How to Put Your Work Samples Online

How to Put Your Work Samples Online How to Put Your Work Samples Online 6Over the course of your career, you’ve amassed quite a collection of work samples. Now, what to do with them? Having an online portfolio of your previous work, accolades, and other awards is a smart and strategic move, particularly if you’re looking to find a new position. So gather up all of your pieces and put your work samples online with the help of these ideas. Organize your work. Depending on the focus of your job search, consider how to divide or categorize your work samples to make it easier for potential employers to peruse and understand. Start by creating a list of all your work samples, and then rank them by most impressive or most important for employers to see. If you have a lot of really spectacular work, you can then continue to sort your list by various categories. For example, if youre a graphic designer looking for design jobs with nonprofit organizations, youll want to display any previous nonprofit work first, followed by your other work. Learn to edit your work. Let’s say you have over 100 articles that you’ve written, and you absolutely, positively love each and every one of them. While it’s easy to fall in love with your work, you’ll really need to have a discerning eye when choosing what will make the cut- and what won’t. That’s where organizing and categorizing your work comes into play. The more organized your work samples are, the more youll be able to display to a potential employer without overwhelming them. Publish your work. LinkedIn is a must for any job seeker to post work samples. About.me is also a good option for a sleek, easy, simple look. Pinterest can even be a good choice if you want to devote your Pinterest page to your work portfolio. And Contently is a solid (and free!) option for writers. If you want to create your own custom web page for your work samples, its easy and free to create a blog with Blogger.com or WordPress, both of which offer a lot of really nice templates and designs. Provide a context. It’s important that when you post your work samples online you provide an explanation about each one. After all, when employers see your work samples, theyll need some context to understand each of them and how it relates to the job you’re applying for. But don’t feel that you have to give a long-winded soliloquy for each sample. Simply offer a brief explanation of each work sample so that employers can better understand how your previous work can benefit them should they hire you. When you’re job searching, you’ll need to pull out all the stops- and your previous work samples- in order to position yourself ahead of the other job candidates. So select the work that best represents your skills, education, and experience, and sample your way to a successful new job! Readers, do you have your work samples onlineor in the bottom of your closet? Let us know in the comments below!