of the most popular and useful ways to organize it are by subjects or by skill or knowledge areas.

• Subject order includes organizing by areas such as school subjects, or by job or project such as independent study, lab experience or internship.
• Skill or knowledge order matches projects or activities to skills and knowledge. You can use the job description to help you decide what to include. If the job description asks for teamwork, public speaking, computer and communication skills, organize your items by those skill areas. You may want to use the skills listed in the job description as the table of contents.

Organizing a portfolio is ongoing. You should constantly be assessing and evaluating the materials in your portfolio and comparing them to the skills needed by employers.

Presentation of a Portfolio

When presenting your portfolio to a prospective employer, you should include only necessary items.

• Organize items in a three-ring binder.
• Use clear plastic sleeves to protect your materials and make them easier to organize and see.
• A good size portfolio is approximately 10-20 pages.
• A table of contents helps direct readers to particular items and gives a general idea of how the portfolio is organized.
• Tabs can be used to highlight areas indicated in the table of contents.
• Use captions on every piece of evidence in the portfolio. Captions lead the reader to the importance and understanding of the piece. If you need to leave your portfolio with an employer, captions help it stand on its own. Captions work best when they are concise, specific, and eye-catching. Use a bright color to help them stand out and draw the reader in.

Add and subtract items as the need arises. Reorganize and edit your portfolio to suit each position and company. Your portfolio may change from employer to employer. Research each potential employers' needs and incorporate any work you've done that relates to what you learn.

Consider making a duplicate version of your portfolio to leave with employers if they ask to examine it for any length of time.

You may want to introduce the availability of your portfolio in your resume by stating "Portfolio available for review" with your reference statement.

Using a Portfolio

There are two methods of presenting your portfolio in an interview: the wait method or the up-front method.

• In the wait method you present your portfolio when a question comes up about a skill or activity that can be answered with proof in your portfolio.
• With the up-front method, you introduce the portfolio in the beginning of the interview and ask whether the interviewer would like to examine it, now or later.

Whichever way you choose to use your portfolio, when you practice interviewing, practice using your portfolio. Be completely familiar with the contents and be prepared to talk about its elements. Every time you or the interviewer mentions a skill, use the portfolio to illustrate your explanation and back up your claims.

Other Models of Portfolios

You may want to consider a computerized version of your portfolio. You could put your portfolio on the web, bring a stand-alone version on a laptop to the interview, or produce it all on a CD which you could leave with employers. You may want to showcase your skills by adding sound bits, video clips, and animation. The University of Minnesota e-Portfolio is available to all UMD students and recent alumni.