How to Build the Perfect Online Portfolio

The good thing about the Internet is that now you have this incredible tool to present your skills and experience in a way that’s visually appealing. The bad thing about the Internet is that often it is not obvious how to do that or where to go. By now, LinkedIn is seen as a staple of work portfolio showcasing. In many cases employers expect potential employees to have a busy and well-connected LinkedIn profile (preferably with some recommendations). Sure, you can argue that not everyone needs to be online to work it, but many employers expect url addresses in resumés in this day and age. And, like everything else in the job seeker’s world, having an edge over the competition is probably the most important element in that mysterious concoction that results in getting a job. So, because we love you and we want you to have that edge, we’ve gone that extra mile and tested a bunch of social media and portfolio sites that will allow you to present yourself and your work in the best Internet light possible (please be advised that we can only describe it so much — you will have to go out and try it yourself to see how it really works).

Pinterest is a virtual corkboard where users can pin and re-pin things that they find appealing. Here’s how it works: you find a picture online that you love, you copy the link to it, you paste it in the Add+ function (at the top right-hand section of the page) to get the image and then you stick it on to your Pinterest board. The images can be anything from fashion to funny sayings to kittens. Those who have a special knack for finding really appealing images will thrive on Pinterest.

When you join Pinterest you are asked to create boards, which are different categories where you can pin your fave things. If you see a picture that appeals to you on Pinterest, you can re-pin it to your board or give it a Like. As with all the other social networks, the more active you are on it, the bigger the reach you develop (that is, the number of people following you and re-pinning your stuff). With a little bit of a creative flare you can also use Pinterest to aid your professional life. For example, you can post an image that leads to a place where you worked or to an article about you (or about your company) or to an image associated with your work. Here at poss.ca we have an active Pinterest account where we post our articles as well as do-it-yourself solutions for the home office, inspirational sayings, professional outfit suggestions and ... cats. Our hope is that our Pinterest board not only draws people to our actual site but also shows a bit of our personality. And personality may be that extra something that will give you an edge over your competition.

About.me is a visually appealing site that provides an excellent way to showcase who you are on one page only. It’s a snapshot of who you are that is positioned on a beautiful background of your choice (many users tend to pick photographs of themselves). In your bio section you can link to places connected to your professional life and on the bottom, there’s room to add your social networks such as Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Bonus — once you set up your page, About.me generates an individualQR code for you and allows you to order 50 business cards for free (you pay for shipping, usually less than $10 within Canada) with the image of your About.me page on the background plus your info (you will be asked to fill in blanks) plus the QR code so you can be looked up by any employer with an iPhone.

Behance is a social network site mostly used by visual artists — graphic designers, illustrators, photographers, animators, and so on. It allows you to write a bio, link to your personal page and upload projects with descriptions. Once you start networking with other users, they will be able to give feedback on your projects if that’s what you want (this is what you might want if you are, in fact, a visual artist and can use this site to showcase your portfolio). But if you simply need a space to park your professional portfolio you can tweak Behance to do that — even if you’ve nothing to do with visual arts. Here’s an example of how you can utilize it if you’re, let’s say, a chef. Post a picture of a cupcake. Once the potential employer clicks on the cupcake, there will be a description of your baking skills. Oh, and if you’re curious how the visual artists use Behance, here are some inspiring testimonials.

Carbonmade is another variation of an online portfolio. As with Behance, its aim is mostly to aid visual artists but you can customize it to make it into a work portfolio. On your home page you will be able to post up to five projects (pages) plus your logo or picture. Individual projects are where you can provide wider descriptions underneath a picture (as with Behance, you will have to have a picture to lead the text underneath).

SlideShare (the basic free option) allows you to upload text documents via the upload feature. You can share whatever you upload with others who use SlideShare (which is what the site was intended for), but then again, if you’re using it just to feature your own portfolio, there’s really not that much benefit since you can send documents via email anyway. But like all the other portfolio sites, SlideShare allows you to put your information on one page with links and a bio and you can use the Slide feature (with uploaded documents) to showcase longer text related to your job searching (for example, you can put a resumé in one window and a cover letter in another window).

Written By: Jowita Bydlowska from poss.ca. The article was orginally posted: http://poss.ca/en/content/how-build-perfect-online-portfolio