19.5 Career Portfolios

A career or job portfolio, by definition, is a collection of samples of a person’s work, typically intended to convey the quality and breadth of his or her achievement in a particular field.  A career portfolio–whether a physical or electronic version–is a place for gathering and maintaining documents important to your career. Think of it as a dynamic, expanded version of your résumé where you document and demonstrate your education, experience, and skillset. Where résumés and application letters are limited due to their genre-specific natures, the career portfolio can contain anything you want prospective employers to see. However, this does not mean that it should contain everything. It’s important to be selective and to think about the items you choose to include.

As you gather documents, consider your chosen field.  What do employers in the field find valuable? What skills and abilities do employers in the field expect employees to have?  For instance, mechanical engineers might be expected to have design experience, project management experience, and effective communication skills. It might benefit a mechanical engineer, then, to include any schematics they have created, a strong project plan, and a writing sample or slide deck to document communication skills. Keep and maintain artifacts that showcase your strengths. Portfolios can be either electronic or physical.  A physical portfolio should be kept in an attractive binder, though an electronic version is easier to distribute and can be linked to on your résumé and LinkedIn profile.