Why Creating a Portfolio Can Help Your Career Goals

A portfolio is another way to represent yourself and your experiences. As a professional tool, it can be important for your career – whether you’re currently seeking a job or not. It can also be useful even if your work isn’t visual. In other words, graphic designers or those who work in UX can benefit from putting their work out in a portfolio. However, creating a portfolio has advantages for other professions as well.

What is a portfolio?

A portfolio is a single location that houses work samples and professional documentation. It’s a place to list your skills, accomplishments, and credentials. A portfolio can be created electronically and online, or as a physical collection.

Why are portfolios important?

Portfolios can serve multiple purposes. One, they allow you to easily access and share your full job experiences. Think of them as the highlights you would otherwise discuss in a job interview. Your work is listed for any colleague or future employer to see. It speaks on your behalf while highlighting your skills and abilities through concrete examples.

Two, your portfolio serves as an archive of your work. You can refer to it when getting ready for an annual review at your current job, or when assessing what types of new roles you might be qualified for. It can also make retrieving past projects easier: if you’re working on something that’s similar to a previous project, you can go directly to your portfolio and bring up relevant past work to help guide you.

What should be included in a portfolio?

Your portfolio is essentially an expanded version of your resume. Add anything that demonstrates accomplishments, successful projects, degrees, certifications, and other achievements. Any major project you’ve worked on should be included – especially if it drove successful outcomes at your company.

Here are some items you may want to include:

• Current resume or CV
• Diplomas, certificates, and transcripts from post-high school institutions
• Reference letters, awards, and LinkedIn recommendations
• Work samples that you’ve created
• Evaluations or performance appraisals
• Writing samples (blog posts, articles, marketing materials)
• Thank-you notes or testimonials from clients or co-workers

How do you create a portfolio?

Online portfolios are often kept on a personal website or a web-based portfolio builder. Searching online should give you plenty of options and ideas. Some use their LinkedIn profiles as a sort of simplified portfolio – the benefit of using LinkedIn is that it’s easier to create, you don’t have to host your own website, and it’s simple to share with others. However, for those working in visual media, it’s generally expected that you will create your portfolio site apart from LinkedIn or other social media platforms. To do so, use your browser to search terms like “how to create an online portfolio for visual design” to see the top sites to host your work.

To create a physical portfolio, you’ll need to print your samples and store them. You can use anything from a three-ring binder to a large folder to a heavier, leather-bound book. When putting together this kind of portfolio, make sure you’re presenting your items in an intuitive way. For example, the first tabs of your portfolio might be where you put your resume and some reference letters, then the other tabs can hold samples of your work.

Some additional considerations

It’s helpful to note that organizing a portfolio takes time. It’s best practice to plan ahead and keep it continually updated. This will help you be ready in case of an unexpected opportunity (like a new role opening up at your company) or if you experience another change in your work situation.

Also, it’s important to protect your privacy. Be careful when sharing your work and consider whether you should include sensitive information such as your address or phone number. If you reference academic or clinical work with protected populations, follow applicable data privacy laws such as the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Portfolios can be helpful, regardless of the stage of your career. As a sort of advocate for your work, they can assist throughout your career. It’s worthwhile to learn more about them and strategize what value they can bring to your career specifically.

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