Question

Topic: Career/Training

Need Advice On Career Portfolio

Posted by jkh1 on 1/26/2012 at 11:54 AM ET 250 Points
I've been at the same place for 11+ years. My boss has been grooming me to succeed him. Unfortunately, my dept got folded into another and my boss' position was eliminated. I feel I'm ready to make the leap into senior management and have decided to begin looking for a new position somewhere else. I'm just not sure what should go into my portfolio these days. Help!
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by mgoodman on 1/26/2012 at 8:30 PM Moderator
    First find the company whose greatest need is what you do best. Then prepare a resume just for them.

    Generic resumes are useless.
  • Posted by jkh1 on 1/27/2012 at 11:58 AM Author
    mgoodman, agreed about generic resumes. However, I'm finding more places want a link to my portfolio. What should that look like? My best includes strategy (marketing and sales) and operations, but I've also been recognized for being a top manager. Does an online portfolio lend itself to my skill set?
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 1/27/2012 at 5:03 PM Accepted
    You could create a separate subdomain for each company you're applying for (ibm.TomJones.com, apple.TomJones.com, etc.). That'll allow you to both customize it and put it online. By not providing any external links to these web pages, they'll be invisible to search engines but accessible to anyone with the URL.
  • Posted by Jim Greenway on 1/27/2012 at 5:22 PM Accepted
    Online career portfolio's are nice but I believe if you want to get recruiters attention for the upper management positions you need to list your leadership history, accomplishments as a leader, your teams performance, etc. You don't have to get really detailed but list those qualities they are looking for in a really good leader. List your qualities as a manager as well as for a leader, they are different. A manager instructs his team, supports team activities, is open minded, communicates and as a leader you mentor, establish a productive work environment, create growth opportunities, challenge others, etc. Don't try to impress them with some website. Use your qualities to sell them in a way they can't afford to not hire you. One major warning, make sure you have no misspelled words in your resume. I was reviewing resumes several months ago for a job opening and I would say over half had grammatical and spelling errors. I guarantee those will get thrown out first thing.
  • Posted by mgoodman on 1/28/2012 at 7:59 PM Accepted
    You asked:

    Does an online portfolio lend itself to my skill set?

    My response:

    In short, probably not. Portfolios are mostly for graphic designers and art directors. They are not for [prospective] senior managers.
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