Help me create a portfolio, quick!

October 31, 2008 1:40 AM

I'm a writer, and I have a job interview on Tuesday afternoon. While I have my work lying around in folders on my PC (some video, some print, some flash, some radio), I haven't organized them in any meaningful, presentable way. How can I organize my work quickly into a decent portfolio that I can burn onto a CD as a leave-behind? Difficulty level - no Flash ability whatsoever, conversant with HTML.
posted by micketymoc to computers & internet (6 comments total)

Set of PDfs with screenshots?
posted by freya_lamb at 3:10 AM on October 31, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Man, the right answer for this is to not use a CD, but to print and bind a small paper book.

Something I have learned the hard way: people take writing much more seriously, even if it's writing of a technology or internet nature, when it's on paper and presented in the way "real writing" appears. There's no point fighting this battle yet. Maybe in 10 more years.

I don't think you have time for this, but if you have a 24 hour print shop nearby that can make something perfect-bound... then instead of thinking about CDs and Flash, I'd stick to your favorite word processor or page layout program. Assemble 8 or 10 very different pieces of writing into one long document, copying the format of a typical book of short stories. Give each one a nice plain introduction page ("I wrote this next piece while working at Halliburton in 2003. My assignment was to make oil sludge sound healthy and nutritious."). Paginate it. Add a table of contents that gives a title and identifies the type of each piece ("Poem, 1997" or "Brochure Ad Copy, 2001"). And then wrap it all in a very boring simple cover like "Mickety Mock: Written Words". A single large wraparound photo of something word-related could be nice. A witty bio of yourself on the back cover would help identify it as a 'resume' sort of document.

Nobody will dig through your CD presentation of words in order to find them, especially if they have to use Flash. It's not as great to give them PDFs that they'll likely either look at on screen (makes you seem less 'real') or print out (extra work for them), which helps them start to link their impression of you with a pile of loose paper.

But put it in the format that'll make them touch it, on the other hand, and you can't lose. At best, more people will then actually read it. At worst, they'll give it the same cursory glances they would have done onscreen, but at least now they have formed a mental impression of you as a "real" writer, which can't be a bad thing.

With only four days, this may be hard. But I thought I should suggest it anyway, in case you really do have enough time, or you have later job applications with less time pressure.
posted by rokusan at 3:53 AM on October 31, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

You'd do better to go with hardcopy. Scan, PDF and take it to Kinko's to get professionally printed and bound. Rest, get confident and go to the interview. Good luck.
posted by watercarrier at 7:03 AM on October 31, 2008

Re the flash - put the work in the same order as the hardcopy and bring that with you for the presentation.
posted by watercarrier at 7:06 AM on October 31, 2008

What kind of work does the job require? For example, if a major part of it is writing for Flash interactives, then you need an online portfolio or CD. But if this is, say, a job writing print copy for a newspaper, then a print portfolio would be fine. Just make sure to focus the portfolio so it emphasizes the work that is similar to what you'll be doing, so they quickly find what they're looking for.
posted by PatoPata at 7:59 AM on October 31, 2008

OK, do what Rokusan said. Make it easy to flip through.

Then, after the interview, in order to prepare for the future, whatever it may hold, go to swish.com or www.oswd.org and find a portfolio template.
posted by jgirl at 11:59 AM on October 31, 2008