Hello, again my future media moguls. With this post, we continue building ourselves to be better candidates for careers in the media industry. Specifically, I will be discussing how to build a portfolio that showcases your production capabilities. Many students go into interviews for media positions unprepared to show the interviewer work they have already created. This is the purpose of building a portfolio that demonstrates your skills to your potential employer.
The first problem students face when creating their portfolio is what work will best showcase their talents in media. Students must learn to look at the work they produce as something to impress future employers and decide what work will be most impressive. Keeping this mindset while working on projects also makes you more likely to notice your mistakes and improve your work in a subconscious effort to make it more impressive to potential employers.
Versatility is an important thing to think about when creating your portfolio. I’ve said before that media companies love to hire one person who can fulfill multiple production roles to work in their production departments. If you have multiple talents and are willing to complete tasks outside your job description, you’re a better candidate than someone who can only do one thing. If you’re a person with multiple talents, use your portfolio to showcase that. If you write, film, and edit videos, don’t just show the final product, show your scripts and storyboards. New-age media companies want employees who can be involved through the entire production process.
This should be a no-brainer but show your best work. If you have projects you produce that you are proud of, that is the stuff that needs to be on your portfolio. Employers want to see the best of you, so put your best work at the top. Not everyone is going to look through every project you have so you want to impress them immediately with your absolute best. You can also separate your work into categories (photography, video editing, writing, etc…). This will make it easier for employers looking for specific skills to find the work that demonstrates your ability in those areas.
After you make your portfolio, you’re obviously not going to stop producing work. As you make new content, and your skills improve, you will produce things that are better than what is currently on your portfolio. This is why it is important to continue to update your portfolio as you improve your skills. Always keep your best work first and remove work that doesn’t meet the standards you have for yourself as you improve.
You can keep a portfolio that is just a file or thumb drive filled with your work but to take your portfolio to the next level you can create an online portfolio. Using free website creation tools like Wix and WordPress allows people with no web design experience to create websites. Turning your portfolio into a website allows you to send a link that displays your work in a way that you choose to have it appear to potential employers. This is undoubtedly the best way to create your portfolio.
Keep producing media and continue updating your portfolio, and when the time comes for interviews, you will have a body of work to impress potential employers. To end with a question again, what will be your first step to creating a professional portfolio?
Comment your answers and share the blog with your friends so we can go on our media journey together.