This post thread started with my book review of Proving Your Qualified.

In previous posts I discussed some of the elements of an education portfolio – résumés, letters of recommendation, testimonials, and work samples. Although what elements go into the making of a good education portfolio varies by individual and job target, a good one might consist of a résumé, letters of recommendation, testimonials, work samples and documentation of learning. I’ll discuss documentation of learning in this post.

Documentation of Learning

Your résumé, letters of recommendation, testimonials and work samples will demonstrate your education well. But there are some educational accomplishments that these may not adequately highlight. That’s when you turn to the documentation of your learning.

So how do you document your learning? There’s no one single way, but it’s generally a simple document that contains information, often categorized by competencies, subject or topic area, where you list everything you’ve done to learn what you’ve learned.

A good way to start the document is to list headings for pertinent competencies. Competencies are general descriptions of the abilities needed to perform a role in a company or organization. For example, a valued competency in most job functions is Communication. Another might be Leadership.

Then list headings for knowledge areas. For example, you might list knowledge areas such as Software, Advertising, Business Analysis, Customer Service, Sales, Writing and Editing, just to name a few.

If you’re having a hard time coming up with competency or knowledge area headings, type “competencies” or “knowledge areas” into your favorite search engine and poke around for lots of good ideas. Select and tailor them to fit your specific industry or target job market.

Below each heading write a short, concise paragraph explaining what abilities, knowledge, skills and experience you have in that competency or knowledge area. Below that, perhaps in bullet point format, list everything you’ve learned or done that might support pertinent education or accomplishments. These might include:

• Names, dates, locations and brief summaries of workshops, speeches or trainings you’ve attended.
• Any certifications you hold.
• Titles, authors and brief summaries of books you’ve read.
• Mentor situations where you’ve worked alongside or shadowed a mentor along with a summary of what you learned or accomplished.
• Online classes or tutorials you’ve completed.
• Classroom courses you’ve completed.
• Anything you’ve independently researched, written or published.
• Names, dates, locations and brief summaries of conferences you’ve attended.
• Awards or acknowledgments you’ve received.
• Successful projects you’ve completed.

When possible use real-life examples of something you’ve accomplished that utilized the relevant competency, knowledge or skill.

Get creative. While I’m a believer in brevity, sometimes quantity is impressive and in this case it might be. Dazzle them with how much you know and can do.

This post thread started with my book review of Proving Your Qualified.

In previous posts I discussed some of the elements of an education portfolio – résumés, letters of recommendation and testimonials. Although what elements go into the making of a good education portfolio varies by individual and job target, a good one might consist of a résumé, letters of recommendation, testimonials, work samples and documentation of learning. I’ll discuss work samples in this post and documentation in a future post.

Work Samples

A work sample can be anything viewable, readable or listenable that demonstrates you have certain knowledge, skill, experience or other qualities (professional or personal) that will contribute to a future employer’s bottom line. Work samples provide solid evidence of your past work, showcase your skills and abilities, and validate the quality of what you do. And all of it contributes to proving your education.

It’s also good to think of this as not just “work” samples, but samples of anything that highlights an accomplishment or learning of any kind.

All kinds of material can be used as a work sample. Some are obvious and others are less so. Think big and broadly.

If you work in a traditional office setting, depending on your specific job and level you can include copies of material you create such as reports, brochures, spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, database designs, project plans, job aids, budgets, and requests for proposals. Almost any work product generated in a business environment can be used as a work sample.

If your work is in the more artistic realm, photographs, photographs of other physical artworks (paintings, sculptures, and so on), graphic designs and publication page layouts can make great work sample inclusions.

Anyone who makes a living with the written word, such as a writer or journalist, can use samples of their written work. Having examples of work that’s been published in the actual published form is always best. But your material nicely typed will suffice.

Entertainers, speakers, trainers and others who make their living in front of an audience or class can make video or audio samples of their work available.

And don’t forget other samples not related directly to your work. For example, if you wrote a killer research paper in school on a relevant topic, include a copy of that in your portfolio. Or perhaps you volunteer with a non-profit organization and have planned and executed a large charity event. Samples of the event advertising, donor mailer letters and other collateral you created can make excellent work samples.

I think you get the idea. Anything someone can read, view or hear that contributes to someone’s understanding of what you know, what skills you have, and what you’ve accomplished, is fair game for inclusion in the work sample section of your portfolio.

Come back to my blog as I talk about the last element of an education portfolio in a future post.

This post thread started with my book review of Proving Your Qualified.

In previous posts I discussed some of the elements of an education portfolio – résumés and letters of recommendation. Although what elements go into the making of a good education portfolio varies by individual and job target, a good one might consist of a résumé, letters of recommendation, testimonials, work samples and documentation of learning. I’ll discuss testimonials in this post and the remaining elements in future posts.

Testimonials

While a letter of recommendation is a formal letter that packs quite a punch when trying to impress someone considering whether to hire you or not, a testimonial can also be impressive. What is a testimonial?

You might be familiar with the many testimonials (or endorsements) that populate the infomercials so prevalent on television today. These are generally written or spoken statements, sometimes short quotes (often from a well-known celebrity, expert in the field, or private citizen) extolling the virtues of some product or service. For our purposes here, a testimonial is someone extolling your virtues, experience, knowledge and skills.

When someone says something nice about your work or your high level of expertise or skill, ask if you can quote them. Or better yet, ask if they’ll put what they said in an email and send it to you. Ask them if it’s alright to include the testimonial quote in your portfolio. Also ask if it’s alright to use their name, title and company (if applicable) and contact information (email address usually). If you feel the quote needs to be reworded, don’t hesitate to revise it and send it back to them and ask if the rewording is OK. You want it to read in that testimonial “style.” They’ll generally say yes as long as you didn’t change the meaning of anything they said.

Why ask if you can use their name and information? Because testimonial quotes attributed to a specific person who can (if one were to want to) be validated make the best impression. But even if the attribution of the quote is from “a satisfied client” or “a fellow co-worker at ABC Corporation,” use it anyway.

Present your testimonials neatly typed as quoted material along with whatever attribution you can include below it. For example…

“John Doe’s computer savvy, work ethic and experience in the software development field have contributed significantly to our company’s success.”
- Jack Smith, Vice President, Big Corporation

 In a portfolio that someone will be flipping through, formatting each quote in a large font that fills an entire page can make an impact. If presenting the testimonial quotes online or in a printed document you’re sending to or giving someone, just present the quotes and attributions formatted nicely in a regular font in a series sequentially on as many pages as is necessary.

Come back to my blog as I talk about the other elements of an education portfolio in future posts.

This post thread started with my book review of Proving Your Qualified.

In my last post I discussed one of the elements of an education portfolio – résumés. Although what elements go into the making of a good education portfolio varies by individual and job target, a good one might consist of a résumé, letters of recommendation, testimonials, work samples and documentation of learning. I’ll discuss letters of recommendation in this post and the remaining elements in future posts.

Letters of Recommendation

Letters of recommendation are typically written by past employers or clients extolling your background, virtues and skills to another potential employer. Aren’t sure what one looks like? Just go to your favorite web search engine such as bing.com or google.com and type in “letters of recommendation” (with the quotes) and you’ll see all sorts of sites devoted to this topic including lots of sample letters.

How do you get a letter of recommendation? You ask!

So many people think it’s wrong to ask for a letter of recommendation. It’s not. Go ahead and ask. Even better yet (and you may find this strange at first), write the letter yourself. I mean it. Write your own letter of recommendation and present it to the person you want the letter from. When presenting it say something like “I know you’re a busy person and I’d like a letter of recommendation from you. I’ve taken the liberty of writing one myself. Of course, you can change it or write your own, but if you agree with what it says and just want to sign it, that would be great. Let me leave this with you and you can look it over.”

You’ll be shocked by how many people will simply sign it. Why? Because the hard work of writing the letter is done for them. Assuming you’ve portrayed yourself accurately in the letter and you know the person sees you and your work as you do, they will likely sign the letter.

When presenting the letter, have it printed on the company or department letterhead. This adds significant credibility to the letter. Make sure to identify the person’s title under their printed name, just below where they’ll add their signature. If you don’t have access to the company stationery, create a simple, professional-looking stationery letterhead yourself and use that. Use at least their name and title in the letterhead. If the company name, address, phone number and email in the letterhead seem appropriate, add those too. You can always offer to alter the letterhead text before they sign it if they don’t like it. There are thousands of letterhead templates available. Again, simply type in “letterhead templates” into your favorite search engine and you’ll find plenty of them.

Try to mix up the way you write these letters of recommendation. You don’t want them to sound like they’ve all been written by you. Likewise, if you create the letterhead for them, don’t use the same template twice.

If the only way to get a letter of recommendation is as an email, then take it. A printout of an email might not have the visual impact of a signed letter on letterhead, but it can still be powerful and influential to those who read it.

Come back to my blog as I talk about the other elements of an education portfolio in future posts.

This post continues the topic I started in my previous book review of Proving You’re Qualified.

Here’s the dilemma. You’re about to search for a new job. You have some work experience behind you. You’ve learned some things along way. Perhaps you’ve read some books, learned on the job, taken some workshops, or otherwise gained some great experience, knowledge and skills that a potential employer will undoubtedly find of benefit to their company. Now you’re looking for a new job or a promotion, but you don’t have a college degree. What do you do?

College degrees (or professional certifications) are far too often the litmus test by which companies have filtered out job applicants. Assuming that someone is a better fit for a job because they hold a college degree often turns out to be a terrible way to judge job candidates. Luckily, many companies are seeing the wisdom in having a more broad set of applicant requirements. You’ll often now see the words “college degree required – or equivalent work experience” listed in a job opening description. As more and more baby boomers retire and companies seek out the required workers in a dwindling pool of talent, I expect this trend to continue.

Sure, for some professions such as physician, attorney or architect, formal education is not just a good idea, but the only way to go. But for the majority of jobs, including many professional jobs, a college degree means little when determining if someone is right for a position.

Even for employment positions advertised as requiring a college degree, there are sometimes ways to get past this requirement. If you can make a direct, personal contact with someone at a company they can often arrange for the college degree requirement to be waived if there is a compelling reason to do so. There is always someone at some level of the company that can waive the requirement unless it’s one of those jobs that absolutely requires a college degree.

So what do you do? How do you prove to a potential employer that you have what it takes to do a job as well as someone with a degree (if not better)? The answer is to create an education portfolio.

What is an education portfolio? It’s documentation, presented in a concise and easy-to-view form, of your job/life experience, learning, skills, competencies and other factors that taken together comprise your unique, individual education. Truthfully, even if you have a college degree, a good education portfolio will give you added credibility when interviewing for a job.

So what goes into an education portfolio? It can vary by individual and job target, but a good one might consist of these elements:

• Your résumé.
• Letters of recommendation.
• Testimonials.
• Work samples.
• Documentation of learning.

I’ll discuss each of these elements individually starting with your résumé in this post and the other elements in future posts.

Your Résumé

When looking for a job, your résumé is your most important piece of marketing collateral. And that’s how you should look at it. You’re marketing yourself to prospective employers. So your résumé should sell you in the strongest manner possible. In one or two pages your résumé should tell someone what you know, what you’ve accomplished, and how your knowledge and experience can translate into a better bottom line for their company.

Writing a résumé can be tricky. If you can afford it, hiring a professional résumé writer can be beneficial. I would avoid hiring someone through a job board’s résumé service or without some good references. Like the rest of the professional world, quality varies dramatically. Ask around to see if any of your friends have hired a professional résumé writer. Don’t ask someone at your current place of employment unless you’re absolutely sure the person will hold your inquiry in confidence. You don’t want to tip off your employer that you’re looking for a new job.

If you don’t know of someone, consulting a professional organization’s roster like the National Résumé Writers Association is a good idea. If you choose to write your résumé yourself and you have decent writing skills, you can produce a good résumé on your own. I recommend you read The Elements of Resume Style: Essential Rules and Eye-Opening Advice for Writing Resumes and Cover Letters that Work by Scott Bennett. It’s an excellent book you can read in a day and it will give you great basic advice on creating your résumé along with some useful job search advice.

Come back to my blog as I talk about the other elements of an education portfolio in future posts.