Portfolio is a selection of your own works needed for demonstration professional level candidate. These can be the best articles, design layouts, paintings, photographs and other projects.
Why do you need a portfolio?
The main purpose of compiling a portfolio is self-presentation and attracting employers or clients. To clearly express yourself, demonstrate your abilities, knowledge and skills - this is the main task of the applicant when compiling a portfolio.
In fact, this is a clear illustration of the saying “It is better to see once than to hear a hundred times.” You can talk at length and eloquently about your professional achievements, but often this is not enough. The best way confirmation of words - showing the employer your most impressive work.
How to create a portfolio?
“Of course, there is no need to “hand over” to the employer a complete file of work for all the years of your work experience. Select the best, most versatile and successful. And then systematize them,” advises an expert from the Molnet company. Marina Adamova.
When compiling a portfolio, our expert recommends adhering to the following principles:
1. Select five to ten high-quality works. This number will allow the employer to assess your level of professionalism and work skills.
Yesterday's graduates can include successful student projects in their portfolio, especially those that have received awards and honors. Which are also worth mentioning.
2. Decide on the sequence in which the works will be presented in the portfolio. It is important that the information is grouped and easy to understand. Works included in a portfolio can be placed in alphabetical order, by style, or by project. A good option is to organize your work by date so that the employer can assess the stages of your professional development.
Another option is to divide by genre. For example, for a photographer this could be landscape photography, reportage, portraits, wedding photography, children’s photo sessions, etc. For an interior designer - design projects for city apartments, country houses, office spaces, shops, etc. This will allow you to demonstrate the wide range of your capabilities.
However, if you are applying for a job in a narrow-profile company, do not overdo it with the breadth of the range. For example, if you are applying for a position as a political commentator, your employer is unlikely to appreciate the text about baby diapers or the review of beauty salons you did for a glossy magazine - no matter how good the review is.
3. For each work, add a description: project name, customer, purpose, brief explanation, time spent on its creation.
4. Make a portfolio in two forms: printed and electronic. The first one will be useful directly at the interview, the second one you can send along with your resume.
Printed portfolio put it in a nice folder. Invest in it title page, on which indicate your first name, last name and contact information. Attach a photo of yourself in business style.
When designing your folder, be creative, but don't go overboard. The “expensive and rich” style, with monograms, golden curls and elaborate fonts, is not valued in the business world. However, there is no need to do something completely simple, drab and boring - especially if you are applying for the position of a designer, architect, or the like.
Electronic portfolio created using Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign. The portfolio of a journalist or copywriter can be presented in a text document, providing links to publications and resources where certain articles were published, or their screenshots.
Copy the electronic portfolio to a USB drive, and also save it on any accessible resource - for example, in your e-mail or Google Docs. This way, it can be opened on the Internet at any time and sent to the employer.
A well-designed portfolio will serve as your “ business card"and will allow the employer to evaluate you as a competent professional.
It will also help you competently present your skills and experience at an interview, and therefore achieve success in your job search. In addition, a professionally made portfolio in difficult situation can help you survive temporary unemployment and find part-time work. For example, by posting it on special Internet services, you can find customers for freelance and project work.
How to create a student's portfolio?
Portfolio for a schoolchild .
folder-recorder,
files... no, not right, a lot of files,
A4 paper,
colored pencils (for drawing by the child),
Printer,
and, of course, patience and time.
The task of parents is to help children create a portfolio. Suggest how to fill out the sections correctly, select the necessary photographs and drawings.
At the moment, the portfolio has sample sections that can be supplemented with various interesting information:
Title pagestudent portfolio
This sheet contains the child’s data - Last name, First name, Patronymic name, photograph of the child, educational institution and city where the child is studying, start and end date of the portfolio.
Content
Section - My world:
This section adds information that is important to the child. Example pages:
Personal information (About me) – date of birth, place of birth, age. You can indicate your home address and telephone number.
My name– write what the child’s name means, where it came from, you can indicate who they were named after (for example, grandfather). And also, indicate famous people bearing this name.
My family– write short story about your family or, if you have the desire and time, then about each family member. Attach to this story photographs of relatives or a child’s drawing of how he sees his family. You can attach the child’s pedigree to this section.
My city (I live) - in this section we indicate the city of residence of the child, in what year and by whom it was founded, what is this city famous for, what interesting places There is.
Route diagram to school – Together with your child, we draw a safe path from home to school. We mark dangerous places - car roads, railway tracks, etc.
My friends– here we list the child’s friends (last name, first name), you can attach a photo of the friends. We also write about a friend’s hobbies or common interests.
My hobbies (My interests) – on this page you need to tell what the child likes to do and what he is interested in. If the child wishes, you can tell about the clubs/sections where he/she also goes.
Section - My school :
My school– school address, administration phone number, you can paste a photo of the institution, full name of the director, start (year) of study.
My class– indicate the class number, paste a general photo of the class, and you can also write short story about the class.
My teachers– fill in the information about the class teacher (full name + short story, about what he is like), about teachers (subject + full name).
My school subjects - we give short description for each subject, i.e. We help the child understand why he is needed. You can also write your attitude towards the subject. For example, mathematics difficult subject, but I try, because... I want to learn to count well or I like music because I am learning to sing beautifully.
My social work (social activities) – it is advisable to fill out this section with photographs where the child took part in school life(for example, spoke at a festival, designed a classroom, a wall newspaper, read poetry at a matinee, etc.) + a brief description of the impressions/emotions of performing social activities.
My impressions (school events, excursion and educational events) – everything is standard here, we write a short review-impression about a child’s class visit to an excursion, museum, exhibition, etc. You can write a review with a photo from the event or draw a picture.
Section - My successes :
My studies– we make sheet headings for each school subject (mathematics, Russian language, reading, music, etc.). Well-done work - independent work, tests, reviews of books, various reports, etc. - will be put into files in these sections.
My art– here we place the child’s creativity. Drawings, crafts, his writing activities - fairy tales, stories, poems. We also don’t forget about large-scale works – we take photographs and add them to our portfolio. If desired, the work can be signed - the title, as well as where the work took part (if it was exhibited at a competition/exhibition).
My achievements– we make copies and boldly place them in this section – certificates of commendation, certificates, diplomas, final attestation sheets, letters of gratitude, etc.
My best works(Works that I'm proud of) – work that the child considers important and valuable for the whole year of study will be invested here. And we lay out the remaining (less valuable, in the child’s opinion) material, making room for sections for the new school year.
Reading technique– all test results are recorded here
Academic year report card
A portfolio is a list of works or achievements that is compiled to clearly demonstrate your skills and abilities, presenting yourself as an excellent professional or a promising applicant. In this article we will talk about the basic rules for compiling a work and school portfolio.
How to create a business portfolio
In the age of computer technology, most portfolios are created electronically: this makes it very convenient to store, send and edit. You can learn how to create a portfolio in a traditional format.
Introductory part
It is better to start your portfolio with a cover letter or resume, in which you should try to describe the main advantages of cooperation with you. You also need to indicate your professional quality, among which should be:
- punctuality;
- responsibility;
- high quality and uniqueness of your work.
Complete the introduction with your photo. Please indicate maximum amount contacts (phone, e-mail, Skype), but do not add links to social networks.
Main part
When compiling a portfolio, you need to remember that it should contain examples of work for all the services that you provide. To do this, you need to include in your portfolio not only your best works: do not forget about ordinary projects that cannot stand out in any way except for their good execution. This must be done so that the client has adequate expectations for the results of your work. Otherwise the client may demand too much High Quality work, while masterpiece performance may not always be achieved.
Don't load your portfolio with too many samples of work in the form of impersonal tables and lists. It’s better to decorate each object as presentable as possible so that it is pleasant to look at.
Price policy
If you work in a certain price segment, do not try to reduce your prices at the first request from the customer. If the customer is unable to pay the price you offer for the work, this is the first sign that working with him will not be easy. In addition, if you agree to a lower price, then in the future the same customer may insist on continuing cooperation at the same price list. A strict pricing policy in the portfolio will allow us to select only reliable and serious customers.
Deadlines in the portfolio
When deciding how to properly compose a portfolio, you need to remember: when indicating the deadlines for completing a particular work, you need to be honest. Do not try to specify the shortest possible deadlines, because for some customers this may be a sign of poor quality performance.
When compiling a business portfolio, remember that it is a reflection of your professionalism, so try to make it as serious and representative as possible.
How to make a school portfolio
If after school you want to enter a highly specialized university, which, along with traditional exams, will require passing additional tests and having a portfolio, write out the introductory part in the form of an autobiography with an emphasis on positive traits and personal academic achievements.
The most important things in your school portfolio are the certificates, diplomas and letters of gratitude that you received while studying at school. Arrange them in chronological order or in order of importance to you. Also take into account the focus of the university, focus on those achievements that will be important for your future studies.
If you need to make a class portfolio in order to tell about the achievements of all students, it will help you to design it simply and beautifully.
Due to the accelerated development modern society and already a long-standing transition Russian education to a new level – the level of compliance with European educational standards and a complete reorientation towards the humanistic orientation of education, numerous reforms of school education became a necessary necessity. One of these reforms was the introduction innovative technologies in the secondary and higher levels of education in our country.
The main thing in these technologies is person-centered learning, and one of the auxiliary technologies is its psychological and pedagogical support. As you know, it includes a portfolio system - now a constant educational process every self-respecting student, so that upon graduation, all information about his personality, educational activities and achievements were collected in one folder.
A student’s portfolio is a kind of student’s dossier, which is maintained by the student himself.
Now it is known to almost everyone. But there's only one main question: how to properly prepare a student’s portfolio? Since there is no absolute template or standard in its design, everyone is free to find their own version of systematizing materials in this personal document. However, there are some rules regarding how to design a portfolio and the main sections that are required in it.
How to prepare a portfolio for a primary school student?
- Of course, as with all documents, the portfolio contains a title page. And there is nothing complicated about how to design a portfolio title page. The student must indicate his first name, last name, age, name of educational institution and some other contact information. And, of course, don’t forget to paste/insert (depending on how you make it) your photo. You can also write short message about your educational institution, about your favorite teachers and subjects.
- Next, the student, on the next sheet of paper, usually even the third in a row, writes about himself - an autobiography, like a short essay - a reasoning. Afterwards are placed various certificates, awards for achievements in studies and social activities, competitions and other insignia received during the study and maintenance of this document.
- Then, after the “achievements” section there is a creativity section, where you need to indicate the child’s hobbies, sections or clubs that he attends. All creative works, applications, drawings, poetry or prose (if the child writes) and so on must be included there. In addition, you can prepare questionnaires for his classmates, where children will write reviews about each other.
- And the perfect ending to the portfolio will be a section on reviews and recommendations. class teacher in relation to the student. This will complement general information about the child’s personality and, perhaps, will help him in his further development.
As you can see, there are particular difficulties with how to write a student’s portfolio primary classes, in general, no. This is an easy type of this document, as it is designed for schoolchildren younger age. But a portfolio for a high school student will be much larger and a little more complex in design, although the components are almost the same.
What does a high school student's portfolio look like?
- As in the previous version of this document, a portfolio for a high school student must have a title page with first name, last name and contact information (telephone, e-mail, home address). Added to everything else is a column about the purpose of compiling a portfolio. The child himself must realize the importance of this issue and, in his own opinion, formulate the purpose of the compilation.
- Next comes a section about the child’s plans and interests, where he himself predicts how and in what direction he will develop, what he will achieve in five, ten, fifteen years, and thinks through the means to achieve these goals, that is, what he must do for this. Essentially, this is the section: “Who would I like to see myself as, and what should I do to become that?” Here, the entire emphasis falls on analyticity, which is not present in the portfolio of a primary school student, since reflection is inherent to a greater extent in the rapidly developing personality of a teenager.
- The next section provides for the student’s autobiography, which is much less like a “small essay”, like that of a junior schoolchild. Now almost all texts written for a portfolio about yourself should be as common as possible, with the same emphasis on analyticality. He must write about all the years of schooling: preschool life, schooling and up to the present moment.
- Then there will be a section of your own achievements with the attachment of official documents: diplomas, certificates and thanks - as well as copies of them for participation in olympiads, competitions, sports competitions, etc.
- Afterwards there is a section with attached documents, certificates and diplomas of completion of various additional courses, expanding existing subject knowledge or developing it in some other necessary area (creative, scientific, technical).
- The next section will be the section creative works: poetry, prose, art, another type of art in any conveniently offered form, design work. The meaning of this section, as in a similar block of an elementary school student’s portfolio, is preserved throughout, only the base itself is expanded and supplemented.
- The document ends again with a section of reviews and recommendations from the teaching staff, where again a comprehensive analysis of the individual takes place, and recommendations are drawn up taking into account the psychological qualities and orientation of the individual. Everything is the same as for a child in primary school, but in a more official form and in a more common format.
Here, however, are all the tips on the topic: “How to properly prepare a student’s portfolio.” You know the main sections and their necessary content, but how to arrange it on paper and then in a folder when compiling it is an individual decision for everyone. You can do it manually, or you can, to save time, compose it in a graphic editor, of which there are plenty in our time. Next, it's up to you. And remember: the one who walks will master the road!
Student's school portfolio - video
Getting to know each other is an obligatory stage of communication with people around you. Of course, it is easier to contact old friends: these people are aware of your character, habits and other individual characteristics. And new people have to tell everything all over again. It’s also good if we are talking about a casual conversation in the company of friends! But you often have to talk about yourself in writing, sometimes even in official documents. All kinds of profiles, resumes, accounts and interest clubs can’t wait for you to tell them information about yourself. For some, this is a mere formality, limited to a couple of standard sentences. But it happens that a lot depends on your description. In this case, you need to write about yourself not only honestly and competently, but also as interestingly as possible, so that your story does not get lost among other similar autobiographies.
Telling a story about yourself, whether spoken or written, is not easy for everyone. There are people for whom self-presentation is a habitual and even pleasant thing; they willingly share facts from their biography and present them in an exciting way, like a literary work. But for most, the need to write about themselves, and even in a special, non-standard style, is a serious test of their natural shyness, creative imagination, and simply their writing talent. For such people, we have prepared a kind of “cheat sheet” with hints and small tips on how to start, build and design your work, so that readers would be interested in reading about you even if no outstanding events occurred in your life, the description of which can become the basis of an adventure novel. In fact, everything is much simpler: even the biography of an average person who leads the calmest and most peaceful life can be read avidly if it is written in an interesting way.
Telling a story about yourself: rules, nuances and tips
An interesting feature of autobiography as a genre is that the same person can have any number of descriptions of his life. Moreover, life also remains one, and all the events that happened in it are true. But, depending on the style, purpose, and writing conditions, these works turn out completely different. As in any text, while maintaining one plot, an almost infinite number of plot development options are possible, where the narrative will be chronologically sequential or artistically distorted, logically correct or creatively adapted. As they say, there is a time and place for everything, and an autobiography when applying for a job has little in common with self-presentation when applying to a theater school. The only factor that unites them is you, or rather, the actual events of your life. Therefore, let’s first determine why and for what purpose you needed to write about yourself. The most common options are:
- When applying for a job, study or service. This is the shortest, essentially formal and therefore simplest option. It is not difficult to cope with it even without special tips, especially since in such cases the autobiography, as a rule, is written according to, right down to filling out the fields of the questionnaire. But even if you have a blank sheet of paper in front of you, you are only required to present, in chronological order, basic information about the time and place of your birth, the education you received, your professional experience, and in brief - marital status. Formal autobiographies do not require more. An exception may be biographies of representatives of creative professions: journalists, copywriters, editors. They are more demanding in terms of vocabulary used and possibly examples of work. But a portfolio is a separate task and it is also formed according to its own standards, independent of the autobiography.
- When joining a thematic organization/club/section More detailed information about the candidate may be required. Depending on the direction of the establishment, include the relevant data in the list. For example, tell us about the sports awards, diplomas, medals and certificates won for participation and victories in Olympiads, intellectual games and competitions. If we are talking about a creative workshop, then it would not be amiss to talk about your preferences and tastes, favorite genres and techniques, idols and role models. The task of your life story in this case is to reveal your own character to people who still don’t know anything about you, and to join their formed team. Therefore, the more friendly and open your written story is, the more likely it will resonate and you are more likely to receive an invitation to an in-person oral interview.
- When registering on a social network/dating site There are not and cannot be any hard and fast rules. But there are certain techniques that can be used to make your story about yourself interesting and attractive to other users. For example, many representatives of the fair sex use poems, lyrics of their favorite songs or quotes from literary works for this purpose, which, in their opinion, correspond to their character and worldview. This tactic should be considered quite ingenious, because, in the absence of confidence in your own literary talent, you can take advantage of the win-win creation of a recognized genius. One way or another, your task is to create the image you need in the eyes of strangers, and even invisible to you, people. And for this it is not at all necessary to adhere to documentary accuracy. Allow yourself a little invention, complete your own image in your imagination so that you like it - then others whose tastes coincide with yours will also like it. But don’t get carried away with fantasizing - you are still writing about yourself, and not creating a fictitious image of an ideal, but, alas, non-existent person.
- When creating your own blog and/or literary work
It’s interesting to write about yourself, it’s easy and difficult at the same time. On the one hand, for a professional writer, telling a story about yourself is not even work, but a pleasant relaxation bordering on subtle intellectual pleasure. And, since you have dared to become the independent “parent” of an entire book or mass media (and a blog can easily be equated to an information publication), then writing an original and fascinating autobiography should not be a problem for you. On the other hand, it is self-narrative that takes many professionals by surprise. Because it’s one thing to analyze and present information within the framework of a well-studied and interesting topic. And it’s quite another thing to reveal yourself to readers as a person, to demonstrate to them not only your fundamental knowledge, erudition and talent, but also the traits characteristic of mere mortals, sometimes far from the qualities of an ideal creator. Plus, not all creative personalities are identical in their desire to speak publicly. And for writers, unlike actors and musicians, this causes many internal barriers: embarrassment, fear of excessive frankness, etc. In this case, it is advisable to call on your sense of humor to help. A successful joke can disguise unsightly facts and even turn them into advantages, or it can simply fill a pause or fill the content with unexpected meaning.
Medieval philosophers, travelers and even skilled craftsmen described their lives for students and descendants. The genre of autobiography then gained such popularity that it even became independent. literary direction, a classic and witty parody example of which still remains, for example, “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen” by Rudolf Raspe. It is difficult to remember at least one writer who did not publish a description of his own life in his books. It was possible to find out a lot of details about even the most mysterious personalities with the help of their personal diaries and correspondence. By the way, the epistolary genre is inexhaustible source inspiration when writing a story about yourself. After all, people try to be sincere in letters and trust the recipients with a lot of secret things. This can serve as a good school and a storehouse of ideas for you. Therefore, do not be lazy to read the biographies of famous people, feel free to borrow interesting techniques and speech patterns from them.
Example interesting story About Me
So, with theoretical aspect We’ve figured out how to write a story about ourselves, it’s time to move on to practice. Because no one but you will write a biography about you in such a way as to reveal to readers all the facets of your character and bright individuality. Don’t forget that the most difficult thing is to start, to overcome the resistance of a blank sheet of paper. And then, word by word, the story will flow by itself if you allow yourself to surrender to creativity. You can gain such emancipation gradually, to do this, start with something simple: first write a formal autobiography, then expand it with introductory phrases and artistic vocabulary, and then completely color it with beautiful images and literary devices. Moreover, save each next option separately, it will be useful to you in the appropriate situation. This way, you will receive the blanks of several stories about yourself at once and will be able to use and modify them as necessary.
Example of a formal autobiography:
“I, Ivanov Ivan Ivanovich, was born on June 13, 1980 in Kiev. In 1987, he was admitted to the first class of secondary school No. 13, from which he graduated in 1997 with honors. In the same year he entered Kiev University National University them. T.G. Shevchenko to the Faculty of Philosophy, majoring in Political Science. During his studies at the university, he completed full training in the reserve officer training program and received the rank of junior lieutenant. He graduated from the university in 2002 with a degree in political science. Immediately after completing his studies, he began working in a news agency as an analyst and consultant to the editor-in-chief. In 2008, I took the position of editor of the politics department, which I hold to this day.
I am married and have a 7-year-old son and a 2-year-old daughter. Wife, Anna Valentinovna Ivanova, born in 1986, a journalist by training, works for a monthly publication. I am interested in photography and painting, and love to travel. I'm leading healthy image life, I regularly go to the gym and go on bike rides. I don’t have any bad habits; I prefer to spend my free time from work with my family and on active recreation.”
Now let’s imagine that this person, already a little familiar to us, decided to join the ranks of the club of travel photojournalists. The club is virtual, the main communication between its participants takes place on its own forum on the Internet. And now our friend will have to register and greet the old-timers of the club, at the same time explaining to them who he is, why and why he came to the forum. The text of the story about yourself in that case will differ significantly from the one given above. It could be, for example, like this:
An example of an interesting autobiography:
“Dear friends, allow me to introduce myself! My name may seem funny to you at first glance, but believe me: it is real. That’s exactly what my parents named me, thanks to their sense of humor, and that’s what it says in my passport - and this, by the way, is an official document! In general, my name is Vanya, my last name is Ivanov. You can start making fun. But it will be even easier to remember me this way J
I have been interested in photography for quite a long time, for about seven years now. But, unfortunately, I only recently learned about your community. I really hope that you don’t have hazing and that newcomers are not barred from entering the club. Because your work and accumulated experience interested me extremely. I had the courage to look through the photo gallery presented on the site, and I am ready to take off my hat to the authors of these photographs. The accuracy of the reporting, the quality of the photographs, and the artistic flair of the photographers are very impressive. For my part, I promise that I will make every effort to live up to this high level and present your creativity with dignity.
As for me personally, I am a very ordinary person and practically not outstanding in anything. I make a living doing what I love most and what I can do best: build hypotheses and make predictions about political situation in our country and abroad. It’s a troublesome and thankless task, but someone has to do it. But at home, waiting for me is an almost adult son, a first-grader, a sweet daughter, and, of course, my beloved and only wife, Anya. All three of them, by the way, also know a lot about travel and beautiful photographs.
In general, if I have not yet tired you too much with my biography and can be at least somehow useful to the respected community, then I will be very glad to be accepted into its ranks. I promise to be disciplined, polite and obediently follow all the rules of the club. A special greeting to all Kiev residents and an invitation to Sunday bike rides. To everyone else - just my immense affection and best wishes J"
Do you feel the difference between the first and second text? It is completely justified and caused by the specifics of communication and the purpose of the story about oneself. Analysis of the features of the given texts will help you understand the nuances of presenting information and in the future can be used by you when writing your own biography:
- In both cases, the author did not sin against the truth and provided truthful information about himself. But in the second story, he deliberately omitted those facts that were not relevant to the case. But I included in the first paragraphs what might be of interest directly to this group of readers. A very correct tactic from the point of view of self-presentation - it takes into account the interests and characteristics of the audience’s perception.
- The same goes for presentation style and vocabulary. In the first case, it is dry and official, as required by the documents. In the second, it is replete with colloquial expressions, figurative expressions and other means of language that are unacceptable in business correspondence. But for a group of friends with similar interests, this language will be the most understandable and pleasant.
- Unlike the first, strictly text, in the second story the author makes full use of humor and personal charm, expressed through language. He verbally paints before the readers the image of a kind of joker and easy person, conducive to oneself. This is a great way to make talking about yourself interesting because it takes away the rough edges of writing with the ease of friendly chat.
- In the second story, the author constantly maintains contact with readers. Talking about himself, he managed not to focus on his beloved self, but to always address the audience. Use this technique to interest the reader, because every person enjoys being given special attention.
- The author even took into account the fact that his story about himself would be perceived not aurally, but visually, and on a platform intended for interactive communication. That is why he allowed himself to use graphic symbols that were unacceptable in printed correspondence or a handwritten note. You can do the same: if you need to write about yourself on the Internet, then feel free to use emoticons and Unicode characters. But use them sparingly, do not overload the text, because an excessive number of pictures irritates the reader.