Creating A Portfolio

A good portfolio is crucial for landing on your first job. That is why you need to take the time and effort to create an outstanding portfolio.
Some employers still prefer a physical portfolio that you can carry around and/or leave with the employer. Yet more and more employers in the mass communications field have shifted their preference in favor of an online portfolio. Here are some tips and suggestions on how to create your best online portfolio.


Regardless of the format, online portfolios need to contain the following key elements:

  1. samples of your best work that showcase your skills in several key areas
  2. error-free resume with visible contact information
  3. clean design and easy/simple navigation
  4. sensible domain name and/or e-mail address; safest choice is to use your name; avoid acronyms or any other suggestive names

There are several popular ways to create an online portfolio:

  • Blogs – blogs have become the acceptable way for aspiring writers to showcase their skills. You can create your free blog with Blogger.com, for example. These are now called Blogofolio(s). You can find a good example of a Blogofolio here. In addition, Andrew Roland, a Washburn senior, has invaluable information and examples about online blogs here.
  • Web sites – There are many good options for creating free websites. If you have a good collection of visual material to display then a website is the best choice. One of the most popular is Weebly.Com, which is fairly simple to use. You can personalize your page, add graphics, text, video and use Weebly's design tools to customize your site. Another good option would be to create your portfolio with the free, Flash-based Wix. Wix is bit harder to figure out, but it creates really impressive portfolios. Most of the senior seminar examples you will find below are created with Wix. Yet another good content management system is WordPress. WordPress is a blogging tool and a content management system that you can customize whichever way you wish - you just have to invest the time.
  • Dedicated solutions - this category might include various approaches to sharing your portfolio with prospective employers, but probably the simplest one comes from the free file sharing service that MediaFire. Com offers. You can see a good example of how this file management system works here. This option is not only user-friendly, but allows you to upload various file formats.

Important note about file formats: do NOT e-mail or upload software-specific file formats. Your best bet is to convert video files to full quality Quicktime and Word and InDesign files to PDFs. Upload your video files to YouTube or Vimeo to obtain a Flash Embed code. Use the code on your website to play the video.

Look at these portfolios

Links from the Spring 2011 Senior Seminar Class

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