What is a Portfolio?
This is your resume in 3-D, with examples of your work, experiences and knowledge to support your resume statements about your strengths, goals and achievements. A good portfolio can include a resume, references, transcripts, letters of recommendations, awards, and if you are a teacher, provide your educational philosophy, lesson plans, and photos of your classroom in action. It may also include a short video of you or your work. It is like a scrapbook, but you should develop the portfolio and use it as a selling and marketing tool. Portfolios record the range of your experiences to help you prepare for the job market and once employed, your annual evaluation.

What Goes In a Portfolio?
Portfolios are a reflection of an individual’s talents and generally begin with a table of contents and a resume. As the list continues, items get more and more optional but represent a range of possibilities. The goal is to show the depth of your abilities, education and work experiences.

• Table of contents
• Resume
• Reference List
• Letters of recommendation and letters about your successes
• Transcripts
• Personal philosophy
• Personal goals
• Final results of projects or committees
• Grants you have written, writing samples
• Screen shots and addresses of websites you have created
• Computer disks and program samples you have written or modified
• Classroom management theory with photos of your classroom in action
• Samples—worksheets, handouts, tests and examples of lessons, units or projects
• Examples of school work
• Short video showing you in action
• Memberships in professional organizations
• Conferences attended
• Presentations or workshops taught

Organizing the Portfolio
The easiest and most attractive way to display your portfolio is to purchase a 3-ring binder. Buy the kind with a clear cover protector that allows you to display a title sheet on the cover and/or side binding. Use plastic document covers with three-ring holes and dividers with tabs that can be customized. You may also want to buy some three-ring punched photo display sheets.

Artists and designers may choose to purchase a larger style of presentation case with handles for transporting bulky artwork samples.

A table of contents is a must. If still in school, type up a list of classes organized into related areas, especially if you have attended more than one college and taken lots of different courses. Make it easy to locate your skills and education with simple section headings by designing your portfolio so that prospective or current employers can find what they need. Make copies of all the items you wish to include—unless you feel you must include the original, and assemble them in protective covers, inserting them into the binder in the correct sections. Type or neatly write your divider titles, using short descriptive words.

Things Hiring Personnel Want to See
As you set out to choose items for your portfolio, consider the following areas and select ways to demonstrate them.

• Your philosophy and goals
• Qualifications
• Range of experiences—content, levels, mode
• Evidence of continuing study and development of skills—courses taken, certifications, workshops, research, presentations, titles of articles/books written, conferences

For teachers, consider highlighting:

• Teaching methods—range and creativity
• Lesson plans
• Curriculum development
• Innovations in teaching—new methods, use of technology and assessment techniques—range, quality, innovations
• Evaluation of teaching style and courses by students, peers, professional groups
• Evidence of student performance
• Awards

• Artwork
• Website samples—include web addresses of sites developed
• Original production pieces
• Color or black and white photographs
• Newspaper reviews or stories
• Samples of your work

Other Portfolio Links

Examples of one style of "online" portfolio can be seen at Virginia Tech's New Media Center
each staff member has their own resume and portfolio available.

Lethbridge Community College: How to Prepare a Portfolio

Rural Institute: Employment Portfolio Resources

Laura DeCarlo: Designing an Employment Portfolio

TeachNet: Selling Yourself

MSU: Professional Employment Portfolio

The "PEP" Professional Employment Portfolio (A PDF - file requiring Adobe Acrobat)

Infochain Quarterly: Building your Professional Development Portfolio (A PDF - file requiring Adobe Acrobat)