Use a Digital Portfolio to Showcase Skills, Accomplishments

What’s more versatile than a resume, more portable than thelarge binders of yore, and flexible enough to serve freelancers and first-timejob-seekers, individuals and teams, even companies?

A digital portfolio, of course.

While the term might conjure images of asoon-to-be-graduating art student pounding the pavement, lugging a large binderstuffed with his coursework, a digital portfolio is not necessarily about artor even about a job search.

According to Joseph Fournier, a learning infrastructuredesigner at Anthem, any collection of digital content can be called a digitalportfolio. “It can be focused on showcasing a single person’s skills, providinginformation about the kinds of services an organization (or team) can offer,showing a timeline progression of events or growth, or any myriad of otherthings in between.”

A digital portfolio might include a resume, but it doesn’thave to; that depends on the goal of the creator. If the portfolio creator hasearned digital credentials, such as badges or certificates, these can beincluded as part of a resume. But the true value of the portfolio is inillustrating the creator’s skills.

It’s possible to create a portfolio using any of a widevariety of tools. Creators should—again—consider goals. When seeking a jobwhere skill in particular tools is relevant, it’s essential to include examplesof work created using those tools. Other considerations when choosing toolsinclude how easy it will be for potential clients or employers to access andshare the work and how easy it will be to keep the portfolio current.

While there are few limitations on what a digital portfoliocan accomplish, there are “a few characteristics that are essential fortoday’s digital portfolios,” Fournier said in an email interview.

Essential elements of a digital portfolio

Ease of access: A digital portfolio should beaccessible via the Internet. In some cases, where the audience is entirelyinternal, placing the portfolio on a company intranet might suffice. Butgenerally, the purpose—and a key benefit—of a digital portfolio is that iseasily shared with potential employers, collaborators, or customers; and usingresponsive design ensures that they can view it using a wide variety ofdevices. Choosing tools that allow display on and sharing among multipleplatforms makes it easier for more people to view the contents.

Clarity: The goal of the portfolio and its creatorshould be clear. The design and each element should be clean, clear, and relatedto the ultimate goal. For a freelancer or job-seeker, the goal of showcasingskills and accomplishments requires a different makeup than for a team or corporationhoping to sell a product. All portfolio builders should look beyond their owngoals, though, and anticipate viewers’ needs. “The main purpose of a portfoliois to make it easy for viewers to understand work, usually so they can make adecision—whether buying, hiring, or adopting,” Fournier said. “Make it easy foryour portfolio viewers to use your product to achieve their goals.”

Context: Many items in a digital portfolio will notbe self-explanatory, so the creator should ensure that each item offerssufficient context. “It should provide information beyond pure marketing andproduct information, such as how-to content and the backstory around how thematerials came to be,” Fournier said. If a job-seeker is showcasing technicalskills, for example, she might include a narrative explaining how she used a particulartool to create one of the projects in the portfolio.

Security: A disadvantage to a digital, easily sharedportfolio is the potential for works to be copied. Thus a desire for openaccess should be balanced with the need for security. “If you’re concerned withsecurity, there are a number of options. It depends upon the level of securityrequired,” Fournier said. “PDFs and many other file formats offer passwordprotection as a simple gatekeeper mechanism. You certainly can hide yourportfolio in a password-protected website, but in most cases, that may not benecessary.” Fournier advises planning for security when choosing portfolioelements. “I like to think of security in the design phase and design out anyelements that would be compromising,” Fournier said.

A question of integrity

Many freelancers and job-seekers are stymied by the questionof samples. While students are free to use their own projects in a portfolio,those who create work for pay are often constrained by contractual obligationsto employers.

Fournier described a candidate who showed him top-notchsamples—that were protected under a nondisclosure agreement. He did not invitethe candidate back. “If, however, that individual had taken the time to clearlydescribe the accomplishments and provide relevant illustrations of skillsthey’d demonstrated, without compromising confidentiality, they probably wouldhave been asked back for another interview.”

Sharing proprietary content is never a good idea. Instead, Fourniersuggests, use generic text and images, and include “a description of thelearning challenge and how the construct addressed it. The important thing isto convey conceptually what you can do and to demonstrate that. But in no caseshould you compromise confidentiality,” he said. “Most potential employers willrespect your decision not to share proprietary samples. You may have to investa little time to demonstrate what you could do for them—which, after all, isthe real question they’re hoping to answer by viewing your portfolio.”

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