E-Portfolios, the Newest Career Tool
November 16, 2007
E-Portfolios are the newest career tool for recent grads and job seekers. Kelly Driscoll, president and co-founder of Digication, shared some e-Portfolio tips in a recent article called "Stand Out with an E-Portfolio" (featured on CareerBuilder.com and MSN Careers).
1. Brevity is best – Like a great résumé, you want to provide clear, direct information about yourself, your work and your achievements. Providing snippets or brief introductions to your work that lead to or link to full descriptions and examples are best.
2. Organization is everything – Make sure your e-Portfolio is easy to navigate and browse with the most important information available in the fewest clicks possible. You don’t want to miss the opportunity to impress someone if your best work is buried in too much information.
3. Make it searchable – Use keywords throughout your e-Portfolio so that when employers are searching for potential hires they will more readily find your e-Portfolio. Linking to related Web sites, resources and professional organizations will increase the search-ability of your e-Portfolio. Remember to include the Web address of your e-Portfolio on your résumé and in the footer of any e-mails you send related to your job search.
4. Express yourself – E-Portfolios should be uniquely you, so make sure you have some level of customization in how your work is presented. Keep it simple and consistent with readable font and files that are not too big to download to view (no more than 2-5MB).
5. Keep it professional – Unlike other online profiles like Facebook and MySpace, it’s particularly important that any writing and files (like images, movies, PDFs, etc.) in your e-Portfolio are free of any grammatical errors, are of the highest quality and reflect your most positive aspects you want to share with potential employers.
You can read the full article at msn.CareerBuilder.com.