From Paperweight to Conversation Piecetechnicalcommunicationuk.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/...•...

From Paperweight to Conversation Piece

Building a Portfolio You Love And Love to Talk About Chris Hester - #TCUK16

What are you thinking?

• I don’t have a portfolio … how do I get started?

• I have a portfolio, and it is _______.

• I have one, and I don’t want you to look at it.

From Paperweight to Conversation Piece - Chris Hester - TCUK 2016

Today’s Plan

• Introductions

• Talk about portfolios

• Break into groups to peer-review portfolios

• Small group discussions

• Large group recap

• Wrap-up


And today’s topics• What is a portfolio and why do you

need one?

• How do you build one?

• You built it - now what?


What is a portfolio? Why do you need one?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/haydnseek/with/92332136/

A collection of work

• Highlights the work you’ve done

• Shows the work you can do

• Demonstrates your thought processes

• Provides visual support for your cover letter & resume and in the interview


Showcase of your abilities

• Organization

• Content strategy

• Writing

• Presentation

• and more!


How do you build one?


Portfolio strategy


Think “life cycle”

• Inventory

• Analyze

• Organize

• Manage


Inventory• Gather your work samples

• Create a spreadsheet

• Decide what to capture and track


Inventory

• Don’t include:

• College papers, unless directly related to a potential job

• Drafts, unless you have a supportive narrative

• Proprietary works, unless you have permission


Inventory• Do include:

• Process documents

• Spreadsheets

• Tools

• Work samples

• Articles

• Awards & honors


Inventory• Title

• Date

• Employer or client

• Tools

• Purpose

• Audience

• Context

• Project type

• Status (Outdated, Current)


End result?

• Timeline of your growth as a professional

• Big picture of your accomplishments

• Familiarity with your body of work

• A pool of items to pull from when putting together a portfolio targeted to a specific job


Analyze• Add 4 columns to the spreadsheet

• Give each project the STAR treatment

• Situation: What was the context of the project?

• Task: What was the project?

• Action (or Approach): What did you do? How did you do it?

• Result: What were the outcomes?

• Write a STAR Summary for each project

• Bonus: Write the summary as a case study that you can send or use instead of a sample


Try it

• Use the worksheet to develop STAR profiles for one or two projects


Organize• What patterns do you see in the spreadsheet?

• Project type

• Role

• Document type

• Industry

• Genre

• Electronic, paper, or both? Binder, folder, website, iPad, Kindle?

• Start small and grow? How?


Organize• Use high quality materials

• Create two pages for each entry

• Summary page = cover page for the work sample

• STAR page = your notes for interview prep

• Keep extra materials handy

• Put it together in a way that’s easy to take apart


I built this thing- now what?


Manage

• Keep it updated

• Add work as you complete projects, retire outdated pieces

• Update your spreadsheet


Manage• Keep it manageable

• Only relevant pieces are needed for an interview - your BEST pieces

• Maybe multiple binders? One for the interview, the others for organization.


For the interview• Customize the portfolio for interview

(remember your resume)

• Take only the pieces that support your experience as it relates to this job

• Think of questions that will give you the opportunity to talk about your work

• Use your STAR pages to prepare


Listen for your cue

• Tell me about a time when you took the lead on a difficult project.

• Describe a long-term project that you managed. How did you keep everything moving along in a timely manner?

• Give me an example of a time you were able to be creative with your work. What was exciting or difficult about it?

• Tell me about a time when you came up with a new approach to a problem.

• Tell me about the project you’ve worked on that you’re most proud of.


What the interviewer is looking for

• Work process

• Thought process

• Attention to organization and detail

• Experience that supports the decision to hire you


At the interview• Use your portfolio to support your

responses

• Frame responses with your STAR information

• Conclude your answers with the results or benefits of the project.


• When I started a freelance writing project at Widgets Corp, I discovered the client had no style guide.

• I recommended that I develop the guide on our company wiki, not only to simplify development, but also to make sure anyone could use it - and maintain it when I left the project.

• It took about two months to develop the guide. Soon after I finished, the marketing department asked to include branding and messaging information. Now, the guide has grown into a corporate style guide used throughout the organization.

• These images show the progress from the initial wireframes, through the first release to how the guide currently looks.


At the end of the interview

• Offer your portfolio to review

• Mention the online version (if available)

• Leave behind a mini-package that represents you: your resume and your best STAR case studies


Peer review


How this works

• Use your tables as groups

• Pass your portfolios one person to the left.

• Spend 5 minutes reviewing the portfolio you received - use the feedback form.

• After 5 minutes, pass the portfolio again.

• At the end, you should have your portfolio and a set of peer reviews.


Small group discussions

• Take a look at the feedback you received.

• Talk to each other

• Ask questions

• Ask for advice

• Share ideas

• Steal ideas


Reverse the roles!

• In your group!

• Select one piece of work, and use the STAR method to tell its story.


Reconvene


Discussion

• What did you learn about your portfolio?

• What ideas are you going to steal?

• What changes will you make to your portfolio?


Review: True / false / depends?

• A portfolio is a collection of writing samples.

• Your portfolio should represent your entire work history.

• The bigger your portfolio, the better.

• It’s okay to skip out on portfolio reviews because, hey, you’re a technical communicator.


Portfolios are …• Process

• Products

• Packages


Resources

• How to Build a Killer Portfolio, by Arnold Burian, Technical Writing World (technicalwritingworld.com/profiles/blogs/how-to-build-a-killer)

• The UX Manager’s Portfolio - Visualizing Leadership, by Jay Kauffman, UX Switch (www.uxswitch.com/the-ux-managers-portfolio-visualizing-leadership-via-uxswitch)

• Behavioral Interview Questions and Answers 101, by Mike Simpson, The Interview Guys (theinterviewguys.com/behavioral-interview-questions-and-answers-101)


http://technicalwritingworld.com/profiles/blogs/how-to-build-a-killer

http://www.uxswitch.com/the-ux-managers-portfolio-visualizing-leadership-via-uxswitch

http://theinterviewguys.com/behavioral-interview-questions-and-answers-101

Credits

• https://www.flickr.com/photos/haydnseek/with/92332136/


https://www.flickr.com/photos/haydnseek/with/92332136/

Thank you!

Chris Hester

Consultant, Owner

Red Desk Studio, Inc.

[email protected]

@chris_oh


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