potentially useful portfolio documents.”For simplicity, we call it your
Master Portfolio.
Your Master Portfolio is notmeant to be the portfolio you would
show to someone in an interview. It is likely to be too bulky to lug
around and many of the items might not be of particular interest to the
person to whom you would be showing your portfolio. The proper func-
tion of a Master Portfolio is to provide you with a broad selection of
readily available documents to choose from when it comes time to put
together a portfolio to take to a particular interview.
Because you are probably in a hurry, we are going to skip the step
of creating a Master Portfolio. But, if you would like to learn more about
Master Portfolios, take a look at Chapter 2.
A targetedcareer portfolio, which is what we will be focusing on in
this chapter, is a collection of career-relevant documents that have been
chosen because of their intended appeal to a particular audience. Sim-
ply put, these are the dozen or so items that you would bring to a meet-
ing, hoping to impress the person or people with whom you are meet-
ing.
We call a targeted career portfolio that is designed to appeal to a
particular audience a Can-Do Portfolio. We use the term Can-Dobe-
cause it gives evidence that you can do whatever is considered most im-
portant in the job under consideration, whether it’s a full-time job, a
consulting assignment, or the “job”of being a successful student in col-
lege or graduate school. A good Can-Do Portfolio enables you to make a
convincing case that you are ready, willing, and able to get the job done.
It helps you differentiate yourself from other candidates along impor-
tant, job-relevant dimensions.
To get a quick idea of how a Can-Do Portfolio can be used in a job
interview, see the section entitled “How Do You Actually Use a Career
Portfolio—and When?”in Chapter 1.
A Can-Do Portfolio can be a great self-marketing tool when it is
well targeted and properly used. If you follow the ten steps below, you
can quickly create a Can-Do Portfolio that is designed to suit your spe-
cific needs. Later in this chapter we’ll refer you to sections of the book
that will tell you how to use your Can-Do Portfolio as an effective self-
marketing tool in interviews.TEN STEPS FOR QUICKLY CREATING A CAN-DO PORTFOLIO
Our plan is to explain each step as succinctly as possible and, where ap-
propriate, give the locations in the book where these steps are ex-
plained more thoroughly, should you want further explanations and de-
tails on how to proceed.
Before beginning to do the first step, we suggest you quickly read
through all ten steps to get a general understanding of how doing these
steps, in the order presented, will enable you to create a portfolio that
suits your present needs.
To get the best results, you would be wise not to try and skip any
steps. As you will see, each step builds on the preceding steps.Chapter 10: Portfolios on the Fly: Creating a Portfolio in a Few Hours 141