Online portfolios or ePortfolios are a way to make your work stand out to potential employers, buyers, and colleagues. These multimedia collections provide evidence of skills and knowledge learned, from being creative to showing critical thinking skills.
Types of ePortfolios
The Hire Me Portfolio focuses on getting you a job. If you are actively searching for a job then the current goal of your portfolio is to get hired. In this type of portfolio you can target the work you show to the type of company you want to work for.
The Showcase/Professional ePortfolios — These ePortfolios are primarily a way to demonstrate (showcase) the highlights of a student’s academic career.
The Reputation Building Portfolio focuses on building your name in the industry and online. This may take the form of an artist’s showcase. Or tie your work together with a blog on your portfolio site.
The Networking Portfolio focuses on building relationships. There are many networks that have excellent portfolio building tools. They have some advantages to placing your portfolio on their website. Chiefly among them is to leverage the site space for networking.
5 Benefits of creating an ePortfolio
- Professional way to showcase your work
- Great first impression for employers
- Increase your visibility and online presence
- Shows you are more than a resume
- Flexibility – easy to update/change as needed.
What to include in a portfolio?
- a professional-ish headshot (show your personality)
- a headline or personal pitch statement (what you can do; what you're looking for)
- a brief bio (include hobbies, interests or interesting fact)
- academic & professional highlights (awards, grants, jobs held)
- samples of your work (papers, posters, websites, graphics, articles)
- link to promo-reel; podcast or relevant publications
- volunteer work
- letters of recommendation
- links to your professional social network
- contact info
Design of your portfolio
While an ePortfolio is a way to showcase your knowledge and personality, don't let your personal design choices outweigh your work. Your work is what should stand out, so be careful in choosing fonts and colors. Limit color choices to no more than 2-3. Choose fonts that are easy to read such as serif or sans serif fonts.
Josh Sassoon noted the following six tips from reviewing portfolios over the years.
- Make your portfolio your story - Tell how you solved problems. What did you learn as you worked through the problem. Tell the story of how you navigated those challenges and not just what you did!
- Talk about your individual contributions clearly - While a background of the project is necessary, be sure that the contributions you made to the project's success is front and center. What was your unique role? How did you operate in a team setting? Mistakes are made. Tell them how you viewed these mistakes as learning opportunities.
- This is your chance to shine, make it personal - Inject your personality into the portfolio. What are you passionate about? What life experience brought you decide on your job choice? Have you worked on a passion project? Describe/Show it!
- Memorability > Sameness - While looking at how other portfolios are done, don't just copy. What would make your portfolio stand out to a possible employer? Make your portfolio one to remember!
- Edit! Edit! EDIT!!! - This is not a place to put an exhaustive list of all the things you have done. Showcase a few of your best projects (< 5).
- AI can be a great assistant, but the voice needs to be YOURS! - While it is not wrong to use AI to help with grammar, be sure to evaluate what the AI produces to make sure it still has your voice and personality.
Other tips to keep in mind:
- Brevity is best – don’t use 15 words when six or seven will do.
- Organization is everything – best content first!
- Make it searchable – avoid a site several layers deep.
- Keep it professional
Let's look at some ePortfolios
How and Where to create your ePortfolio
As a student at UNC, you can obtain the Adobe Creative Cloud for free from https://software.sites.unc.edu/adobe/.
- Express – Easy to use, part of the CC subscription. Can have multiple sites. Limited themes, but can create a customized brand (limited options).
- Portfolio – Includes themes, multiple sites (up to 5 with CC subscription), can have custom domain name.
- Behance – showcases creative work, use with Portfolio. Primary clientele is creative professionals. Also includes job postings.
WordPress
UNC offers a WordPress server through tarheels.live. You can have up to 5 sites at a time on this service and it's free. Since this is a campus service, you are limited in the themes and plugins available. However, this is a great starter to get you familiar with WordPress.
WordPress.com does have free version, however you will have ads on your portfolio. For $4 a month, you can have an ad free experience.
Other options
• Canva - Free plan or pricing plans. Can select from various templates for both the your page and social media posts
• Wix – Free plan or pricing plans Unstructured editor (can move items on page anywhere), themes, plugins/apps, learning curve and bandwidth limits
• Squarespace - $, includes templates and a drag/drop editor
• Google Sites – Free, integrates with Google products, limited customization options (no font choices)
• FolioSpaces – Free, does offer a premium membership for $9.95 a year which includes 20GB of storage.
• Linkedin – Works with your portfolio, can add your portfolio to your Linkedin profile.
Getting help
- The Media & Design Center staff are available to help you get started on creating your ePortfolio. Contact us at mediadc@unc.edu to set up a one-on-one consultation. You can also view our guide to ePortfolios at https://guides.lib.unc.edu/media-design-center/portfolios.
- The Writing Center can help you with writing assignments and proofreading. A great resource to use during your time here at UNC.
- UNC Career Services can help you get started on finding that dream job. They do offer a section with tips on creating a virtual presence for that job search.
References
Sassoon, J. (2024, April 6). How to make your portfolio stand out in a tough job market. Medium. https://bootcamp.uxdesign.cc/how-to-make-your-portfolio-stand-out-in-a-tough-job-market-4f74b423435b