The Portfolio: Defining Your Path After College

Many will begin a career while others might choose to begin graduate school. The Center for Leadership Development will help you prepare for that next phase of your life by helping you create your Portfolio.

Sign up to begin your Portfolio by scheduling an appointment with the Leadership Development Assistant by filling out this form: https://surveys.bus.oregonstate.edu/main.aspx?SurveyID=4865

Why a Portfolio?

Potential employers and graduate programs are no longer satisfied with a list of accomplishments. More and more they want to know: What did you learn? The Portfolio will help you identify accomplishments, define what you learned and how you grew from experiences, and create ways in which you can best share and describe your valuable skills and talents as you head off to life after college.

The Portfolio is a collection of examples that illustrate experiences and knowledge gained during your college career. The Center for Leadership Development will work with you to design your portfolio.

Your Portfolio will:

• Increase your confidence and organizational skills as you near the end of your college career
  • You will have a greater ability to develop a focus for employment, graduate school or personal development.
• Provide a format for you to better define and share your college experience
  • This includes academic, co-curricular and social experiences
• Help you define relevant information and formats for resumes, cover letters, and graduate school applications
• Prepare you to articulate your experiences more explicitly as you interview for a position
• Help you define evidence of your skills in various competencies

How does it happen and who helps?

The earlier in your college career you begin your Portfolio - the better prepared you will be when you are a senior. In the Center for Leadership Development, we will work with you every step of the way to:

• provide you with an advisor who will offer guidance
• help you identify information on what include in your portfolio
• inform and advise on experiences for you to consider
• create professional looking documents
• serve as your “college office” - a space for maintaining materials throughout your college career
• encourage you with occasional reminders and opportunities to grow and update your portfolio

To begin…

1. Sign up online to talk with the Leadership Development Assistant (LDA) in the Center for Leadership Development
   • URL:  https://surveys.bus.oregonstate.edu/main.aspx?SurveyID=4865
2. Look for an email to confirm a time and location for the first meeting
3. Meet with the LDA during your designated time and location
   • Are you an Ecampus student? We can arrange for other ways to meet and discuss this program via Skype, telephone, or chat online. Make sure you let us know when you sign up.
4. The LDA will work with you to customize a plan for creating your portfolio. 
   • This plan will depend on you, including: your class standing (freshmen, senior, etc.), your experiences in college thus far, what you hope to do after college.

Additional Information on The Portfolio

The Leadership Development Assistant (LDA) will guide you through the process to create a portfolio. Below is additional information that may be helpful. These will all be discussed in greater detail during your meeting with the LDA.

Portfolio Chapters

You will have the opportunity to see several different portfolio examples, each one unique. Your Portfolio will be a collection of work (documents, artifacts, and other visuals) that is a genuine representation of who you are as a developing professional.

1. Synthesis of what I learned (or will learn) in college
   • This is a short reflection on what you learned in college or hope to gain throughout your remaining years in college.
2. Résumé, career goals, and branding yourself
   • We will help you to create a general résumé, a short written description of your career goals, and will explore the professional networking site LinkedIn.
3. Strength identification
   • You will take the StrengthsQuest® assessment to understand what your top 5 strengths are, what they mean to you, and how you can apply them throughout your life.
4. Telling your story
   • Create three ways to describe an experience you've had during an internship, group project, summer job, class work, or other experience following our proven formula that will help you to explain it best to future employers or graduate schools.