Career Portfolios
Interdisciplinary Cooperative Education
Terre Haute South Vigo High School
Careers Portfolio – Lesson 4
“Proving Your Skills”
At the conclusion of this unit students will be
able to:
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Find, create, and select work samples to place in
their career portfolios.
Identify community service projects.
Provide proof of professional memberships,
certifications, diplomas, degrees, and awards.
Professionally write a letter of request for
recommendations.
Document works in progress.
Prepare a reference sheet.
Providing Proof
Employers are not just interested in you
telling them what you are able to do. They
want proof of it.
Proof comes in the form of:
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Work Samples
Letters of Recommendations
Works in Progress
Skill Sets
Certifications, Diplomas, Degrees, and Awards
Community Service
Academic Plan of Study
Faculty/Employer Biographies
Work Samples
Make up the major portion of the portfolio and
become the most powerful part of your
portfolio.
Provide proof of your knowledge and skills.
Anything you create that shows your skill in a
particular area can be used as a work
sample.
If the physical evidence is too big to fit in the
portfolio, take a photo of the item and include
it in the portfolio.
The more details you can give about a project
the better.
Sources of Work Samples
Classroom projects from major core courses
during the school year.
Materials you have generated while on the
job or on an internship or co-op.
Materials completed in community service
projects or professional memberships.
Community Service Projects
Community involvement is a great
source of work samples.
Include the following information about
a community service project:
A summary sheet of what you
accomplished.
 Results of the project.
 Who helped you.
 A photo if appropriate.
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Professional Memberships
and Services
Show your commitment to the field and
demonstrate how you will keep up with the
growing and changing knowledge/skills in the
field.
You should be carrying at least one
professional membership at all times.
Join professional organizations related to
your area of business rather than those that
are merely social organizations.
Professional Memberships
and Services (cont.)
What to include in the portfolio:
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A list of the organizations to which you belong.
The date you joined.
Offices, boards, or committees on which you’ve
served.
Appropriate letters of accomplishment.
Photographs of events or copies of programs
where you have provided a presentation or
service.
Provide proof of your membership.
Spell out the name of the organization, don’t just
use its abbreviation.
Adjusting Work Samples
As you prepare for different job interviews,
your portfolio needs to be adjusted as well.
You may need to change the work samples
you show to demonstrate specific abilities that
are desired by the company.
You need to evaluate your portfolio before
each interview to make sure it fits the
prospective employer’s needs.
Selecting the correct work samples and
keeping them organized for instant access is
very important.
How to Select Work Samples
Ask yourself the following questions:
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What will this work demonstrate – skills,
competencies, or achievement goals?
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Is this my best work?
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Does it show mastery?
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Am I proud of this sample . . . all or part of it?
Putting Together Work Samples
Include samples, not complete projects.
Clearly identify the purpose of the work
sample and everyone who has contributed to
the sample.
Never include a work sample that you are not
proud to be associated with, now or in the
future.
Select the best way to present your work
samples.
A photo summary of your work may be the
best way to relay a work experience.
Confidentiality
Materials generated on the job are usually the
property of the company you were working for
at the time you created the material.
When you display or show that materials, be
sure to recognize the owner.
If you signed a confidentiality agreement with
a company, you should not include their work
in your portfolio.
To be safe, always ask for permission to use
a work sample before you include it in your
portfolio.
Keeping Track of Your Work
Samples
Have a schedule for updating your collection
of work samples.
Keep track of your work samples.
Include the correct work samples.
Organize work samples into the appropriate
skill areas.
Organize work samples within a skill area.
Use work sample overview cards.
Letters of Recommendations
Provide additional proof of your abilities.
Provide personal references from
people who have seen you perform.
You may need to rely more on letters of
recommendations when you don’t have
many work samples.
Instructors, supervisors, owners,
presidents, and managers – all can be
appropriate references.
Asking for a Letter
You should request your letter of recommendation in
writing long before you need it.
Your letter needs to help guide the person writing the
recommendation to focus his or her letter on key
skills and areas of your personality that you want
addressed.
Ask for the letter while you are close to the event or
you still have an opportunity for contact with the
person.
You should always allow two to three weeks for
receiving the letter. It is appropriate to follow up with
them a week after your request.
Sample Request Letter
The letter should be on
official letterhead.
The recommendation letter
you receive should be
addressed as “Dear Future
Employer.”
The recommendation should
include background
information on how the
reference knows you and for
how long.
Proofread the letter for
errors. If you find an error,
be humble and ask for a
correction.
Works in Progress
This is a place to list projects on which you
are currently working.
You may choose to show parts or modules
that are completed enough to demonstrate a
skill, competency, or achievement.
This section may be very short. It should be
clearly labeled “Works in Progress,” and can
be placed at the beginning or the work
samples.
Skill Sets
A skill set is a list of related skills and how
well you can do them.
The look and feel of a skill set will vary
depending on where you got it from.
Many skill sets will work with each skill or
competency, using three levels of ability:
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Awareness – has awareness of the
knowledge/skill, and has completed the task at
least once.
Practicing – is able to follow a guide to complete a
task.
Mastery – is able to consistently perform the task
without effort.
Creating Your Own Skill Sets
To create your own skill sets, do the
following:
Use job descriptions to identify skills you
want to have.
 Use the “want Ads” or job postings to
identify and check skills.
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Now expand and refine the list of skills:
List the things you have done on the job
 List unique skills.
 List your transferable skills.
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Certifications, Diplomas,
Degrees, and Awards
Include a copy of the certificate – not the
original.
Include information about the organization
presenting the certificate.
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Name
Address and phone number of the organization
Any certification or licensing numbers given
Place the most recent items first.
Be selective – show items that will be of
interest to your future employer.
Academic Plan of Study
Your plan of study defines the courses you
took to complete your degree.
Show all your courses in your major and
related area.
Include course descriptions with key classes.
In an interview, the academic plan of study
section is usually only referred to if needed.
You need to have it in your portfolio, just in
case.
Faculty and Employer
Biographies
The people who signed your skill set
sheets or letters of recommendation is
giving his or her word that you have
certain skills.
The faculty/employer bio sheet gives
the interviewer background on who
these people are and how they know
you.
Faculty and Employer
Biographies (cont.)
A faculty/employer bio sheet should
include the following information:
Name and job title
 Organization
 Contact information including address,
phone/fax/e-mail
 Areas of specialty
 Date
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Sample Reference Sheet
You will need three to
five references that an
employer can check.
Include character,
academic, and
employment references.
Be sure that these
individuals will be able
to present the positive
aspects of your abilities.
Keep Collecting
Get into the habit of looking at your work and
looking for samples to document.
Take advantage of the moment and take
photos of events and projects.
Save certificates, samples, and projects as
you acquire them.
Obtain letters of recommendations frequently.
Keep collecting samples of everything.
Keep these items in your portfolio.