Part 5
Showcase Your Talents
This is Part 5 of my ePortfolio series. Read my previous post on the uses of building multiple ePortfolios. I will now discuss how to share your work and links.
RCampus ePortfolios enable users to organize, showcase and archive cumulative collections of their work in a digital layout. They allow anyone to easily share their work with friends, family, educators and potential employers. Not only can you upload documents, but photos, audio and videos, as well. Whether your interest is in writing, photography, radio, film, etc., RCampus ePortfolios give you an easy way to share your work with anyone you choose. Moreover, if your work is located on another web page, a link to it can be provided in your ePortfolio.
Bring Your School Work With You
You have the option of including any school work you have done throughout your years as a student. Being a Journalism student, I was able to upload a vast array of papers written for my classes. The “School Work” section of my college ePortfolio lists hyperlinks to Microsoft Word documents under each course I took (link). Of course, most of these classes were required to graduate with the major, but some were electives. When employers become aware of the kind of work you have done in certain classes, they can make their own assessment on what you have learned and why you chose those classes. For example, I took “Global News Media,” a course that taught me about journalism around the world. Companies favor those who have some amount of knowledge of the world we live in.
Present Your Professional Work
A great way to get your foot in the door is to make your sample work easily accessible to potential employers. Instead of only providing them with hard copies of your work in a traditional portfolio, simply email them your ePortfolio web site address, so they can access your work effortlessly, wherever and whenever. This strategy particularly applies to myself, since I have written several pieces--published online and in print--as an intern and freelance writer. I have uploaded hyperlinks to various Word documents, allowing visitors to instantly view articles, a press release, an interview and a review that I have authored. These can all be located in the “Sample Work” menu option on my career ePortfolio (link).
Make a Unique Gallery
You can include a gallery section in your ePortfolio that highlights your best artifacts. In my case, I added a menu item titled, “Photograph Gallery,” which stores the photographs that I am most proud of (link). I was able to upload my best photograph samples, separate them into sections and give them brief titles. Since I have a huge interest in photography, I wanted to share some of the photographs I have taken while traveling. Of course, I don’t call these images “work,” but I believe it is still worthwhile to display them to showcase my talents. You don’t have to always focus on work; you can organize anything related to your interests and hobbies. Since I want to be a photojournalist one day, I included these images, but a gallery can consist of many other artifacts, such as audio and video samples, according to your interests.
Link It Up
If your other work is already on its own web site, a link to it can be created in your ePortfolio. For example, I provided links to my blogs, because they cannot be presented on one page, since they have very high multimedia content. I have included hyperlinks to my World Cup blog, South Africa blog and Disney blog (and even this series), which can all be found in my “Blogs” menu option (link). What better way for an employer to assess my writing than to view my blogs? These display my writing and multimedia skills in a true, unedited format.
In addition, you can upload links to your other profiles on the Internet. No, I do not mean your FaceBook or MySpace page. Hyperlinks to your professional pages should be inserted into your ePortfolio, offering employers other opportunities to browse through what you have to offer them. Anyone who visits my web site can now have access to my LinkedIn profile as well as my Beyond.com personal career portfolio through my “Other Career Profiles” menu option (link).
Read my next post on marketing yourself.
