The portfolio -- a showcase of one's talent, experience and work -- has been the career tool of choice for artists, architects and photographers for years. Now teachers, engineers, sales managers, consultants and many other workers have discovered its worth. Colleges such as the Georgia Institute of Technology and Kennesaw State University are using the tool to give their students a jump start into the work force.
Last year, Georgia Tech launched the Career Tech Portfolio, an interactive, electronic version that allows students to record, track, organize and share their skills, experiences and talents with prospective employers, internship supervisors and graduate schools. Ralph Mobley, director of career services at Georgia Tech, refers to it as "a career journal" or "a resume on steroids."
"The idea came from a student leadership retreat. Students suggested we create a co-curricular transcript that would capture their activities outside of class the way a transcript records their courses and grades," Mobley said. "There wasn't a good way to do that, but Florida State [University] had developed the model for a career portfolio, which we adapted over several years to create our own online professional journal."
"Got a life? Back it up" are the opening instructions on the Career Tech Web site, which allows Georgia Tech students to reflect on, record and evaluate their experiences, both in and out of class. It allows them to build profiles, resumes and lists of personal skills, strengths and references and to attach artifacts, such as drawings, awards, accomplishments and samples of their writing or Web site designs. Students can customize their sites for various audiences and can give hiring managers, internship coordinators or graduate admissions representatives access to particular versions of the portfolios.
As a third-year biomedical engineering student, Anu Parvatiyar has been excited about the new tool, which she believes will increase her marketability with graduate programs and future employers.
"This is the kind of thing that will set me apart as a candidate, and I've been impressed with how polished it makes you seem," Parvatiyar said. "It took me two to three days to set it up initially, but updating it is easy."
Analyzing skills
The Skills Matrix, a key element of the site, helps students translate their courses, activities, internships and work experiences into nine major skills that employers want to see -- skills that include creativity, communication, critical thinking, teamwork and leadership. Students also can add their own skills to the list, such as musical talent or athletic ability.
"If this set of skills isn't universal, it's darn close," Mobley said. "When we talked to faculty, they'd at first say there had to be more skills than that, but their suggestions always fell into one of the existing skills listed."
"Working with the Skills Matrix really made me think about learning differently," Parvatiyar said. She's begun seeing her classes in light of the skills she wants to obtain.
It helped freshman mechanical engineering major Alex Roan look back on his achievements in high school. Trying to find examples of creativity, he remembered a multimedia presentation on the John F. Kennedy assassination theories that he did for a high school history class. His teachers had urged him to enter it into an information technology competition.
"This tool really helps you think about what you've done and remember things that you've forgotten over time," Roan said. "It opens you up to a lot more than you think it would and is a real asset in that regard. I plan to use it throughout my college career."
Seniors getting help from Career Services in writing their resumes often told Mobley that they couldn't even remember what they had done as freshmen and sophomores. That gave him the idea to introduce the process to freshman students.
Creating a career portfolio helped Ting Cheng, a third-year industrial design student, organize her career plans.
"It's so versatile and adds a whole new dimension to the idea of a resume," she said. "The thought-provoking questions helped me plan what I wanted to do in the future."
She spent her summer in Hong Kong for an internship and hopes to attend graduate school there.
"Before I go into an interview, I can review what I've done in my mind," she said. "I love that it lets me attach my industrial engineering designs in the artifacts section, so that future employers can see them. It's almost like the site was designed just for me, and, as long as I keep my Georgia Tech e-mail address, I can keep using it, even after I graduate."
Not just for college
Mobley believes that being able to write down what you've learned from experiences would help anybody, and career experts agree. Four years ago, Wynn Montgomery, partner of WynnMill Solutions, a consulting firm that specializes in work force development and education enhancement, was asked to develop a session on career portfolios as part of staff development at Kennesaw State University.
"When I started researching, I thought, 'Wow! Everyone in work force development needs to know about this tool,' " Montgomery said. He teaches career portfolios as part of a career development facilitator course through continuing education at Kennesaw State.
"It's not rocket science. Once you see one, you can develop your own," he said. "It answers that common interview question, 'Tell me more about what you do.' " It's not meant to replace a resume but to add to it.
Montgomery believes that the paper version of a career portfolio has advantages over an electronic version.
"It's a great asset in an interview. A prospective employer may never go to the site to see your online portfolio, but, if you carry it in, you get to tell your story with props," he said. "It's a way to stand out from other candidates and illustrate concretely things that you've done."
It's also a good tool to use for a performance review to remind your boss what you've accomplished.
He recommends that his clients buy a copy of "The Career Portfolio Workbook" by Frank Satterthwaite and Gary D'Orsi; find a black notebook or portfolio; and begin gathering things that will showcase their unique abilities, accomplishments and interests.
"The good news is that there is no checklist for how it has to be done or what to include. A computer person might include 'before' and 'after' versions of reports that he's designed. Student teachers are including short videos of themselves teaching in the classroom," Montgomery said.
Scrutinizing his long career to create a portfolio that would showcase his consulting and training skills was "eye-opening" for Montgomery.
"All of that soul-searching is an asset in itself," he said. "It helps you discover what you like to do, what you want to do and what you want people to ask you about. It's always a work in progress. As you learn new skills or earn awards, you add them.
"One of the unanticipated benefits is that clients tell me that they've found having a career portfolio gives them more confidence in an interview. . . . If someone said, 'Let me show you a few samples of what we're talking about,' I'd be impressed."
Montgomery said that more and more colleges -- and even high schools -- are helping students create career portfolios.
Karen Andrews, director of career services at Kennesaw State University, designed an online career portfolio for students and faculty four years ago. The school requires every entering freshman to create one as part of the first-year experience program.
"Not a whole lot of schools were doing it four years ago, but we saw it as a great career-development tool, so we designed it from scratch," Andrews said.
The site asks students to record and write about significant events, such as volunteering, joining a fraternity or completing an internship.
"The purpose of a career portfolio is that it answers the question 'So what?' " she said.
For example, a student who was a camp counselor probably would list that job on his resume, but a portfolio helps him to examine what he did more closely.
"If he got young children to cooperate, he has communication and leadership skills, and if he kept the boys in his cabin from killing each other, he's learned problem-solving," Andrews said. "By getting students to think about their experiences in terms of what they are learning, it helps them look at the big picture."
Andrews believes that understanding the relevance of classes and activities may help keep students in school and more involved and even may improve their course selection. It definitely "trains them to look beneath the surface and better articulate why they're special."
Introducing the system to freshmen gets students involved with KSU Career Services early, so that they can think about their education and future at the start of college. The program has been very successful: A campus survey found that 87 percent of online portfolio users planned to keep using them.
"We believe it prepares them better, and they tell us that they feel more competent as a result of using it," Andrews said.