Creating Your Career Portfolio: At-A-Glance Guide for Students - Softcover

Williams, Anna Graf; Hall, Karen J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0131505041 ISBN 13: 9780131505049

Publisher: Prentice Hall, 2004

Synopsis

Designed to assist readers in pulling together their many skills and competencies, this innovative, easy-to-read guidebook provides detailed instructions for planning, assembling, and using a personal Career Portfolio for a job search or promotion. It shows them how to tie together and "package" their work experiences, class projects, professional development, and personal experiences to help them "sell themselves" in the job market. Provides full-chapter coverage of key topics, and organizes chapters based on the processes of planning, details on sections of the portfolio, assembly, style guidelines and uses of the portfolio. Information on career planning, goal setting and resume design includes exercises and tips for planning a portfolio and choosing the focus for a portfolio. Also contains detailed explanation of transferable, soft and technical skills for dealing with the job search in the current economy. Provides templates for creating an electronic portolio as well as sample job search correspondence. For use by companies as a professional development tool, or for anyone seeking employment or advancement of their career.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

PREFACE

If you're looking to find the right job, stand out among the competition, prove yourself, and feel confident in the interview process, you are ready to create your career portfolio.

Stand Out — With the help of this book you are going to create a Career Portfolio, a track record of your education and work experiences that you can take with you to a job interview. The portfolio is a zippered, 3-ring binder containing information about your beliefs, experiences, and education. It will contain samples of your work, either in a classroom setting or on the job. The portfolio may also include a list of your skills and abilities. With a portfolio in hand, you can walk into an interview and be able to show the interviewer samples of your work, pictures of projects or community involvement, certificates you've earned, and memberships you have held. Your portfolio will be customized to you, so it will set you apart from everyone else.

Interview with Confidence — A portfolio also lets you walk into an interview with more confidence, because while putting it together you'll be examining your goals, writing down your beliefs about work and your career, documenting your strengths and identifying your weaknesses. By the time you have put together your first career portfolio you should be able to handle those hard interview questions like "Tell me about yourself," "What are your goals for the future?," or "What do you bring to the table for us?"

Start Out Ahead — Portfolios can do more than boost your confidence in an interview. They can also help you get ahead in the marketplace. A well-crafted portfolio shows employers that you have the skills and abilities they are looking for. We have seen people with portfolios obtain higher starting salaries because they could prove their skills to an employer.

Track Your Career — Once you have the job, your portfolio doesn't go into a closet until you're looking for another job. Your portfolio changes as you begin to collect and document your work on the job. Then your portfolio serves as proof of your abilities on the job and can be used to track job performance and help position you for advancement.

Creating Your Career Portfolio — At a Glance Guide for Students, 2nd Edition, gives you guidelines for creating your career portfolio. In this book you'll find:

a list of supplies you need to begin general guidelines for organizing your portfolio detailed discussions of information to be included in different sections pointers on using the portfolio In an interview or job review a style guide—containing tips for creating better looking text, photographs and videos, as well as other Ideas for making the production side of the portfolio process run smoothly Organization

This book is divided into six sections:

Overview

Chapter 1: The Portfolio Process—An overview of the whole process of portfolio development.

Planning and Collecting Materials

Chapter 2: Planning Your Portfolio—Tools to help you develop your work philosophy and career goals. Chapter 3: The Resume: An Overview of Your Portfolio—A look at different types of resumes, both paper and electronic. Chapter 4: Proving Your Skills—How to collect, select, and assemble your work samples and community service items. Chapter 5: Your Commitment to Personal Growth—Using the portfolio to track memberships, certifications, and the achievement of your goals.

Putting the Portfolio Together

Chapter 6: The Assembly—Putting it all together; producing the portfolio. Chapter 7: The Electronic Portfolio—Creating a digital version of your portfolio for the Internet or distribution on CD. How to Use the Completed Portfolio

Chapter 8: The Portfolio in Action... Getting the Job—"Now that 1 have it, what do I do with it?" Using the portfolio in an interview or to get an internship or co-op experience.

Making the Portfolio Look Good

Chapter 9: A Matter of Style—Production tips focusing on making your documents, pictures, and videos look their best.

Quick Reference Materials

Chapter 10: Resource Guide—Additional resources to make your career portfolio a success, including:

Supply list with product numbers Emergency assembly instructions List of action verbs for use in resumes Portfolio samples Listing of templates included on diskette

We've tried to make this At a Glance Guide live up to its name. If you like to read books straight through from the beginning, you'll find this book organized in a logical way. If you don't like to read a guide until you need help with a particular step, you're in luck. You don't have to read this book from cover to cover to find helpful information. You'll find an overview to the process in this chapter. Along the way you'll see bright ideas, samples, "Ask the Expert" questions and stories to help you make the most of the career portfolio process.

When you are ready to work on a particular portion of the portfolio, look up the specific section in Chapters 2-5 for more information. For assistance on developing good looking work samples and documents, refer to Chapter 9—A Matter of Style. When you're ready to put your portfolio together, turn to Chapter 6—The Assembly, or Chapter 7—The Electronic Portfolio. Before you go to your interview or job review, re-read Chapter 8—The Portfolio in Action...

Regardless of how you use this book, you'll find it filled with examples, tips, and ideas that will make the portfolio process truly rewarding.If you have any questions or we can be of assistance, please feel free to contact us via mail or email.

Anna Graf Williams, Ph.D., 8. Karen J. Hall
Learnovation® LLC
10831 Thistle Ridge
Fishers, IN 46038-2254
317-577-1190 / Fax: 317598-0816
E-mail: portfolio@learnovation

We wish you the best of luck and success in creating your portfolio and developing your career!

From the Back Cover:

The employment market of the new millennium has not gotten any easier. Employers are more demanding and more selective than ever. How do you distinguish yourself from your competition and prove that you are the right person for the job? Creating Your Career Portfolio: At-a-Glance Guide for Students can give you the edge you need.

Launch Your Career!

Now that your resume has gotten you the interviews you want — use your Career Portfolio to get you the job. A Career Portfolio is a self-certification tool that contains samples of your work, community service, memberships, goals, and more. Use it to show off your greatest strengths and abilities.

Get that Internship or Co-Or

• Highlight your academic experiences
• Focus on course work and project samples

Third Edition - New Features

• Extensive discussion on identifying and understanding transferable skills
• All new – "Ask the Experts" for answers to your most common questions
• More details on electronic portfolios – how to develop them and how to use them
• Updated electronic templates – including an electronic portfolio template
• Expanded discussion on documenting soft (interpersonal) skills
• Greater descriptions on how to use your Career Portfolio!

Includes CD-ROM with templates for creating an electronic portfolio

• Microsoft WORD templates contain commonly used forms for goals, objectives, statements of originality, references, awards, projects in progress and project overview cards

The resume may get you the interview...
but it's the Career Portfolio that gets you the job!!

About this edition

• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0131505041
• ISBN 13: 9780131505049
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 176