What to include in your portfolio

Future internship companies and employers are going to want to see examples of your work, which means that it’s never too early to start thinking about what you should include in your portfolio.

There are many sites these days that will allow you to set up a site for free. As I am writing this, some of the popular platforms include Wix.com and WordPress, and others, like Squarespace will provide a free trial before you need to pay for the full version of the site.

Now, what to include? Start out by getting together all the pieces you might want to include in your portfolio, including clips, ad campaigns, graphic design work, writing samples, certificates of achievement and accomplishment, and anything else that demonstrates a skill that you would want a potential employer to take note of.

Once you have compiled your work, cull out pieces you want to showcase in your portfolio. To decide what to include, look at the creativity, accuracy and range of skills used to create the piece.

You will also want to use industry-specific criteria to select pieces. This means that advertising students will want to include campaigns; public relations student should have press releases and writing samples; journalism students will highlight newswriting and interviewing skills; graphics and photography students will aim to showcase creativity, artistry and layout/positioning, etc.

Including classwork is ok if the assignments demonstrate skills a potential employer is looking for. However, everything in your portfolio should be a “clean” version – updated, no typos, the finalized piece.

In short, your portfolio should showcase your versatility and your best examples of your work.