Newsletter of the Society for Technical Communication, San Francisco Chapter June/July 2009

Using a Portfolio to Ace a Job Interview: Several pictures are worth a thousand words
Presented by Jack Molisani and reviewed by Louise Galindo

How do you sell yourself after you have your foot in the door of a prospective client or employer? Jack Molisani led the audience through the steps you can take to make yourself as attractive as possible on paper. And taking interviewers through your portfolio, shows you to your best advantage as engaged, animated, and enthusiastic.

So, what does a portfolio show?

• That I am an expert.
• That I have done what I say I have done.
• That I can do the same for you.

As Jack took us through his portfolio sample, he engaged us in learning what to put in that portfolio. You do not have to be artistic, but you do have to get organized, know what to leave out, and know when a page grabs the reader's attention. In my case, I hadn’t thought to add a page on the classes I teach. Jack pointed out that the cover of the U.C. Extension catalog along with the page for my class and any other relevant pages, highlights my teaching experience in a way that a line of my resume never could. "People believe what they see," says Jack, "not what they are told."

In Jack's view, a portfolio is more than just samples of your work—it is an interviewing tool you can use to achieve, in the end, a job offer. The presentation included what to put in a portfolio, how to get things to put in your portfolio, and most importantly, how to use your portfolio to ace a job interview. You want to walk an employer through the portfolio. It is for you to tell your story. As Jack stated, "A portfolio is a tool I use to walk a potential client down a path of understanding that I am an expert."

What to put in your portfolio:

• A project plan and the result of the plan. This is critical in Technical Communications. You can create a project plan after the project is complete, if you do not have a sample plan. Prove to the employer that you can plan, and you know what should be in a plan (a detailed content outline and schedule and risks and issues).
• Awards and recognition. Include quotes and positive feedback. This is your chance to provide the interviewer with all the glowing reports of your work. According to Jack, "I must be good because everybody says it's so."
• Put Statistics in to show how you made the difference.
• Put in a radical before-and-after sample. "This is what the stuff looked like—this is what I can do for you." This sample makes a very compelling case for your abilities to know and recognize bad documentation and know what you need to do to create good documentation.

As technical communicators today, we need to show how we can be a part of cost-savings efforts. Those before-and-after samples are just the visual employers need to see how much better their documents can become if you are part of the team.

Jack showed us how to present ourselves as professionals. I happen to agree that going the way of a developed, thoughtful, clear, concise presentation of your work is a step in the right direction.

Jack Molisani is an STC Associate Fellow and the president of ProSpring, a staffing firm specializing in staff and contract technical writers: www.ProSpringStaffing.com. Jack also produces the LavaCon Conference on Technical Communication and Project Management: www.lavacon.org.

| Newsletter Front Page | Newsletter Home | SF Chapter Contacts | SF Chapter Home Page | STC Home Page |