The practice of building an online portfolio and linking a resume to it is becoming increasingly popular in our digital age. Now more than ever, there are many employers looking to the use of online professional portfolios of applicants' work. An online portfolio is one of the best ways to showcase your skills in a new way to get the employers attention. Here are some tips to help you navigate creating one for yourself:
Step 1: Pick From a Variety of Online Platforms
When looking to start creating your online professional profile, there are many online platforms available to speed up the process and provide structure. While some provide free access to their program, others may require fees or account payments to utilize their services and select features.
Some options available online for these professional portfolio programs include (but are not limited to):
- Wix
- Go Daddy
- Squarespace
- Vistaprint
- Google Documents
- Adobe Portfolio
[ For HTML and self-coding options, sites like Vistaprint and Intuit are popular choices. ]
Online platforms and programs are helpful when it comes to creating your online professional portfolio for many reasons:
1. They help utilize and display your personal design aspect.
2. They give you options of pre-made templates (for simple insertion of examples and wording) or options for creative freedom (where you can have full control over how the online portfolio will look).
3. They allow you to showcase your technical abilities and organizational skills when creating your portfolio on your own.
4. They may offer website domain name changes (some fees may be required) that allow you to create a portfolio with a www.yourname.com domain option for better recognition online.
Step 2: Stick to Organizational Practices
When starting the base of your online portfolio, you should adhere to some simple sections for organization. In some programs, these sections can appear as separate pages in the website, or they can be separate sections in one big page. The design aspect is up to you and the program of your choice!
Sections can vary depending on your field. Some options for sections in your online professional portfolio could include:
- About Me
- Listing your interests, background, education, or experience in a brief About Me section could make you stand out to your employers in an online setting.
- This section gives you character, aside from your work!
- Contact Information
- Including a section with a good professional email, address, phone number, or other contact form could be best for employer access!
- Resume
- You could link your resume as a separate website page or just include it as a PDF for easy downloading access within your page!
- Social Medias
- It may be best to have a section (header, footer, or page) dedicated to your professional social media profiles, if you have any!
- These profiles could include LinkedIn, Twitter, or Instagram, depending on your field.
- My Work
- Including pages associated with your examples of work are very important!
- You could have separate pages for examples of areas within photo, video, design, written, audio, etc.
These sections make your information or examples of work easier to navigate or organize overall. Another main tip to think of is including your most recent information or examples first in these sections of your portfolio. Chronological order may be best for employers to see your work.
Step 3: Include All Needed Content
Your online professional portfolio should include information that is similar yet different from your resume.
1. Highlight your strengths and interests!
When making your online professional portfolio's content, include information unique to you! Displaying your strengths in your field and your interests in and out of your field could be a great way to make you stand out online!
2. Include design elements for sections!
Utilizing your online programs design elements could also make your portfolio stand out to your employer online. Most programs have different templates available for portfolio pages, and within these templates, they can also include different design elements for text, photos, videos, audio, etc.
3. Highlight your most popular or favorite work!
Include links, PDF inclusions, slideshows, or other design elements into your page to highlight your work. Text boxes can also help with displaying your work by having you include details and context to the assignment or projects displayed.
Although these are only a few steps to get you started on creating your own online professional portfolio, they should help you in many aspects of your page and progress!
