One Way to Stand Out and Get That Job
This is a guest post by Brian Ciampa who is a data warehouse developer in the healthcare industry. You can follow his blog entitled Valuable Data which is geared toward helping those who want to enter that industry gain the skills to do so. Be sure to follow him on twitter.
When my wife (then my fiancée) and I were entrenched in planning our wedding several years ago we visited several different vendors for everything from the cake to the tuxedos to the location…and more. Other than the fact that they were all frequented by wedding planners, these vendors had little in common.
For example, a cake decorator is in a very different industry than a store that rents tuxedos. However, as time has passed I have noticed a common theme that ran through all of them as we conducted that search. As we approached each one, we asked for, and were provided, samples of their work. The photographer had some of his best photographs on display. The cake decorator had pictures and samples of their best cakes. There seemed to be a common belief among most vendors in this arena:
In order to impress clients, a portfolio of some sort is needed.
When I think about the traditional methods of job seeking in technical industries (I work in the IT industry), I have to stop and reflect. My experience with job seeking in this arena has usually consisted of looking for an open position, submitting a resume, attending the interview, answering the interview questions, and hoping that something in that entire process impressed them enough to make me a good offer.
However, somebody in an artistic area, such as a photographer, is expected to show concrete examples of what he can do before jobs (freelance or otherwise) are offered. In my opinion, the difference is this: I am asking for a job…the artist is putting his value on display.
One of the challenges for those of us in technical arenas is that aside from some visual areas like web design, technical professionals typically build or support infrastructure in the back-end. So, to make a comparison to home building, the technical professionals would be synonymous with those installing the plumbing as opposed to those laying the carpet. The nature of that work is not very visual.
However, what if you could market that skill in a visual way, which would allow you to put your value on display? A potential employer could actually see (not just discuss) what you have to offer. The goal of every job seeker is to stand out in the crowd. When I approach an organization and try to sell my services, something about me needs to impress them enough so that they will give me a chance. Providing a web-based portfolio may be just the item needed to differentiate me from the rest of the crowd.
I work in an area called data warehousing, meaning that I work with large databases that function behind websites and other applications. In other words, my work is often felt but not seen by a customer. However, I recently challenged myself to better market myself in a visual way and was impressed with what I was able to accomplish using the technology of today. My portfolio is here. This process has stretched my imagination so that I now see that those of us in technical arenas can borrow some of the marketing concepts from our artistic peers and market ourselves in a visual way. There is no cut-and-dry template for a portfolio. It basically needs to quickly accomplish three things…
Visually display my skill set
Communicate the passion that I have in a given area
Show the potential employer or customer how this skill can profit him
One of the best parts is that this does not have to be an expensive process. I incurred no monetary expenses when building mine. It only “cost” me some time and creativity…and I learned a lot along the way.
How can you use your creativity to build a portfolio designed to market a skill set that is not very visual?
