Product Description

For courses in Career Planning, Career Development, Employment/Job Search; Intro courses where students will begin to compile projects and work samples to show skills; and Senior Seminar/Capstone Courses where advanced students are preparing to enter the workplace. Designed to assist students in pulling together their skills and competencies, this innovative, easy-to-read guidebook provides detailed instructions for planning, assembling, and using a personal Career Portfolio for a job search or promotion. It shows students how to tie together and "package" their work class project, professional development, and personal experiences to help "sell themselves" in the job market.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #721721 in Books
• Published on: 2004-01-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

From the Inside Flap
PREFACE

If you're looking to find the right job, stand out among the competition, prove yourself, and feel confident in the interview process, you are ready to create your career portfolio.

Stand Out — With the help of this book you are going to create a Career Portfolio, a track record of your education and work experiences that you can take with you to a job interview. The portfolio is a zippered, 3-ring binder containing information about your beliefs, experiences, and education. It will contain samples of your work, either in a classroom setting or on the job. The portfolio may also include a list of your skills and abilities. With a portfolio in hand, you can walk into an interview and be able to show the interviewer samples of your work, pictures of projects or community involvement, certificates you've earned, and memberships you have held. Your portfolio will be customized to you, so it will set you apart from everyone else.

Interview with Confidence — A portfolio also lets you walk into an interview with more confidence, because while putting it together you'll be examining your goals, writing down your beliefs about work and your career, documenting your strengths and identifying your weaknesses. By the time you have put together your first career portfolio you should be able to handle those hard interview questions like "Tell me about yourself," "What are your goals for the future?," or "What do you bring to the table for us?"

Start Out Ahead — Portfolios can do more than boost your confidence in an interview. They can also help you get ahead in the marketplace. A well-crafted portfolio shows employers that you have the skills and abilities they are looking for. We have seen people with portfolios obtain higher starting salaries because they could prove their skills to an employer.

Track Your Career — Once you have the job, your portfolio doesn't go into a closet until you're looking for another job. Your portfolio changes as you begin to collect and document your work on the job. Then your portfolio serves as proof of your abilities on the job and can be used to track job performance and help position you for advancement.

Creating Your Career Portfolio — At a Glance Guide for Students, 2nd Edition, gives you guidelines for creating your career portfolio. In this book you'll find:

a list of supplies you need to begin general guidelines for organizing your portfolio detailed discussions of information to be included in different sections pointers on using the portfolio In an interview or job review a style guide—containing tips for creating better looking text, photographs and videos, as well as other Ideas for making the production side of the portfolio process run smoothly Organization

This book is divided into six sections:

Overview

Chapter 1: The Portfolio Process—An overview of the whole process of portfolio development.

Planning and Collecting Materials

Chapter 2: Planning Your Portfolio—Tools to help you develop your work philosophy and career goals. Chapter 3: The Resume: An Overview of Your Portfolio—A look at different types of resumes, both paper and electronic. Chapter 4: Proving Your Skills—How to collect, select, and assemble your work samples and community service items. Chapter 5: Your Commitment to Personal Growth—Using the portfolio to track memberships, certifications, and the achievement of your goals.

Putting the Portfolio Together

Chapter 6: The Assembly—Putting it all together; producing the portfolio. Chapter 7: The Electronic Portfolio—Creating a digital version of your portfolio for the Internet or distribution on CD. How to Use the Completed Portfolio

Chapter 8: The Portfolio in Action... Getting the Job—"Now that 1 have it, what do I do with it?" Using the portfolio in an interview or to get an internship or co-op experience.

Making the Portfolio Look Good

Chapter 9: A Matter of Style—Production tips focusing on making your documents, pictures, and videos look their best.

Quick Reference Materials

Chapter 10: Resource Guide—Additional resources to make your career portfolio a success, including:

Supply list with product numbers Emergency assembly instructions List of action verbs for use in resumes Portfolio samples Listing of templates included on diskette

We've tried to make this At a Glance Guide live up to its name. If you like to read books straight through from the beginning, you'll find this book organized in a logical way. If you don't like to read a guide until you need help with a particular step, you're in luck. You don't have to read this book from cover to cover to find helpful information. You'll find an overview to the process in this chapter. Along the way you'll see bright ideas, samples, "Ask the Expert" questions and stories to help you make the most of the career portfolio process.

When you are ready to work on a particular portion of the portfolio, look up the specific section in Chapters 2-5 for more information. For assistance on developing good looking work samples and documents, refer to Chapter 9—A Matter of Style. When you're ready to put your portfolio together, turn to Chapter 6—The Assembly, or Chapter 7—The Electronic Portfolio. Before you go to your interview or job review, re-read Chapter 8—The Portfolio in Action...

Regardless of how you use this book, you'll find it filled with examples, tips, and ideas that will make the portfolio process truly rewarding.If you have any questions or we can be of assistance, please feel free to contact us via mail or email.

Anna Graf Williams, Ph.D., 8. Karen J. Hall
Learnovation® LLC
10831 Thistle Ridge
Fishers, IN 46038-2254
317-577-1190 / Fax: 317598-0816
E-mail: portfolio@learnovation

We wish you the best of luck and success in creating your portfolio and developing your career!

From the Back Cover

The employment market of the new millennium has not gotten any easier. Employers are more demanding and more selective than ever. How do you distinguish yourself from your competition and prove that you are the right person for the job? Creating Your Career Portfolio: At-a-Glance Guide for Students can give you the edge you need.

Launch Your Career!

Now that your resume has gotten you the interviews you want — use your Career Portfolio to get you the job. A Career Portfolio is a self-certification tool that contains samples of your work, community service, memberships, goals, and more. Use it to show off your greatest strengths and abilities.

Get that Internship or Co-Or

• Highlight your academic experiences
• Focus on course work and project samples

Third Edition - New Features

• Extensive discussion on identifying and understanding transferable skills
• All new – "Ask the Experts" for answers to your most common questions
• More details on electronic portfolios – how to develop them and how to use them
• Updated electronic templates – including an electronic portfolio template
• Expanded discussion on documenting soft (interpersonal) skills
• Greater descriptions on how to use your Career Portfolio!

Includes CD-ROM with templates for creating an electronic portfolio

• Microsoft WORD templates contain commonly used forms for goals, objectives, statements of originality, references, awards, projects in progress and project overview cards

The resume may get you the interview...
but it's the Career Portfolio that gets you the job!!

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

If you're looking to find the right job, stand out among the Competition, prove yourself, and feel confident in the Interview process, you are ready to create your career portfolio.

Succeed in a tough job market—Use your career portfolio to compete for the job, show your future employer what you are worth and how you can save them training dollars. Show that employer you are worth the investment!

Stand Out—With the help of this book you are going to create a Career Portfolio, a track record of your education and work experiences that you can take with you to a job interview. The portfolio is a zippered 3-ring binder containing information about your beliefs, experiences, and education. It will contain samples of your work, either in a classroom setting or on the job. The portfolio may also include a list of your skills and abilities. With a portfolio in hand, you can walk into an interview and be able to show the interviewer samples of your work, pictures of projects or community involvement, certificates you've earned, and memberships you have held. Your portfolio will be customized to you, so it will set you apart from everyone else.

Interview with Confidence—A portfolio also lets you walk into an interview with more confidence, because while putting it together you'll be examining your goals, writing down your beliefs about work and your career, documenting your strengths, and identifying your weaknesses. By the time you have put together your first career portfolio you should be able to handle those hard interview questions like "Tell me about yourself," "What are your goals for the future?," or "What do you bring to the table for us?"

Start Out Ahead—Portfolios can do more than boost your confidence in an interview. They can also help you get ahead in the marketplace. A well-crafted portfolio shows employers you have the skills and abilities they are looking for. We have seen people with portfolios obtain higher starting salaries because they could prove their skills to an employer.

Track Your Career—Once you have the job, your portfolio doesn't go into a closet until you're looking for another job. Your portfolio changes as you begin to collect and document your work on the job. Then your portfolio serves as proof of your abilities on the job and can be used to track job performance aced help position you for advancement.

Creating Your Career Portfolio—At-a-Glance Guide for Students, and Edition, gives you guidelines for creating your career portfolio. In this book you'll find:

• A list of supplies you need to begin
• General guidelines for organizing your portfolio
• Detailed discussions of information to be included in different sections
• Pointers on using the portfolio in an interview or job review
• A style guide—containing tips for creating better looking test, photographs, and videos, as well as other ideas for making the production side of the portfolio process run smoothly.

Organization

This book is divided into six sections:

Overview

• Chapter 1: The Portfolio Process—An overview of the whole process of portfolio development.

Planning and Collecting Materials

• Chapter 2: Planning Your Portfolio—Tools to help you develop your work philosophy and career goals.
• Chapter 3: The Resume: An Overview of Your Portfolio—A look at different types of resumes, both paper and electronic.
• Chapter 4: Proving Your Skills—How to collect, select, and assemble your work samples, certifications, and community service items.

Putting the Portfolio Together

• Chapter 5: The Assembly—Putting it all together; producing the portfolio.
• Chapter 6: The Electronic Portfolio—Creating a digital version of your portfolio for the Internet or distribution on Compact Disk (CD).

How to Use the Completed Portfolio

• Chapter 7: The Portfolio in Action: Getting the Job—"Now that I have it, what do I do with it?" Using the portfolio in an interview or to get an internship or co-op experience.

Making the Portfolio Look Good

• Chapter 8: A Matter of Style—Production tips focusing on making your documents, pictures, and videos look their best.

Quick Reference Materials

• Chapter 9: Resource Guide—Additional resources to make your career portfolio a success, including:
• Supply list with product numbers
• Emergency assembly instructions
• A list of action verbs for use in resumes
• Skill competencies
• Transferable skill list
• A list of templates included on the diskette.

We've tried to make this At-a-Glance Guide live up to its name. If you like to read books straight through from the beginning, you'll find this book organized in a logical way. If you don't like to read a guide until you need help with a particular step, you're in luck. You don't have to read this book from cover to cover to find helpful information. You'll find an overview to the process in this chapter. Along the way you'll see bright ideas, samples, "Ask the Expert" questions, and stories to help you make the most of the career portfolio process.

When you are ready to work on a particular portion of the portfolio, look up the specific section in Chapters 2-4 for more information.

For assistance on developing good-looking work samples and documents, refer to Chapter 8—A Matter of Style.

When you're ready to put your portfolio together, turn to Chapter 5—The Assembly, or Chapter 6—The Electronic Portfolio. Before you go to your interview or job review, re-read Chapter 7—The Portfolio in Action ...Getting the Job.

Regardless of how you use this book, you'll find it filled with examples, tips, and ideas that will make the portfolio process truly rewarding.

We have been researching from the employer and employee perspective for more than 10 years on Career Portfolios. For more hints, stories, seminar information, questions, and additional resources for the career portfolio, please check out our website at http://learnovation.com. If you have any questions or we can be of assistance, please feel free to contact us via mail or e-mail.

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Customer Reviews

A book for high school kids
I bought this book hoping for a serious advice for a professional portfolio creating, but found a bunch of recommendations good for high school-freshmen on how to best present their non-professional expereinces... How a real professional's portfolio looks like - is still a question for me... It seems like a portflio created following these guidelines would make a seasoned professional, an employer, smile at "the kid's nice attempt".

Top-Notch
Finally, a book that is perfect for both professionals and students! (See also the trade version) Williams and Hall take readers through the step-by-step creative process. Complete with materials and equipment lists, this book also provides templates on disk to help those who are less experienced with technology. This books makes a wonderful instrument as a college text.

Professionals and students alike will find that they are better prepared for that all-important interview just by going through the creative process. The authors take the reader through the process of developing a portfolio by leading the creator to think critically about their own philosophies, goals, and ideas. This mental exercise alone makes one better prepared to answer those "difficult" interview questions.

A must have for serious professionals!

Exactly what I needed!
I was trying to create a resume and a portfolio for a competition. This book was exactly what I needed, and I was successful in reaching my goal.

Other reviewers felt that this book was more for high school kids. I am a PhD candidate at a major university. My advisor suggested this book, and I am grateful for the tip.