CAREER PORTFOLIO

WHAT IS IT

The Career Portfolio is an online tool created by the

Florida State University Career Center to present

your skills and experiences to prospective employers,

graduate schools, and other organizations. You can use

the Career Portfolio to learn about skills that employers

and graduate schools value most, build a personal

proﬁle using the skills matrix, post your résumé, and

list positive references from people who know you

well. Then, upload examples of your best work (called

“artifacts”) and share your portfolio with potential

employers or graduate schools.

HOW CAN IT HELP ME

Your Career Portfolio can help you organize and describe

your accomplishments at FSU and beyond. You can use

the portfolio to articulate your qualiﬁcations, skills, and

abilities, which may help you answer interview questions

more eﬀectively. Furthermore, employers can see actual

evidence of your work such as papers, presentations,

and videos.

1. Build Your Portfolio: Create your proﬁle and skills

matrix, then upload your résumé/CV, references,

artifacts, and examples

2. Manage Your Portfolio: Name, customize, view,

and share your portfolio.

3. Continue to Learn and Grow: Learn and develop

skills employers value most and ﬁnd opportunities

for continued academic and professional growth to

add to your portfolio.

HOW DO I BEGIN

1. Access the Career Portfolio at portfolio.fsu.edu

or log in through myFSU.

2. Explore the Resources and Tutorials under

Menu for a comprehensive overview.

3. Start building your portfolio!

Use the Career Portfolio to compile information

documenting the skills and experiences you gain

every semester at FSU. Recording these details as

they occur will allow you to quickly and easily access

facts about your accomplishments to share with

professors, employers, and graduate school admissions

committees.

BUILD YOUR PORTFOLIO

1. Proﬁle

Your proﬁle is the ﬁrst area referred users, such

as employers, will see when entering your Career

Portfolio. The proﬁle section gives you the opportunity

to make a strong ﬁrst impression. You can highlight

items, such as your background and goals, or write

a cover letter directed at an individual viewer. The

proﬁle can be personalized to ﬁt your needs, allowing

you to summarize your strengths and qualiﬁcations.

Suggested proﬁle headings might include “Education,”

“Background,” or “Research Interests.”

Click “Add a New Proﬁle” in the Proﬁle section of the

portfolio to begin!

2. Résumé or CV

Your résumé or CV is an important piece of your

Career Portfolio because it documents your

qualiﬁcations for a position. Speak to a career advisor

for more information on how to write a résumé or and

CV.

Your résumé/CV is critical to your future success, so

make sure you have it reviewed by a career advisor,

friend, or professor for suggestions and to check for

any possible mistakes. Remember that your résumé/

CV is a marketing tool and should present a positive

image of your experiences and abilities.

Click “Add a New Résumé/CV” under the Résumé/

CV section of the portfolio to name and upload your

résumé/CV document.

NOTE: You can include more than 1 version of your CV.

3. Skills Matrix

Embedded in the Career Portfolio is a list of career

and life skills. These are skills that employers who

hire FSU students and alumni value and look for in

potential candidates. They include:

• Career & Life Management

• Communication

• Creativity

• Critical Thinking

• Global/Intercultural Fluency

• Leadership

• Professionalism/Work Ethic

• Research/Project Development

• Social Responsibility

• Teamwork

• Technical/Scientiﬁc

You can add additional skill categories to emphasize

areas of importance in your job search. To make a

good impression, it is up to you to prove that you have

developed these general skills, as well as speciﬁc

skills needed in your career ﬁeld.

Through the skills matrix in the Career Portfolio,

you can reﬂect on how you have developed speciﬁc

skills through a variety of experiences including

jobs/internships, courses, service/volunteer work,

membership/activities, and other interest or life

experiences.

Documenting your skills provides evidence of the

learning obtained in your academic program and also

enables you to articulate your skills more eectively

during an interview. You should continue to update

your skills matrix each semester with any new skills

obtain or enhanced through additional experience.

Click “Add a New Skill” in the Skills section of the

portfolio to begin documenting your skills and

experiences.

4. References

References are an important part of your Career

Portfolio. References may include faculty, advisors,

employers, and others in your life who can speak

to your qualiﬁcations. For undergraduate students,

these are people you have developed relationships

with who can speak about your skills, abilities, and/or

background in a positive light. For graduate students,

these are often those with whom you have worked

most closely in your academic studies: your major

professor, supervisory committee members, your lab

director, your teaching supervisor, and/or other well-

known scholars/professionals who are highly familiar

with your work.

Start developing your references early! Remember to

always verify the accuracy and appropriateness of the

reference information with each of your references.

Also, make sure your references are willing to have

their information available online.

Keep your references informed about your goals

and activities when you are actively pursuing career

options and provide them with your résumé. This helps

them to provide a better recommendation for you

when asked.

Click “Add a New Reference” in the Reference section

of the portfolio to add contact information for people

who know you well.

5. Artifacts and Examples

Using the Career Portfolio, you can upload digital

artifacts to provide evidence of your work and to

support your skills and experiences. Artifacts can help

you stand out from other candidates and may take the

form of:

• Research or thesis papers

• Audio or video recordings of a lecture, performance

or composition

• Speeches

• PowerPoint presentations

• Spreadsheets

• Databases

• Scans of artwork or photography

• Class assignments converted to digital format

You can show potential internship sponsors,

employers, and grad schools that you have experience

by adding artifacts and examples to your Career

Portfolio. This section will allow you to show oﬀ actual

samples of your work on the web, including class

projects, research papers, course assignments, etc.

Whether you upload photographs you have taken or

a PowerPoint presentation you have created, your

artifacts and examples will help you stand out from

other candidates.

Click “Add a New Artifact” in the Artifacts section of

the portfolio to add examples of your experiences.

Showcasing samples of the work you have

accomplished will help your Career Portfolio stand

out when presenting yourself to employers and other

referred users!

SHARE YOUR PORTFOLIO

The Share section allows you to share the portfolio with

others by creating access keys, sending your portfolio,

getting a shareable link, and viewing access details.

• Create access keys (passwords), which grant

access to a particular showcase portfolio. You

can create as many access keys as you wish for

each of your portfolios. You may want to create

diﬀerent access keys for each person to whom you

will be granting access. For example, if you are a

graduate student applying for a faculty position at

three diﬀerent universities, you may want to have a

diﬀerent access key for each.

• The Send Portfolio feature allows you to email

a referred user (anyone you choose) with

instructions on how to view your portfolio.

• The Get Shareable Link feature generates a link

directly to your particular showcase portfolio. You

can post this link directly on your résumé or on your

LinkedIn proﬁle!

• View Access Details provides information about

when each access key is used. It shows the date,

time, and number of times each access key is used

for a speciﬁc portfolio. This is a great way to see if

the person you referred to view your portfolio has

actually viewed it, but only if you give each potential

viewer a unique access key!

MARKET YOURSELF

Your portfolio is a way to market your professional

and academic qualiﬁcations to graduate schools and

employers. The Career Portfolio allows you to have

unlimited diﬀerent versions of a “showcase portfolio,” so

you may choose to have separate portfolios.

1. Name Your Portfolio: The Options section allows

you to name your Career Portfolio. Example portfolio

names can include “Job Search Portfolio” or “Grad

School Portfolio.” The names you choose should

reflect the information you include in each portfolio.

2. Customize Your Portfolio: The Options section

is also where you will select the items you want

to make viewable for this particular showcase

portfolio. Other items you can make viewable are

your unoﬃcial academic transcript, unoﬃcial service

transcript, conﬁdentiality statement, and an email

address.

3. View Your Portfolio: The Preview section lets you

view your portfolio the way it will appear to referred

users. You can also download your portfolio as a

PDF document. Documents such as your CV and

Artifacts are not included in the downloaded PDF. Be

sure your portfolio is free of spelling and grammar

errors before you give others access!

850-644-6431 • career.fsu.edu/portfolio • @fsucareercenter • #NolesWithGoals