 A portfolio is a gathering place for your proudest accomplishments. It’s easy to gather your projects, experience, skills, and values in one place if you start now by finding a binder (or folder if you don’t have a binder handy) and drop in what you have right now. As you gather more accomplishments add them to your binder.
Keep it simple – add to your portfolio as you gain accomplishments. Make it easy – start with what you have. Have fun – add a picture or photo to the front of your portfolio, add colors, assessments, lists, art, or whatever best represents you. Your portfolio is flexible. As you build your LifeWork Portfolio, take out what is no longer working for you and add what makes you smile. Develop new skills and accomplishments where you need them. If you can’t easily list your strengths, skills, and character, refer to pg. 110-113 of Fire Up Your Profile For LifeWork Success. CAREER SUCCESS FORMULA Strengths + Skills + Character + Opportunities = Career Success The purpose of your portfolio is to gather personal and career information, job search tools, plans, and goals in one place. If you need a portfolio to take to an employer, you will want to choose the most relevant information from your LifeWork Portfolio and create a separate professional presentation folio, binder, or folder. Use the method most appropriate to your field of interest. Grow your portfolio and adapt it to your career transformations. Be creative, make your portfolio yours, and use the section titles that work best for you. Here are some sections you might want in your LifeWork Portfolio:
If you should feel a bit overwhelmed with the task of gathering your strengths, skills, and accomplishments to create an extraordinary picture of you, then contact a LIfeWork Coach, or counselor to help you bring your strengths and accomplishments to light. Adapted from: Fire Up Your Profile For LifeWork Success @copyright 2016 by Nancy J. Miller
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 Your profile is an opportunity to paint a unique picture of yourself that you can use and adapt for a bio, an “About” page for your website, a resume for job search, or a profile for social media.
"Create your own visual style... let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others.” —Orson Welles If you haven’t ever created a picture of yourself in words, it may seem like a daunting task. Where would you even begin? You can start by gathering your education, experience, accomplishments, credentials, and skills in a Career Portfolio (you can gather your information in a binder, file, or album). You decide what you want to share and with whom. Once you write a basic profile you will be able to adapt it to many situations. Use your profile to tell people who you are and what you value. Play around with the words until you come up with something that feels like you. Depending on where you use it, your profile might be a paragraph or a page. You can adapt your profile for media, a short bio, a cover letter, a proposal or presentation. Choose the voice you want to use (your name or pronoun “I”, or “we”). Looking back at your accomplishments and what led to where you are today will give you the push to move forward. Whether you are starting a formal career, you are transitioning with years of management experience, or you are reorganizing for retirement, your Fired Up Profile will provide you with the information and tools you need for a commanding introduction. Listen first then connect with common interests. With your job search tools, your ability to manage your career, and your Career Portfolio of accomplishments you can feel confident wherever you are. You are NOT a job search beggar waiting for an employer to provide you with his meager offering. You know what you want and you are willing to take the steps necessary to find your own personal career success. The ability to tell your story in different ways will help you respond to the prompt “Tell me about yourself.” As Kathy Hansen says in her book, Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling to Get Jobs and Propel Your Career, “Knowing how to tell your story makes you unique and gives the interviewer something to like about you.” When connecting with customers, employers, and partners you want them first and foremost to like you. Why wouldn’t they? You have so many unique talents to share. DESCRIBE WHO YOU ARE The first step to finding life and career success is knowing who you are, how to describe your strengths and abilities, and how to confidently say how you make a difference. Use your journal or a page in your Career Portfolio to write about yourself. This is the first step to writing your profile. Write a description of yourself.
From the book: Fire Up Your Profile For LifeWork Success I found my self feeling apathetic about my writing until January of this year when I started two classes through the Creativity Coaching Association that includes Creativity Coaching, self-coaching, and building my practice. I can see that I've been neglecting my Creative Coaching blog, but now I am getting energy and motivation to fire it up!
Apathy can kill a business or project before it really gets off the ground. Apathy is so boring that I can't even think of a picture for it. Where does it come from? Distractions, disruptions, tech difficulties, working on something I am no longer interested in, wondering if anyone is listening or if anyone cares. Wow! I'm' bored just listening to myself––that's what apathy does. Apathy is indifference or suppression of emotions. My job as a coach and writer is to stir up the emotions in myself and interest in others. It doesn't happen by itself. It often happens with others or in groups. My creativity coaching class and clients are bringing out my emotions, excitement, and interest. It doesn't happen in a vacuum. We need people to stimulate us, bring out the best in us, and inspire us to do the work we were made to do. Ok. I'm ready to write! My next post will definitely have a picture. Blessings for Health and Prosperity, Nancy |
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Nancy J. Miller, M.S. is a Certified Life Coach, publisher, and author of "Fire Up Your Profile For LifeWork Success." "Vegetable Kids in the Garden," and "The Vegetable Kids Cafeteria Club." With a Master's Degree in Career Counseling, she has 15 years experience coaching entrepreneurs, writers, job seekers, professionals seeking a career change, and students. Contact Nancy at: success@nancyjmiller.solutions to learn more.
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