Experience vs. potential

How to create a portfolio (even when you don't have tonnes of experience)

Hello! ??

How are you doing?

Last week, I talked through portfolios at a high level - what they are, why you need one, and what to include. This week, we're going to dive deeper into the two types of content that should make up your portfolio: experience and potential pieces.

Let's get stuck in, shall we?

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Experience vs. potential

Just to refresh your memory, experience pieces are the things you've actually done in paid roles or freelance work - your campaigns, social content, landing pages, etc. Potential pieces are hypothetical ideas that show what you could do if given the chance.

When it comes to building your portfolio though, it’s important to understand the difference between the two - and most importantly - what to do when you need more potential pieces to fill in the experience blanks.

Choose Your Experience Wisely

When you're putting together your portfolio, it's tempting to throw in everything you've ever done.

However, by doing this you’re at risk of a catalogue of work over a carefully curated portfolio. Now I get it, you want to show off all your hard work, but here's the truth: not all experience is relevant experience.

When thinking about your portfolio, you want to first think about where you want to go.

If you want to work in SEO, that incredible email campaign you ran might not be the best use of space. Instead, focus on the time you optimised those landing pages or created that series of blog posts that ranked well.

But what makes a good experience piece? Here are some things to consider:

Impact

Did it move the needle? Whether it's increasing conversions, growing engagement, or driving traffic, numbers talk. If you've got stats, use them (but we'll get to that in a future newsletter about presenting your work).

Relevance

Does it align with where you want to go? If you're gunning for a social media role but all your examples are email marketing, you might want to rethink your selection.

Process

Can you talk through how you approached it? The best portfolio pieces aren't just about the end result - they're about how you got there. Your thinking process is just as valuable as the outcome.

"But What If I Can't Show My Work?"

If you’re reading this and thinking “But I can’t show anything I’ve done!” - it’s okay, and you’re not the first marketer to be in this position.

Case and point? Me and my first marketing role. I worked for a pharmaceutical company. Want to know what I had to show for it? A flu jab poster. And I barely even worked on it.

Sound familiar? If you work in defence, security, pharmaceuticals, or any industry where NDAs are thicker than your strategy documents, you might be thinking "Well, that's me out then."

But take a big deep breath and remember hiring managers get that. If you’ve come from a highly restricted role when it comes to comms, most hiring managers will twig that in your CV.

Make sure you are upfront about why you can't show certain work. A simple line like "Portfolio can be found [link to your portfolio or attach it], excluding work completed under NDAs" says everything you need it to.

Within your CV experience, make sure to:

• Talk about results without showing the actual work
• Describe projects in general terms that won’t break your NDA
• Focus on the skills you developed, even if you can't show the output

The difference between experience and potential

Okay, so we’ve dived in experience. But what do you do if you don’t have tonnes to show? Or none at all?

This is where ‘potential’ pieces come in.

Experience pieces do what they say on the tin: they show off the work you’ve done. Whereas potential pieces show what you could do given the brief or opportunity.

These pieces are ideal for bridging the gap between what you do now, and what you want to do.

For example, one of my lovely mentees works in private security. While she loves her job, she wants to work somewhere that gives her purpose - preferably, a charity.

Now picture this. Mentee applies for a job with The Dog’s Trust, but her portfolio is examples of content she’s created for her private security firm.

As the hiring manager, you’d get an understanding of what she’s done and her capabilities. But you may struggle to bridge the gap between her skillset and why she wants a job in a completely different industry.

Now, when you’re the hiring manager for a brand like The Dog’s Trust, what would you be looking for in a candidate?

• Experience working in the charity sector
• A love for dogs

Now, imagine you’re the hiring manager and the CV they sent in talks about their experience and skill sets, which are transferable to the role but in the wrong sector, but they’ve included a portfolio.

And within that portfolio, they’ve included a potential piece amongst their experience of a campaign for a charity. They may have also created a potential piece for a dog food brand.

You get the jist…

But this is exactly how you can demonstrate your potential, opening hiring managers up to the idea of you as a credible applicant with potential for the role.

Your potential pieces are a secret weapon in your job application process because they allow you to show more of yourself to potential employers than your CV allows. To a hiring manager, they show:

• They show initiative
• They demonstrate creative thinking
• They prove you can tackle different challenges
• They give you something to talk about in interviews
• They set you apart from other candidates

All of these are huge brownie points in my book - and as a hiring manager, I can’t help but favour folks with potential and initiative, and I am sure I am not the only one.

How to create potential pieces

This is where things get really exciting. Potential pieces are your chance to show what you could do if given free rein.

There are two types of potential pieces you should include:

1. The "This is a bit of me!" piece

Remember when we talked about finding what you love? This is where it comes into play.

These pieces should align with your Ikigai - that sweet spot where your skills, passions, and purpose meet.

For example, when I was made redundant during Covid and needed a potential piece for my portfolio, I created a rebrand for Hey Girls, a social enterprise tackling period poverty.

Why? Because I love branding and I'm passionate about gender equality and social impact.

Your "This is a bit of me!" piece should:

• Reflect your values and interests - what brands would you LOVE to work for?
• Showcase your strongest skills - I’m big on brand, so that made sense for me, but what do you want to do full-time?
• Solve a real problem you care about - does your favourite brand need a new website? Do you have a killer idea for their socials?
• Document your process - what thoughts led you to your final piece?

How to find your ‘This is a bit of me!’ piece

Feeling overwhelmed? Start here:

• Look at brands or causes you genuinely love
• Think about problems you wish someone would solve
• Consider industries you're passionate about
• Draw from your personal experiences

And, of course, don’t forget to refer back to your Ikigai and personal SWOT.

2. The “I have transferable skills” piece

This is where you show your range beyond what you love. The idea is that you pick something completely different from your usual wheelhouse to show not only your potential but that you can transfer those skills beyond things you love (after all, we’ve all got bills to pay).

For me, it was a Harry's x CALM collaboration concept. A men's shaving brand teaming up with a mental health charity? Not my typical territory. The idea? A pop-up barber shop where men could have a free shave and chat about their mental health. This showed I could think beyond my comfort zone and tackle different audiences and challenges.

Your "I have transferable skills" piece should:

• Target a different demographic from your usual
• Explore a different industry
• Use different marketing channels
• Solve a different type of problem

These ones are purposefully a little more difficult, but they can make up the smaller pieces in your portfolio.

A note on balance

Like with experience pieces, it can be really tempting to create a catalogue of potential pieces within your portfolio. But remember, there’s a sweet spot to your structure:

- 1-2 hero pieces (deep dives into campaigns or major projects)

- 2-4 highlight pieces (quick wins or smaller ideas)

But here's how to mix experience and potential:

1. If you're starting out:

• 1 hero piece (potential)
• 3-4 smaller potential pieces
• Any relevant experience, even if it's just one piece

2. If you're experienced but changing direction:

• 1 hero piece (experience from current industry)
• 1 hero piece (potential in target industry)
• 2-3 highlight pieces (mix of experience and potential)

3. If you're experienced and staying in your lane:

• 2 hero pieces (experience)
• 2-3 highlight pieces (experience)
• 1 knockout potential piece to show creativity

A note on portfolios as living documents

Remember: your portfolio is a living document. As you create more potential pieces and gain more experience, keep updating it. The best portfolios grow with you!

So while it will be really daunting to get started, know in the future, you’ll have already done 80% of the work when you come to update it.

Next week...

In the next part of this series, we'll be looking at how to structure all these pieces into a portfolio that flows and tells the story of you and your career; how to make it flow, and how to make it an engaging read.

Until then, here's a quick exercise to get you started:

Pick your dream company. What's one problem they're facing? How would you solve it? Spend 15 minutes sketching out an idea. You might just have the start of your first potential piece!

Have a great week, you've got this!

Coral x

Things I am loving or have loved:

Wearing: Boston Birkenstocks - I don’t care it makes me a millennial hipster, they are unreal.

Reading: The Marlowe Murder Club by Robert Thorogood, a lighthearted whodunnit with a few chuckles along the way.

Watching: The new Adidas ads that offer a much-needed softness within the fitness industry - this is how you do branding well!

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About the author of The Marketing Mentor

Hello! I am Coral, a Marketing Director who’s been in marketing for over 10 years, worked at 7 different companies, in 10 different roles, across 7 different industries.

After experiencing career-defining mentoring myself, I am trying to pay it forward as best I can, from 1-2-1s to this newsletter, and everything in between.

When I’m not in my professional headspace, I enjoy cooking and eating in equal measure, getting creative, being outside, and fussing over my incredibly spoilt dog, Bobbi.