Developing an Employment Portfolio

Whether you’re seeking a new job, aiming for a better position, or pursuing your dream career, it's essential to stand out from the competition by showcasing your education, skills, and experience. The candidates who market themselves most effectively secure the jobs. To distinguish yourself from other applicants and demonstrate why you are the best fit for the role, a strong employment portfolio is invaluable.

What is the purpose of an Employment Portfolio?

An Employment Portfolio has many purposes and here are a few to help remind you of its value and importance:

• It keeps related employment documents together
• It makes the process of seeking employment/promotion easier
• It helps psychologically (you don’t have to start from scratch)
• It speeds up accessing employment information

What should your Employment Portfolio contain?

There is no definitive answer to this question or specific rules. Your Employment Portfolio is what you want it to be! Your Employment Portfolio can be a shoe box under the bed or even an e-portfolio.

As a general rule however Employment Portfolios usually have:

• Details of your education/professional qualifications
• Previous employment applications
• Training courses attended/certificates
• CV (up to date)
• Appraisal reports
• Job Descriptions
• Employee Specifications
• Employment Awards e.g. employee of the month
• Interview questions/feedback
• Structured Examples

Maintaining your Employment Portfolio

You will be referring to our Employment Portfolio when you are in the process of seeking employment/promotion.

However, you should also update your Employment Portfolio at appropriate times e.g. after your performance review or having successfully completed a work project.

Any activity that has allowed you to increase your skills, achievements, knowledge or experience should be recorded and kept in your Employment Portfolio.