Creating an Online Resume and Portfolio

by Karen O'Donnell

Many thanks to fellow DCWWers Patricia Frame, Elizabeth Kalweit, and Joan Keiser for their input.

An online resume can be a simple yet effective way to showcase your skills, demonstrate your Web savvy, and give you a competitive edge in your job search. It's a good way to market yourself at any time, even if you aren't currently looking for a new position.

Your online resume should at least start with your chronological resume and a few samples of your work. You have of course proofread it and checked spelling and grammar. Convert your resume to HTML. Make sure your code is clean and accurate. Any URLs you include should be hyperlinks. You may also decide to include a downloadable version of your resume in Word or PDF.

A portfolio site may provide much greater detail than you would normally include in a simple resume. These sites can be particularly helpful for those in graphics. An emailed resume can't demonstrate those skills, but a good online resume/portfolio site can. You can direct people to your site via email to see samples of your work.

Step 1. Plan. The first step is to plan your Web site. Think about what to include before you begin to lay it out. What will potential employers need to see? You want to focus the site's content to demonstrate your professional skills. Relevant content takes precedence over technical tricks. What you choose to include says a great deal about you as an individual as well as about your skills. As you expand your site from a simple presentation of your resume to presenting more details and samples, you may also expand the presentation.

Again, start with your paper chronological resume. There should be one place on your portfolio site where a potential employer can view your entire resume.

Step 2. Portfolio pages. Now separate your work history into skill areas. You might want to think about it in terms of a functional resume. You needn't limit your portfolio just to Web skills. Possible areas may include writing and editorial skills, graphics, and teaching skills. These skill areas will become separate sections of your portfolio. You may create a separate page for your education and training.

Step 3. Gather your samples. These sections should include information that can only be shown on the Web. Have you created a Flash animation? Can you show examples where you've effectively used Javascript? Add hyperlinks directly to the Web page that shows them. If you can't link to a Web page, place them on your own site.

Include writing samples from other kinds of projects or a few slides from a presentation you've given. The work doesn't have to have been done for profit. You may include samples of your volunteer work or perhaps work you've created in class.

If you've redesigned a Web site, you may want to include some "before" and "after" shots of the changes you made, and a brief description. Anyone in the web design or development world knows that clients change websites, but comments about what work you did or about how it was designed when you did it are always helpful.

Step 4. Construction. Now put your sections together. The introductory page should present the links that allow the user to dig down for more detailed information. Your index page should load quickly, taking not more than 30 seconds on a slower-speed connection. Using a Flash intro without a way to skip directly to a faster-loading alternative is strongly discouraged. Your index page should offer links to your entire resume, to your portfolio pages, and of course a "contact me" link.

Step 5. Check your presentation. Check your navigation scheme. Can people move among the sections? Do your pages load quickly? Have you tested your site in different browsers?

Step 6. Post it. There are several different places to post your Web site. Yahoo offers free space, as long as you don't mind their advertising. Yahoo's advantage is its flexibility. If you build your own site, you have more flexibility in content and presentation. With 5 megabytes of free space, you have a lot of room to work with. They also offer some help with page templates.

Both Adobe and Portfolio.com offer places to build online portfolios. The advantage is that they have your site setup all worked out. The disadvantage is that you'll be in with your competitors. Portfolio.com offers your own web page, five portfolio samples, and gif/jpeg uploads for free. Larger areas require a fee. Adobe offers a free "studio." More information is available on their site.

Once you have your basic site set up, you can keep it updated as your skills increase. Good luck!

Resources:
Patricia Frame's Jobseekers columns on the DCWW Web site.
Building Your Portfolio by Maureen Nelson at http://www.webgrrls.com/wfs.jhtml?/career/advice/portfolio2.phtml
Portfolio.com: Portfolio.com/signup.html
Adobe: http://studio.adobe.com/explore/eportfolio/main.html.
Yahoo! Geocities at http://geocities.yahoo.com