S: Skills
Picture of a marketing tool with professor’s note.Peter developed this
marketing tool for the promotions segment of one of his marketing
courses. His assignment was to pick an industry and then come up with
a memorable message for a pin that a company could use to promote its
product or service. Peter picked the fitness industry and came up with
the “Do you want a pill or the sure cure”message. Although not re-
quired to do so, he took the assignment further and actually designed
and produced a set of pins with this message on it. His teacher was
thrilled. For his portfolio, Peter has included a picture of the pin he cre-
ated with his professor’s note. Alternatively, he might have stuck an ac-
tual pin onto the professor’s note. Either way, this is a very effective
way of illustrating his skill at creating marketing tools.
Certificate for Computer-Aided Design for Marketing course. Peter
knows from his informational interview that using computers for creat-
ing marketing materialsis considered an important skill to have. He
can make the point that he took this series of workshops on top of his
regular course work because he wanted to have the skills to be imme-
diately productive in a marketing job.
Certificate for Oral Presentation Skills course.Peter also learned in the
informational interview he did that presentation skillsare considered
particularly important in the marketing field. He can make the point
that because he really enjoys making presentations he took this extra
workshop to learn how to excel at doing this. His keenness to develop
himself, now that he’s found what he wants to do, will help deflect at-
tention from his mediocre G.P.A.
Title page and first page from a marketing plan he did for a course.
This paper that Peter did for his strategic marketing course demon-
strates that he knows how to develop a marketing plan. He can also use
this as a sample of his writing skills. He can display the title page and
the abstract for this paper on the front and back sides, respectively, of
a sheet protector, and then stuff a copy of the entire paper in between,
if it’s not too bulky. Or he can store a full copy of this paper elsewhere
in the carrying case for his portfolio. However he decides to present this
paper, he should make sure that the excellent comments and grade he
received are clearly visible!Peter Evans: Getting That First Job After Graduating from School 19306.qxd 6/27/03 8:35 AM Page 193