Girl Addy

Girl Addy

ISD Professionals-Do you have a portfolio of career?

Let's talk.

On average, interview three consultants week. Each consultant I meet face to face and meet him or her. I read your resume, talk to them to assess their personality and examine their portfolio of work ... ... if you have one. I was surprised to learn that many consultants do not create a portfolio that shows your best work! Customers use contractors / consultants for two reasons:

1. They need an extra "hand" in a project. O
2. They need an "Ace." Someone who has specific expertise they need in a project.

For contracts that fall into the second category should have a portfolio of their work. If your portfolio is large enough that it will "sell" more than any interview ever could.

Here's the reality: As consultants, our income is based 100% on our ability to convince new customers that they do what they want to do. How can you convince without a portfolio? This article will hopefully help build or improve its portfolio and increase their ability to secure consulting work.

Why should I bother?

# 1 - Your Portfolio is a test you can do what you say you can do. Given that a consultant has to be operational in first day - this test is essential.

# 2 - If two of you interview for the position the same contract, and the other has a portfolio consultant, who do you think is going to get the job?

# 3 - It is a historical record of their achievements. It will be nice to look back over 10 years - believe me!

Online Portfolio

Online portfolios are cool. However, you must be very careful not to put any client information in site. You can not put that fresh eLearning course created for ABC company unless the company's lawyers say ABC is right. Here are some tips: Almost always say no. In general, to create an online portfolio that you have to create their own content to show their skills. Several years ago, I created a e-learning course that explains why you should outsource eLearning projects. I was the client, designer and developer. I was able to put Worry-free line.

• If you want to put content online, there are plenty of sites online portfolio which is free. Just Google "Online portfolio" to choose one. The most likely use screenshots instead of loading the executable of your course.
• Just one more warning: Do not display online customer without the written permission of their legal department.

Note: I'm putting together an independent blog about all the different ePortfolio tools I can find to save everyone some time. If you know of a great too, by Please email me or comment here.

Paper-based portfolio

On paper, portfolios are very powerful in a face to face. I have a physical portfolio that I consider my interviews and won the assignment at all times. At first, my wallet was a folder with some examples. Later I added nice separator tabs and a table of contents. Now, it's a beautiful cover and is divided by the type of delivery the customer could be looking for. After 19 years in the field of my portfolio has become quite full.

You do not need a nice leather pouch for your wallet, but I suggest something that is completely closed to protect your documents. I literally still have printed documents of the 1990's in mine and have not yellowed yet. It's a good thing because the electronic versions of the files are located in 3 1 / 2 "disks. (For young people - which is a very old storage device - as flash drive, almost no space.) In an office supply store you can get a good fabric zippered portfolio of about $ 10, which work very well.

Organizing Your Portfolio

How should you organize your portfolio? Well, so do not do is stick a bunch of samples together. There are several ways to organize your portfolio:

Chronologically: Put everything in order when made with the most recent first. Their categories (tabs or pages of the portfolio) should be something like 2010, 2009, 2008 ... ...

Addie Model: Create five categories according to the model of Addie. Put all your work of analysis as a formal needs analysis or a task analysis in section "A" and so on.

Competition Model: ASTD has a model of competition that can be used to organize your portfolio if you have more of a generalist. However, if his career was primarily focused on an area of ​​the model portfolio will not be balanced.

I welcome other suggestions of how to organize portfolios.

What to Watch

This is common sense: Make sure that their samples are a great job. really. I have reviewed the portfolios of many of them with bullets that are not aligned, unexpected changes in the source, less than professional looking graphics, and usually full of samples would not like to show a potential customer.

I recommend having a friend look over your portfolio and give you honest feedback. It might hurt your pride a little listen to criticism, but do not want to hear before going to an interview?

Supplies include

First, make sure you have permission. (Did I say that before?) A well-rounded portfolio should include ISD many of these items:

1. At least one sample of high-level design. Try to include some kind of synthesis that is one page or less. Can not expect in an interview to read a 15-page document. I like to turn mine into a concept map that explains everything in a diagram.

2. At least one script graph if the design of e-learning. This should include graphic design, instructions for developers, writing fiction, and so on.

3. It least one sample facilitator guide. Only a few pages is enough. If you have several different styles and then include them all.

4. At least an example of a participant guide. More examples of different styles, more useful.

5. The samples showing the different types of content you works with: Leadership, Soft Skills, Process, Customer, technical, medical, etc ... Say they know how to work with medical content is different to show that they know how.

6. If you have a detailed design for a more comprehensive program includes a few pages of it.

7. Evaluations of level 1: Include all they build.

8. Level 2 assessments: Include examples of tests that you have created. If you were online, including feedback.

9. Level 3 evaluations: If you have forms for collecting samples, included. Even better - Do you have data showing the results? Does the evaluation plan for the design of the allocation of these to the overall goal?

10. Level 4 or 5 Data Evaluation: If you have this, including the general plan and results.

11. Recommendations: If you had a client or colleague to write a recommendation are included here.

12. Atta-girls or children-Atta: Back when I had a steady job, it was standard policy for a VP level person to send an "atta-girl" my boss and I copy my programs were a great success. Whenever these forms and saved them. As you collect these, they include in their portfolio.

*** Once again, make sure you have permission to include any material from the legal department of the company!

About the Author

Leighanne Lankford has over 19 years of experience in the field of learning and instructional design. Leighanne works as a Relationship Manager for TrainingPros and also as the co-founder of revuuIT - an online system for streamlining the process of gathering SME feedback. You simply upload a PowerPoint file, invite people to review it, and wait for their feedback. They can see the slides, the instructor notes, and  each other's feedback as they enter theirs. At the conclusion, you receive a PDF report of everyone's feedback by slide, making it easier to make the changes, store the feedback, and distribute the feedback with the new updated PPT file.