Portfolio?

I've got an interview coming up, and I was wondering if you any of you have taken a portfolio along with you?

It would basically be:

Resume/Intro Letter
Letters of Recommendation
Quick synapsis of a few completed projects (network scripts/projects, server setup etc)

What do you guys think?

I'm looking at taking one to leave with the interviewers.. What do you guys think?

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Comments

astorrs

I will usually bring this to an in person interview. I would leave the first two items (resume/cover/recommendations/testimonials, and if approriate offer to show them the portfolio but I wouldn't leave them a copy of that.

Hyper-Me

I wouldn't go terribly specific on the projects completed. A company may not want to hire you if they think you will do the same to them and reveal details about their configurations to the next hiring personnel that will listen.

OoteR

Hyper-Me wrote: »

I wouldn't go terribly specific on the projects completed. A company may not want to hire you if they think you will do the same to them and reveal details about their configurations to the next hiring personnel that will listen.

I'm looking at private sector currently, but that is probably some damn good advice I wouldn't have thought of.

Claymoore

I brought along a portfolio when I interviewed for my current position. It had my cover letter, resume, vendor cert transcripts, examples of documentation I wrote and a flash drive with documentation and presentations I delivered. A bit overkill perhaps, but I walked into the interview with the attitude that I was coming to claim my job and not just ask for a position. The job was a perfect fit and I wasn't going to let someone else take what I thought should be mine. I'm not sure if our recruiter even looked through everything I brought, but I got the job.

mohcom

Wouldn't a virtual/online portfolio work better? A personal website with a domain name of firstname-lastname.com would look good, wouldn't it? I know that if you attend some tech-related confrence this would be the way to go to show potential employers, but not sure how effective it is during one-on-one job interviews, etc.

eMeS

OoteR wrote: »

I've got an interview coming up, and I was wondering if you any of you have taken a portfolio along with you?

It would basically be:

Resume/Intro Letter
Letters of Recommendation
Quick synapsis of a few completed projects (network scripts/projects, server setup etc)

What do you guys think?

I'm looking at taking one to leave with the interviewers.. What do you guys think?

This is a good idea. I would highly recommend having something such as this that you put in front of your potential employers/clients.

We have samples of various pieces of work ready to go. Customers tend to like it when you have it ready and you don't have to take a day or two to work on it and get it to them. More often than not, just having this when it is requested is a big help to earning new business. In fact, we just picked up a significant amount of work because we had a sample of what the end product would look like, as compared to the competition who didn't.

It doesn't have to be a website either. In fact, we really don't use our website for much of anything. This seems odd, but what I've found is that people tend to like a physical product that they can hold and inspect. We put a ton of money into designing and producing these things. My advice, spend the money on nicely produced physical copies.

Personally I think this will change as more younger people grow into positions of authority in organizations, however, the current generation of leadership in most organizations is still accustomed to working with physical products....

OoteR wrote: »

Quick synapsis of a few completed projects

This isn't important for an Internet forum, and I'm sure everyone who read your post understood, but I would be careful how you choose to title this part of your resume or portfolio...

synapsis = a pairing or joining together
synopsis = a summary

If you were say applying for a job at a hospital and used the word "synapsis" you might be in for an unpleasant surprise.

Don't underestimate the number of people who will either 1) not interview you, or 2) screw with you about mistakes on your resume/sales literature....The word "summary" will be more easily understood.

MS

chmorin

When in doubt, bring it. You can never be too prepared for an interview.