ments about yourself seems like an awful lot of work, here’s something
you should know. The process may start slowly, but it builds. One idea
leads to another, and before long you almost feel like you are on a real
treasure hunt. The items you find are, in fact, personal treasures. Each
item demonstrates your outstanding qualities. Assembling a collection
of items that reveal your best features can be a huge confidence builder.
So get started!A MASTER PORTFOLIO IS MORE “STORAGE BIN” THAN “PORTFOLIO”
Your Master Portfolio should contain every item you can get your hands
on that you feel mightat some future date be considered for inclusion
in a portfolio you would bring to an interview. In point of fact, you will
likely end up taking only a small percentage of the items in your Mas-
ter Portfolio to an interview. But prior to deciding which items to bring
to a meeting, you need a collection of items to choose from. And the
more items you have to choose from in your Master Portfolio, the better
your targeted portfolios are likely to be.
As your collection of portfolio-worthy documents builds, you will
likely discover that you have accumulated more items than you could
easily carry from place to place. It is true that portfolios are, by defini-
tion, meant to be readily portable. So in this sense, your Master Port-
folio eventually becomes more like a storage bin than a portfolio you
can carry around. A more accurate term for it might be “master collec-
tion of potentially useful portfolio documents.”To save words, we call it
your Master Portfolio.
We suggest that you initially place items you wish to include in
your Master Portfolio in a box or filing cabinet at home. (Keep in mind
that when people are terminated, a security guard sometimes appears
at the former employee’s office to prevent the former employee from
taking anyfiles home.) You may also decide to scan these items onto a
computer disk. If you decide to create a digital portfolio,you should,
nevertheless, keep hard copies of everything you have scanned. In a
face-to-face interview, you most likely will want to present documents
that you can actually hold. People tend to put more trust in things they
can touch and feel. And, as with all computer files, it’s a good idea to
have backup hard copies.
Later in this chapter (see “Different Ways of Filing Master Port-
folio Documents”) we will discuss filing systems you can use to keep
track of everything in your Master Portfolio. But your first task is to
start collecting items.WHAT YOU SHOULD BE LOOKING FOR
Ultimately you are hoping to find documents that give evidence of
P.E.A.K.S. that would appeal to the particular people to whom you will
be showing your portfolio at various times in the future. Remember
from Chapter 1 that your P.E.A.K.S. are your personal characteristics
that add value, experience, accomplishments, knowledge, and skills.16 Part I: Building, Using, and Maintaining Your Career Portfolio