Portfolio

["Marilyn Baldwin (mlbb -at- capgroup -dot- com)" <Marilyn_Baldwin -at- CAPGROUP -dot- COM>]

Rose Katz wrote:
  >
  >Does anyone know who the work you did for a company belongs to.
  >i.e. Can you take a sample of the work you did for a company and
  >include it in your portfolio?

This was discussed extensively on the list a while ago, Rose, so you might
want to check the archives for the many thoughtful responses then.

As I'm sure you understand, the one thing you want to be sure to walk away
with is a reputation for professionalism and absolute integrity.
Everything you've done for your current company - all the work you think of
as "yours" - belongs to them.  They paid you for it, they own it.

However, unless you worked on classified or sensitive material, or stuff
that could give a competitor an insight or an advantage, most companies are
very understanding about your need to show samples of your work to
potential future employers.  I would always err on the side of
scrupulousness here - ask permission, show your boss the intended samples
(with company name and any proprietary information already deleted if
necessary/requested/common sense tells you it should be).  If you can't
remember ever signing anything about confidentiality, don't trust your
recollection.  You probably signed so much stuff with HR that you could
have forgotten - so double-check to be sure.

Just listing product skills/expertise and describing the wide variety of
materials you worked on wouldn't cut it with most places.  Your portfolio
gives prospective employers a chance to ask questions about the samples,
your preferred work mode, your understanding of the job requirments, etc.
The samples serve as a kind of jumping-off point - "Who decided on this
particular format for this job?"  "How did you create such a comprehensive
index?"  "Why did the company choose a hardcopy user manual when this is a
web-based application?"  "How did you get the information from the SMEs,
and how much latitude did you have to alter format and content?"

Work samples also allow a nice segue into the typical "Tell me about a
project that didn't go very well - what went wrong, and how did you handle
your part of it?" type of questions.  Or YOU can use your samples to
volunteer information that allows you to present yourself in a good light
"Now this manual was really a toughie - I was included in very late, the
requirements were murky at best, and the customers had never worked with a
tech writer before, so I..."

I think I remember someone in the prior discussion suggesting that in some
cases it might be necessary for you to use a format you've used before, but
material all of your own making, so as not to violate any confidentiality,
divulge trade secrets, and so on.  If all the contents of an operations
guide or a help system are classified - so that you can't show even a table
of contents or a sample screen - then you have to find alternative ways to
show a prospective employer what you can do.

That person (or group of persons, if they do team interviewing) will likely
have a sense about you after an interview anyway, no matter how impressive
your portfolio is, and how many blow-'em-away samples you show them.  Every
company has a sense (or should have, if it knows itself well) of what KIND
of person they're after - what mix of chutzpah and humility, solid
knowledge and willingness to learn, appropriate concern for how one is
perceived and 12th-person-on-the-jury individuality will FIT in a
particular place.  I think interviews are as much for that purpose as for
seeing samples of what you say you've done.

Sure, your porfolio matters.  But YOU matter, too.  There've been many
tales on this list recently of how people got into the profession - some
aimed there, some just kind of landed there.  Whatever your situation, best
of luck to you, Rose.

- Marilyn Baldwin (mlbb -at- capgroup -dot- com)


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