An example is a letter of commendation that explicitly praises you for
a desired skill or personal characteristic.
But you should not limit yourself to documents that speak for
themselves. As we will see in future chapters, the best way to show your
portfolio is to do so in person. If you were to send your portfolio ahead
or leave it behind, then every item would have to be self-explanatory.
But since you will be presenting your portfolio in person, you will be
able to explain why a particular item gives strong evidence that you
have a desired qualification.
An example of a powerful document that might require some ex-
planation is a spreadsheet that records impressive sales figures. Maybe
you had the highest percentage increase in sales for three years run-
ning of all the salespeople in your company. To make sure that the in-
terviewer is reading the figures correctly and understands what the
spreadsheet indicates, you probably need to explain it to him.
A document that requires some explanation can give you a great
opening to point out important things you want to convey about your-
self. When presenting impressive sales figures, for example, you would
have an opportunity to talk about the challenges you faced and the
techniques you used to be successful.
Try to include only one or two pages of reports and other extended
documents. So that you can include a number of different items in your
Can-Do Portfolio, try to limit the number of pages associated with any
one item. If, for example, you want to talk about a marketing report you
compiled, you could include the executive summary and/or the title
page. If you want to include a school paper that received a very favor-
able comment, include the page that has the professor’s comments on
it. If your interviewer expresses a strong interest in a report or paper
you have done, you can offer to send him or her a copy after the inter-
view, provided, of course, that information that should not be shared
with this person can be deleted.
Your goal is not to go over a paper or report you did line by line,
but instead to have a prop that enables you to discuss the key
P.E.A.K.S. you demonstrated in doing this project.
Consider including pictures. A picture can be a good conversation
piece for initiating a discussion of important P.E.A.K.S. that you have.
For example, if you have a picture of yourself on a sports team, you can
use this to discuss both your competitiveness and your skills as a team
player. A picture of a volunteer event that you organized might be use-
ful for discussing your organizational skills. If the picture showed up in
a publication, so much the better, but having a photo from a newspaper
or magazine is not necessary.
Make sure the items you includeadd to your credibility. If your ex-
planation of how an item demonstrates one of your P.E.A.K.S. comes
across as too much of a stretch, the interviewer might start wondering
if other things you are saying about yourself are less than credible as
well.
It is important to remember that a fundamental reason for show-
ing your portfolio is to addto your credibility. With this in mind, youChapter 3: Targeting Your Portfolio 37