You may not design beautiful brochures or websites, but I’ll bet you have put together a report or two, maybe with graphs or charts. Maybe you wrote a portion or all of an investor report or contributed to last year’s annual report. Can you show critical path and milestones for a project you managed in a Gantt chart? How about SOPs you wrote or an executive summary?There are lots of creative ways to demonstrate your abilities with visual effects even if your work itself is not in the creative arts. Portfolios are not just for writers or graphic designers. When you walk into an interview, it creates more impact if you have something visual that you can show while you discuss your role and the outcomes of your contribution.
Fill a portfolio with your best recent examples, including PDFs, web pages or other documents (printed in color) that graphically demonstrate your business skills (without divulging proprietary or confidential information) in developing such initiatives as:
- proposals
- plans
- programs
- policies
- profits
- problem solving
- positive results
When the interviewer says, “So, tell me about yourself,” you’ll be ready to talk about your accomplishments in a novel way. In today’s highly competitive market, it should make you a standout candidate who will get the job.
’)
Posts
I came across your blog from your linkedin post. Very interesting indeed. I'd been unemployed for several months when a wonderful opportunity opened up at a chemical company in Virginia. I'd done great throughout the interview process with HR, the technical manager and various other managers and directors. So I was called in for a second interview. On this occasion, I had again interviewed with HR and the technical manager, and I did a great job. My final interview was with the lead Director who had travelled all the way from Europe to the Eastern US for this occasion. He asked, "So what new scientific ideas will you bring to our xxxxxx industry?" Well, I had never worked in this particular industry before, although my whole background was in the same specific field of science that they were working in. I was stumped. I knew I had to give an answer, so I just made up an area that would be of interest to the company. That was the end of the interview. Looking back now, I realize that what I should have done was used that question as an opportunity to show him what a very well achieved scientist I am in this specific area of science, and tied that in with what the position duties entailed. In hindsight, I'm certain that a flashy portfolio would have complemented that sort of response perfectly and most probably would have landed me the job. So I very much agree with your blog and I hope that other readers might get something from it and maybe even learn a little something from my own mistake! (Posting as anonymous because of the personal nature of the post).
ReplyDeleteThanks, anonymous, for your comments.
ReplyDeleteCynthia, I love the name of your blog and applaud your creative branding! I also love the portfolio outline and would like to steal the idea to share with a series of career enhancement seminars I am doing. I think it is also a great idea to build this for the annual performance review and then you have it!
ReplyDeletePegotty,
ReplyDeletePlease do use the idea in your seminars. I'd be honored.
I agree that at least a virtual portfolio is a great way to prepare for an annual review. It's something we often forget as the year progresses and try to compile at the last minute.