Career Services

Two options for developing a portfolio:

Option #1: Use Mahara from your myPlymouth Account [under my courses tab, look at the list under my learning box and you'll see Mahara

Option #2:  use PlymouthCareers [Experience.com] – read below to learn more about portfolio development.

What is a Portfolio?    An interactive version that help students & alumni: record, track, present and share their skills, experiences and talents with prospective employers, networking contacts and graduate schools  Janet Sun, Kristin Eisenzopf and Mark Kaefer of Experience.com presented the following information on portfolio development:

What is Experience.com? They partner with schools and associations to bring jobs, internships and career resources to help stduents launch a career they love.

The staff at Experience.com bridge from college to career and beyond, inspiring and empowering you with
            Real advice and insight into career paths
            Real connections to alums and students
            Real Exclusive Experiences to build your resume and Portfolio

You can build your portfolio using Experience.com or PlymouthCareers (our name for Experience.com) by logging on to your

• myPlymouth account to use PlymouthCareers for designing an electronic portfolio
• for instructions to log on click here

 The product:  The Experience PortfolioTM. Define accomplishments, recount personal experiences, and upload files that demonstrate the qualities and skills that a standard resume just can’t. Let your true personality shine. After all, employers want to know more about you than just what’s on your resume. Now you have the tools to show them!

 The Online Portfolio is a Career development tool:

• a way for students & alums to showcase their talents and experiences
• a way for students & alums to be found by employers
• Can be in addition to a real physical portfolio
• Traditionally used by artists, architects, and photographers
• A collection of work samples to illustrate talents and skills
• Often a physical booklet brought to an interview for discussion and review
• Remember what they accomplished
• Prepare for interviews
• Stand out to employers and/or graduate schools with a more in-depth professional view
• Provide good background info about themselves for networking
• Become more easily found by employers conducting searches
• NOTE:  The Online Portfolio is does not replace a resume, and can be an addition to the real physical portfolio.

 How is it used?

• Traditionally used by artists, architects, and photographers
• A collection of work samples to illustrate talents and skills
• Often a physical booklet brought to an interview for discussion and review

 How does an online portfolio help students and alumni?

• Remember what they accomplished
• Prepare for interviews
• Stand out to employers and/or graduate schools with a more in-depth professional view
• Provide good background info about themselves for networking
• Become more easily found by employers conducting searches

 Where do I start? Start by putting together strategy for portfolio by starting collection of samples of your best work:

• English papers
• science projects
• graphic design pieces
• letters of recommendation for performing an activity
• pictures showing how you are using a specific technology
• how you are being recognized for a special achievement

Your Portfolio:  Your portfolio consists of multiple things that define your career and experience. This is a private space where you compile all of them so you can pick and choose which to share later.  If you currently do not have a portfolio view that is searchable by employers.  Here’s how to fix that to make sure you can be found by employers! After building your portfolio, simply create a Shared View and then select “Make this my searchable Employer View

 What do I need to know?:  Shared Views  As you accumulate work history, education, experiences, and more into your portfolio you can choose which items to share with others, whether they’re prospective employers, peers, mentors or anyone else you can think of. You can create and share as many views as you want. Add items, modify their order, and share away.

Employers are looking for candidates like you!   To help them find you, be sure to:

–       Publish a Resume

–       Provide a valid email address

–       Build your Experience Portfolio

• Don’t get left out of Employers’ search results!

 Do I need a portfolio?  If I do need one, how do I design a portfolio?  Check out the preparation on these links: 

http://www.colbysawyer.edu/campuslife/career/search_prep/portfolios.html                                                                                                                                Source: www.upenn.edu/careerservices/college/electronic_portfolio.html

Tips from other universities and colleges:

• Effective for students & alums, but need to convince them to make time to complete portfolios
• Best if students fill it out as they go
• Just as helpful for identifying strengths as it is in sharing with employers
• Try to draw a direct line between portfolios and job interviews

 If you use Experience.com portfolios, here are some features:

• Experience.com portfolios only have 4 sections (profile, resume, experiences, references)
• Experience.com portfolios are searchable by employers
• Experience.com is available for your use as part of PlymouthCareers on myPlymouth

 Employer feedback:

• 44% have viewed an online portfolio
  (108 survey respondents)
• 42% would use an online portfolio when filtering for interviews
  (especially for “on-the-fence” candidates)
• 22% would use an online portfolio after an interview to learn more about the candidate

Small survey of employers

• 77% said the additional information a portfolio offers about a candidate would be useful
• 69% think an online career portfolio can help a student or young professional stand out from other candidates
• 43% thought it would be most useful for a candidate to share his/her online portfolio as part of the application process
• 77% find it useful to be able to search online portfolios