This week I’m presenting a workshop at the California Community College Student Affairs Association Professional 2011 Conference in Sacramento. As part of the Board of Directors, we started brainstorming topics and I couldn’t help but bring up my personal experience. As someone who recently changes jobs, I learned that I was the only in the hiring pool with an online professional portfolio. After I was hired, the student on the committee shared with me “it made a real difference that the committee could see examples of my work and read about experiences in student affairs in an simple easy way”. So, I volunteered to lead a workshop on how to create your own online portfolio. Here is a few things I’ve learned:
- If you are not ready or have the time to develop an online portfolio, LinkedIn is a great place to start!
- The Education field is slowing starting to use social media for hiring, so I encourage to keep working on your resume and essay questions..ahh but guess what..you can also have those documents posted online!
- The bonus of starting an online portfolio is it gets you organized. You get to showcase examples of the work you are most proud of, show your resume, and develop new ideas all in one place, AND it forces you stay on top of it.