What is the value of the personal portfolio?
The value of a personal portfolio is enormous, if you consider that in most companies hiring today, the only thing candidates hand over during the interview process is a CV. The CV alone does not provide anything more than the candidate’s story in terms of education, professional experience and the limited amount of personal data that is necessary, everything in shorthand. As CVs are usually entirely in titles and notes, they can be simple promises. Everything that is written can eventually be proven of course, but obviously the candidate who presents real-life examples of the information in his/her CV has a much bigger competitive advantage.
This concept is easily understood if we think about artistic professionals like designers, painters and photographers, who can simply display the results of their work. Well, the same approach can be taken in every professional field by creating a portfolio, which should include information/examples from a very early age. You alone will decide what constitutes your personal ‘display’, what you want your potential employer to know about you, what you can bring to their business, what reflects your personality.
The portfolio is a concept particularly encouraged by the European committee, and there are some excellent portfolio samples out there from young, aspiring candidates. It is even possible, using new technological means, to create interactive, live portfolios. For example, a candidate could create a link from a blog, which is carried to interview on a mobile device, to be forwarded to the potential employer on the spot during interview, demonstrating that they are competitive, competent and confident.
(Excerpt from the radio course of Mr. Yannis Stergis, President – CEO hyphen SA, for the show protifora αriston project)
