Creating a work portfolio is one of the most important things you as a working professional can do. A portfolio acts like your calling card; it is basically a mini-briefcase that holds all of your talents and work history in a neat and orderly fashion. Making sure that you have a beautifully organized portfolio can ensure that you have a solid future in your specific career. However, you would be surprised how many people don’t know how to create a proper portfolio. As a professional, you must properly display your works, allowing potential employers to properly see your talents and, hopefully, how you could benefit their specific company. This is why I have compiled the top 5 tips to having a beautiful portfolio.
1. The most important step to having an effective portfolio, is making sure you have a decent portfolio case. You can go to your local office supply store to pick up a very decent portfolio. Make sure that you buy the right size portfolio case, as well as one that looks professional and “put-together.” A portfolio comes complete with portfolio pages, however, always purchase extra pages.
2. Now comes the time to start collecting your materials. When you are putting together you writing samples, make sure they are only your strongest pieces. If you don’t have any complete projects, you can put the text from the various brochure or pamphlet you completed on a plain sheet of paper. This is something that many copywriters must do because their project has not come out of final production. However, if you are new to the copywriting business and don’t have any “official” credits to put in your portfolio, than you must create SPEC ADS. These are actual ads that you have created yourself, using your own words for various companies. On these samples, you must make sure you put “SPEC AD” on them. This is to ensure that your potential employer understands that you have not worked on an official job; however, you have the talent and ability to do so. Plus, by placing “SPEC AD” on the paper, you steer clear from the company misunderstanding you, and them actually thinking you wrote an ad for Burger King, when it was only practice.
3. Add your resume to your portfolio. This seems like a no-brainer, however, I have seen many portfolios that don’t have a resume in them. They are chalk-full of their past ads, and SPEC ADS, but no actual paper explaining their entire work history. As an employer this is very important, especially if not all of your work has gone into the pages of your portfolio. You work hard, make sure they know it.
4. If you don’t have any actual ads to place inside of your portfolio, or if they are in production still, don’t think that having your work simple in text form isn’t impressive. The employer is not looking at your portfolio for how well the graphic design artist laid out the page, but how well you can write. Treat a text-only page with as much pride as you would a full-blown advertisement. If the project you are putting in your portfolio is still in production, than state that at the top of the page. However, if it is a SPEC AD (as stated in step 2), make sure you place SPEC AD at the top of the page. To spruce up the text-only ads, print them on high-end, professional paper. Be creative on how you can display the text in your portfolio.
5. One of the most important steps in having a powerful portfolio, is making sure everything is laid out in a professional, and convenient manner. Remember, this company doesn’t have to look at your portfolio, but they are interested in you. Make sure that you don’t loose their interest by having a sloppy and poorly organized portfolio. Arrange your Ads for easy access, ensure that everything is user-friendly. If you have several different topics that your Ads cover, clearly divide your portfolio in sections so the reader knows what exactly they are looking at. This helps to clear any confusion.
A writing portfolio is an extremely aspect to gaining future jobs. In order to become a truly successful writer, you must treat your portfolio like you do your jobs, with a keen eye for detail and an open, creative mind. By adding your personality in a professional manner into your portfolio will keep your work fresh and new, and more than likely, you will be remembered over hundreds of other portfolios.
