Enabling EdTech. Empowering Education.
Enabling EdTech. Empowering Education.
Personal branding is, as you’ll read several times a day on LinkedIn, is a critical piece of representing yourself as a candidate. Depending on the field(s) you’re considering entering, a portfolio can be an excellent way to showcase your expertise and fit.
Intended Audience:
This series is intended to serve any person who is creating a portfolio, particularly if they are creating a portfolio for the first time or are migrating a physical or limited digital portfolio to a web-based portfolio.
Personal branding is, as you’ll read several times a day on LinkedIn, is a critical piece of representing yourself as a candidate. Depending on the field(s) you’re considering entering, a portfolio can be an excellent way to showcase your expertise and fit.
Intended Audience:
This series is intended to serve any person who is creating a portfolio, particularly if they are creating a portfolio for the first time or are migrating a physical or limited digital portfolio to a web-based portfolio.
I wanted these posts to be punchy, memorable, and easy to digest.
I kept the graphics clean, message-focused, and out-of-the-ordinary when compared with other content creators within my given community and space. I also tried to keep in mind accessibility best practices regarding hash tagging and emoticons, keeping hashtags titles cased for screen reader accessibility and emoticons at the end of lines where appropriate to not disrupt screen reader and/or audio-readers.
By crafting a comprehensive list of several dozen portfolio tips, I have been able to create a timeline encompassing several months of content intended to empower individuals who are new-to or refreshing their professional portfolio.
One of my primary objectives was to keep the graphics consistent and eye-catching so that my followers and those reading my posts would be drawn to the message of the post and continue to look forward to this series every week.
I gear my posts toward individuals who are new to creating portfolios or new to creating portfolios in the web design space, so providing short, immediately actionable advice is critical. Each post is intended to be a single piece of approachable advice that can be implemented in a single sitting or even a couple of sessions if the portfolio is particularly large.
It was imperative to keep the message within the graphic clear and concise for my readers to ensure high retention and engagement ratings for the posts. In addition, short messages that match the speed of user scroll and attention span and that are memorable are key to building a successful brand and series.
Portfolio Pro Tip:
Define every acronym the first time you use it on any page of your portfolio. 🔽
ACR (acronym)
(p.s. I, and a ton of other people way more experienced than me, would give you the same advice on your resume and cover letter, btw.)
💜 someone who is really glad there isn’t an acronyms-in-education-based drinking game… 🍻
#transitioningteachers #teachersoflinkedin #teachersrock #portfoliodesign #portfoliomanagement
Portfolio Pro Tip:
Define every acronym the first time you use it on any page of your portfolio. 🔽
ACR (acronym)
(p.s. I, and a ton of other people way more experienced than me, would give you the same advice on your resume and cover letter, btw.)
💜 someone who is really glad there isn’t an acronyms-in-education-based drinking game… 🍻
#transitioningteachers #teachersoflinkedin #teachersrock #portfoliodesign #portfoliomanagement
Portfolio Pro Tip:
Choose your fonts carefully. 💡
The primary function of any font is readability. 🔍
If you have to reread a word because of the font, assume you won’t be the only one and choose a different font.
The second function of any font is its ability to enhance your style, tone, and general portfolio feel. ✨
If you have a fairly austere portfolio website it may not pair as nicely with a playful handwriting font – or maybe it will because you’ve come up with a great marriage of industrial and creative styles that just work.
Also – did some research over the weekend and I cannot find any conclusive evidence that serif or sans serif fonts are easier or harder to read – but what I can say from experience? Some cursive and handwriting fonts are definitely difficult to read and can sometimes trigger hidden biases.
💜 someone who never knew how many fonts there were until she got into building websites… holy. moly.
#transitioningteachers #teachersrock #teachersoflinkedin #teachers #careerdevelopment #portfoliomanagement #portfoliodesign
Portfolio Pro Tip:
Choose your fonts carefully. 💡
The primary function of any font is readability. 🔍
If you have to reread a word because of the font, assume you won’t be the only one and choose a different font.
The second function of any font is its ability to enhance your style, tone, and general portfolio feel. ✨
If you have a fairly austere portfolio website it may not pair as nicely with a playful handwriting font – or maybe it will because you’ve come up with a great marriage of industrial and creative styles that just work.
Also – did some research over the weekend and I cannot find any conclusive evidence that serif or sans serif fonts are easier or harder to read – but what I can say from experience? Some cursive and handwriting fonts are definitely difficult to read and can sometimes trigger hidden biases.
💜 someone who never knew how many fonts there were until she got into building websites… holy. moly.
#transitioningteachers #teachersrock #teachersoflinkedin #teachers #careerdevelopment #portfoliomanagement #portfoliodesign
Portfolio Pro Tip:
Define every acronym the first time you use it on any page of your portfolio. 🔽
ACR (acronym)
(p.s. I, and a ton of other people way more experienced than me, would give you the same advice on your resume and cover letter, btw.)
💜 someone who is really glad there isn’t an acronyms-in-education-based drinking game… 🍻
#transitioningteachers #teachersoflinkedin #teachersrock #portfoliodesign #portfoliomanagement
Portfolio Pro Tip:
Define every acronym the first time you use it on any page of your portfolio. 🔽
ACR (acronym)
(p.s. I, and a ton of other people way more experienced than me, would give you the same advice on your resume and cover letter, btw.)
💜 someone who is really glad there isn’t an acronyms-in-education-based drinking game… 🍻
#transitioningteachers #teachersoflinkedin #teachersrock #portfoliodesign #portfoliomanagement
Portfolio Pro Tip:
Ensure all your links are live and go to the place you mean for them to go to! 🌐
Doing that while logged into your portfolio website/app can give you a false sense of security. When you’re logged in there, you are typically also logged into your Google Drive and other platforms, which would mean that you naturally have access to any materials within your portfolio.
Open each link with an incognito browser to make sure that it
– links to the correct content ✅
– is publicly available ✅
– doesn’t contain any blocked content in itself (block content-ception!) ✅
(Pro tip within a pro tip – if you have a ton of links in your portfolio, you might consider making a list and then checking each off so that you don’t miss any.)
#transitioningTeachers #careeradvice #careerdevelopment
Portfolio Pro Tip:
Ensure all your links are live and go to the place you mean for them to go to! 🌐
Doing that while logged into your portfolio website/app can give you a false sense of security. When you’re logged in there, you are typically also logged into your Google Drive and other platforms, which would mean that you naturally have access to any materials within your portfolio.
Open each link with an incognito browser to make sure that it
(Pro tip within a pro tip – if you have a ton of links in your portfolio, you might consider making a list and then checking each off so that you don’t miss any.)
#transitioningTeachers #careeradvice #careerdevelopment
Portfolio Pro Tip:
Always include your #resume in a downloadable PDF format somewhere on your portfolio. 🌟
I recommend including it in at least 1 of the following places:
p.s. Some websites will even allow you to track the number of downloads which is SUPER satisfying and can give you that encouragement to keep going that we all need from time to time. 💕
p.p.s. I would recommend that you don’t gate your resume (i.e. require an email or login to download it) as that might discourage folks from accessing it and you WANT people to get at your resume.
🧡 someone’s whose weekend got away from her, so her posts this week are out of sequence! C’est la vie!!!
Portfolio Pro Tip:
Always include your #resume in a downloadable PDF format somewhere on your portfolio. 🌟
I recommend including it in at least 1 of the following places:
p.s. Some websites will even allow you to track the number of downloads which is SUPER satisfying and can give you that encouragement to keep going that we all need from time to time. 💕
p.p.s. I would recommend that you don’t gate your resume (i.e. require an email or login to download it) as that might discourage folks from accessing it and you WANT people to get at your resume.
🧡 someone’s whose weekend got away from her, so her posts this week are out of sequence! C’est la vie!!!
Portfolio Pro Tip:
Use the highest resolution/quality images available to you for your portfolio.
That includes:
Rule of thumb: If it looks blurry to you, it probably looks blurry.
↪ If an image looks blurry, a reviewing expert or hiring manager can’t tell what they’re supposed to be looking at and may decide to skip an item that might have been valuable to them.
↪ If an image looks blurry, your portfolio loses visual appeal.
Better be safe than sorry. Replace a blurry image. 📸
💜 this PSA brought to you by someone who knows that you spend a lot of time and energy on your portfolio
#transitioningteachers #careeradvice #careerpivot
Portfolio Pro Tip:
Use the highest resolution/quality images available to you for your portfolio.
That includes:
Rule of thumb: If it looks blurry to you, it probably looks blurry.
↪ If an image looks blurry, a reviewing expert or hiring manager can’t tell what they’re supposed to be looking at and may decide to skip an item that might have been valuable to them.
↪ If an image looks blurry, your portfolio loses visual appeal.
Better be safe than sorry. Replace a blurry image. 📸
💜 this PSA brought to you by someone who knows that you spend a lot of time and energy on your portfolio
#transitioningteachers #careeradvice #careerpivot
This series is one of my favorite creative projects, allowing me to share my knowledge of portfolio content and design while also getting to step outside of my own design comfort to create memorable 3D graphics that my followers and readers have come to enjoy and appreciate as they build and curate their portfolios.
This series is one of my favorite creative projects, allowing me to share my knowledge of portfolio content and design while also getting to step outside of my own design comfort to create memorable 3D graphics that my followers and readers have come to enjoy and appreciate as they build and curate their portfolios.