Professional Portfolio

cgrimaldo

I have a question for all you experts here on this great forum. Especially to all you people that are out there in the field. Before I ask you, let me give you a bit of background so you understand why I'm asking the question.

I have been in the I/T field for almost 4 years now. I spent 18 months doing helpdesk and that was a great experience. I did level one and two support for a major ISP. That also included stints working with business class dsl systems and working on the backend side of it with vendors.

Currently, I have spent the last few years as an I/T tech for a hospital. We are a remote facility of a larger corporation with our Data Center being in Chicago. I started there doing normal "tech" things. That included troubleshooting any local network issues, logon issues, connectivity issues, etc. I busted ass doing all I/T work and also did anything I/T related on the admin side, admin being the business side (not the good kind..). I used my people skills I have developed in sales to help me get chosen to work with I/T management to spearhead I/T projects and be their contact when we deal with outside entities. I have also volunteered our hospital to be a guinea pig for any projects that our Systems Manager wants to make happen on the citrix side, etc.

Suffice to say, my role has developed at the hospital to the point now where I'm signing invoices and helping plan the I/T budget for the hospital. I have been fortunate to always have my corporate support to fall back on and help me along the way.

So, this finally brings me to my question. I'm currently pursuing my Infrastructure Assurance degree from UTSA (masters to come afterwards) and in a few years I'll be armed with my B.A., solid references and not only hands-on I/T work but the business side and project management side of things.

I would like to hear from you guys what the best way is to keep track of all this. You know, like a portfolio. I'm sure there are MS tools I can use like OneNote or something or do something else basic but, is there anything else out there that you guys are using? Please let me know what you think.

P.S. Sorry for the long post!!!

cgrimaldo

Anyone?

sprkymrk

I simply keep track of my major accomplishments in a text file or word document with bullet points. I summarize everything for the past year in a paragraph or two that my boss can put on my annual performance review to justify a nice raise. I also update my resume yearly with certifications, job title, responsibilities and major accomplishments. I do it all in Word and keep hard copies in a folder and backups of the digital copies. That's really about it. Pretty low-tech.

Someone like a graphic artist might keep a portfolio of his/her better works of art. A web designer would keep links to all the sites he created. I have seen both of these kinds done with a web site. I suppose a personal website that reads like a resume or brochure of your work might be an idea.

Sorry for the vague answer, maybe it will spur someone else's thoughts on the subject.

ajs1976

I had a portfolio at one time. It included a section for certificates and score reports for certification exams, another for project summaries, and one for annual reviews.

cgrimaldo

Thanks guys. Keep em' coming!