Career Portfolios
How important is it to create and have a career portfolio? In my past jobs I worked in human resources and we never looked at career portfolios. Sure we glimpsed at them, but all we cared about was the cover letter, resume, and if it was a sales position their brag book. Of course have more is better.
Deborah,
Portfolios do work well in a range of careers and not only art, design, or fashion. Awards sound great. We often forget how easy it is to offer periodic awards and how great and motivated the students feel. Even grown adults like awards and attendance says a lot. You are right - these strategies do increase dependability. Thanks, Susan
Dr. Susan Schulz
I have found that employers love the portfolios our graduates bring to their interviews. I am always getting feedback from the graduates about the positive comments made by the employers. We celebrate successes here by having awards monthly. When creating their portfolios they make copies of the awards they have received and put them into the portfolio. I push each student to get at least one perfect attendance award while in school. Dependability and maturity seems to be the most important thing to employers when hiring so they seem to like the awards.
Joseph,
Good points. Portfolios serve a lot of purposes. Sometimes the hiring decision maker counts heavily on portfolios. Sometimes it depends on the field - certain media and arts lend itself to portfolios. Maybe most important is that students can see how they are improving and can step back and take a look at how creative they are. It can be a great way to build confidence. Thanks, Susan
Dr. Susan Schulz
