Whether you are a designer, a developer, a marketer, a student or anything in between - in today's creative job market every differentiator will count towards getting the job. Gone are the days of being able to talk over your future employer's head, just showing the latest deliverable you are working on, even worse showing nothing at all. Welcome instead to a world where your work is being measured not by what you say it was, but by what it really was. This workshop was developed for General Assembly in NYC. It is meant to be run in 90 minutes.

1. Everyone needs
a portfolio
by Abby_The_IA

4. The best
Portfolios...
1. Show pride, not Just proof
2. tell a story, not a catalog
3. illustrate Process, Not just passion

5. Step 1: Define Your
Chronology
Volunteered Volunteered
College First Job Promotion Second Job Third Job
Ran Marathon Taught
Now begins 7 minutes of silence...
Break the timeline of your story in chunks of
context and start layering on important details.
Don’t forget: Personal Achievement, Volunteerism,
education, promotions etc.

8. Step 2: Tell Your Story +
Highlight interest
Volunteered Volunteered
College First Job Promotion Second Job Third Job
Ran Marathon Taught
Each person has 5 minutes to tell their story. The rest
of the team will take notes on that persons story.
5 minutes will then be given for the team to give them
notes on what they found the most interesting and why.

9. Abby The IA:
Career Timeline Executive Producer for:
IA Summit IDEA IA Summit
2010 2010 2010
Boston New Hampshire Chicago New York City
Attended First job as an Design Lead Started information Senior UX Director of Managing Consultant
Northeastern Information Architect Information Architect architecture Planner Strategic Partner, & Teacher
Bachelors in @ EMC Microsoft on innnovation team practice in strategic at Planning + UX at TUG
Graphic Practice. for Fidelity Investments healthcare agency. DraftFCB Draftfcb
Design
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Sc Am M Ba Th St Pr Kr Pr Sh J S JS He
ho er ed nk e ra
te
ice af ism ar ELL har TO rm
ol ica ica of Ha x wa t Fo ac pi
e -O pi
e R an
of n re Am rtf Pa te od ol -L - F .co Pe M
Vi So Pi or rtn rh s- or iq ac m rs ille
su cie lo er d ou O -M ui on r
al tP ica In er se n d eb
Ar ty ro su s ar Pe oo as
of gr -T ra -H Co an ke
ts
Tr am al nc R op d O tin nc k
-C ai en e Se er ffl g il L
on ni -C tM -H lf s i Si au
te ng al an R Se - M ne E te nc
nt -I lC ag Se rv Re h
M nt en em lf ice arke nga de
an ra te Se tin ge sig
ag ne rA en rv Ap m
em tS tA ice pl g en n
pp ica Si
en ys lic pp Ap te t
Re Pro
Project tS te at lic tio
m io at pl n de gr
ys n io ica
sig am
Highlights te n tio
m n n
4

10. Step 3: Who are you?
What is common about what
is interesting in your story?
Take 5 minutes of silence to come up with
short, job title-less description of yourself.
Write each attempt on a note card.
Then quickly go around and share these for
reaction from your team.

11. About me:
I make the
unclear,
clear.

12. Next Steps
toward a
great
portfolio

14. Decide what
you should
(and can)
show

15. Show Process

16. Show Your
Deliverables

17. Show The Story

18. Sharpie.com
Sharpie.com
About this effort:
Lead in redesign that brought
together Sharpie’s very popular
social community properties with
the more standard catalog
functionality
Good Example of:
Results: Sharpie was written up in
the NY times on site launch day.
They also received the TED Ads
Worth Spreading Award in 2012.
12
Show The Result

19. Prismacolor.com | Summer 2009
Prismacolor.com
About this effort:
Lead on full site redesign including
a rich social community of artists
sharing their work online.
Good Example of:
Results: Redesign resulted in a
400% improvement in
engagement as measured
through site traffic, time on site
and uploads, comments and
views of the member gallery.
7
If ever possible,
Show The Numbers

24. Good
Examples

25. http://www.ralphmillard.com/

26. http://dbushell.com/

27. http://www.chrislackey.com/

28. http://barthendrix.com/

29. Before you go..
Trade Cards

30. thank you!
Twitter: @Abby_The_IA
Email: abbycovert@gmail.com
Website: www.AbbytheIA.com
Slides: Slideshare.com/abbycovert