PR portfolios mini-lecture

One of the most popular posts on the old Teaching PR was on constructing a public relations portfolio. A Canadian student recently contacted me asking for more information (I won't name her because I didn't think to ask permission). Rather than writing another post, I promised her a podcast of my mini-lecture in my PR Campaigns class. Here it is -- and, as I spoke, I referred to the slide numbers of this slideshow, so you can follow along. I have to confess that I was not in peak form, and there are some weird pauses when I stopped to let students finish writing, but hopefully the information will be helpful.

Comments

[Stephanie]

As somebody who does a lot of interviews with recent and soon-to-be grads, there are a couple points here that strike me as the most important:

"Try to include a variety of materials..." - In an agency setting, I think this point can't be emphasized enough. We're looking for candidates who can balance and successfully execute against a number of topics (in the form of different accounts, or different projects for the same account). Nearly every candidate who has taken a Campaigns class will make the mistake of filling their portfolio with the materials only from that one campaign. By going that route, you are chancing that I'll gloss over the one piece you want me to look at most...

"Most employers just skim, so you should highlight what's important." - Similar to my point above, you don't want your prospective employer to miss your strongest stuff. I'm more likely to remember a portfolio that includes two really well done items than I am to remember a binder filled with just stuff.

The other thing I'd add is to know your crowd. For example, I see a lot of brochures in portfolios, and plenty of candidates who are eager to tell me how many they've made, and for what event / association. While I can certainly appreciate the effort, its not of interest to me. Why? Because making brochures is not something any of our clients would have us do. Read about your potential employer and map your portfolio to them. If your brochure is your strongest deliverable, think about how it might relate to what we do (if you wrote the copy for the brochure, emphasize that!).

I've also been seeing an increasing number of electronic portfolios (like those from VisualCV), which I think will ultimately become the norm...

[Karen Russell]

Stephanie, thanks for the input. My students always believe the pros just a little bit more than they believe me. (But not, of course, when you were my student.) ;)