Quintessential Careers Press: The Quintessential Guide to Storytelling that Propels Careers Chapter 7: Portfolios That Tell a Story Page 87 In focus-group research with career experts conducted by Quintessential Careers, a career-development Web site, one respondent said of portfolio content, “I want to see items or artifacts that represent that individual and tell a story of accomplishments that relate to the job in question.” Another added that “the portfolio is an opportunity for the candidate to offer ‘proof’ of what is on the resume. Emphasis should be on skills, abilities, and accomplishments. The portfolio can be an opportunity for a ‘show and tell’ experience elaborating on the work history. Special skills could be highlighted.” Items that a job-seeker could consider including in a career portfolio: Table of Contents, Index Resumes (traditional and text version) Career goals/objectives/summary Professional philosophy/mission statement List of accomplishments Success stories/narratives Project summary reports Resume addenda, such as those described in Chapter 4 Samples of work, writing, and reports Performance reviews Leadership experience Transcripts, degrees, licenses, and certifications Awards and honors Volunteer/community service Professional-development activities Professional memberships Letters of recommendation, commendation, kudos Reference list Clippings about you from newspapers, magazines, company newsletters, and other publications Photos of you in action in the workplace Answers to common job interview questions Research job-seekers have conducted on the company. This information provides a great opening in an interview to tell a story while showing the employer the research materials in your portfolio about your (positive) experience with the organization’s product or service. Craig Wortmann of WisdomTools, Inc. describes a "win book," a central archive for your collection of accomplishments-oriented artifacts, especially those providing positive feedback about your work. While Wortmann suggests pasting the items into a book, a folder or box is the way to go to store these materials until you are ready to create or update your portfolio. Wortmann suggests archiving such items as notes on daily conversations and meetings, ideas about strategy and best practices, stories of how you’ve impacted the organization, to-do lists, notes you’ve kept on the professionally developing the team members who report to you, illustrations and models that apply to your industry. I used to use a large desk-pad calendar to plan my workload. I kept all the calendar pages because notations of meetings I attended and projects I worked on reminded me of accomplishments. Finally, Wortmann suggests going through your artifacts and constructing a Story Matrix about them. The top row of the matrix lists the most important skills for the job you seek. Along the vertical axis, the job-seeker documents successes, failures, fun, and legends. Previous Page Next Page Back to Storytelling that Propels Careers Index Page