Your digital portfolio serves many purposes. It’s a huge help during a job search, setting you apart from the sea of other candidates. During your annual review, it shows your executive exactly what you’ve accomplished over the past year. It can prove why you deserve a raise or a promotion, and it allows you to take immediate action if a new opportunity presents itself.
Taking the time to create a digital portfolio is great. But if you’re ready to take your digital portfolio to the next level, keep these tips in mind.
Register a Domain Name
Registering a domain name for your digital portfolio makes it easier for people to find you online. It also makes your portfolio (and you) look more professional to viewers.
When choosing your domain name, you want something that’s going to be easy for people to remember. Your first and last name followed by .com is the obvious choice. If your chosen name isn’t available as a .com, you can try a different extension like .net or .info. Alternatively, you might decide to leave your name out of it entirely and go with a memorable professional-related term, instead.
Create a Highlight Reel
Your digital portfolio contains the highlights of your career. Now it’s time to parse all of those accomplishments down into a “best of the best” highlight reel that you can showcase directly on your homepage.
Try to pick one thing from each of your categories. For instance, you might choose to showcase one stellar blog post (more on that later), the event you’re most proud of planning, and your best work sample, alongside your education and most relevant experience.
Think of this as a preview of what a viewer can expect to find if they dig further into your digital portfolio. Your goal with a highlight reel is to quickly grab their attention and make them want to learn more.
Link Up With LinkedIn
If there’s any place your digital portfolio absolutely needs to be, it’s on your LinkedIn profile. By linking up with LinkedIn, you’re making yourself visible to recruiters, hiring managers, potential employers, and anyone else who stumbles across your profile.
This step is important even if you’re not actively job-seeking. You never know when opportunity is going to knock.
Start Blogging
Blogging has numerous benefits for your career. It helps you build your personal brand, showcase your expertise and experience, attract attention, and expand your network. And it can easily add substance to your digital portfolio.
You don’t have to blog solely about your career. In fact, it doesn’t really matter what you write about as long as you do it professionally. Some ideas include industry trends, current events, best practices you’ve implemented in your work, memorable experiences, commentary on something you’ve read, or even just something amusing that happened at the office last week.
If you’re ever stuck for inspiration, try browsing professional Facebook or LinkedIn groups. You’re likely to find something that sparks your interest enough to explore further in a blog post of your own!
Share Your Blog on Social Media
Once you have a few blog posts under your belt, it’s time to start sharing them. It’s simple to post the link to your blog posts (and your digital portfolio) on your social media platforms. And it’s a great way to increase your visibility and credibility online.
Your digital portfolio is a testament to who you are, what you do, and what you bring to an organization or executive. When you take the time to make sure it stands out, there’s no limit to where it can take you and your career!
© 2022 Julie Perrine International, LLC
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Julie Perrine, CAP-OM, is the founder and CEO of All Things Admin, providing training, mentoring and resources for administrative professionals worldwide. Julie applies her administrative expertise and passion for lifelong learning to serving as an enthusiastic mentor, speaker and author who educates admins around the world on how to be more effective every day. Learn more about Julie’s books — The Innovative Admin: Unleash the Power of Innovation in Your Administrative Career and The Organized Admin: Leverage Your Unique Organizing Style to Create Systems, Reduce Overwhelm, and Increase Productivity, and Become a Procedures Pro: The Admin’s Guide to Developing Effective Office Systems and Procedures.
