Why You Should Have A Professional Portfolio
If you’re looking to start a career in broadcasting, video, audio or multimedia production, it’s important to create a professional online portfolio to share with prospective employers. While a good resume and cover letter are always helpful, words are simply not enough to showcase your talent, skills, and creativity. A digital portfolio highlights your best video or audio clips and can help generate excitement, set yourself apart from the competition, and make employers remember you. Here is why you should a professional portfolio to help you land the job of your dreams.
It shows a range of capabilities.
You want your portfolio to demonstrate that you can handle different types of work, formats, genres, etc. Video producers may want to show commercials, PSAs, music videos or news clips to show breadth of experience. Audio engineers may want to show experience recording on-location sounds, such as breaking news stories and live events, as well as demonstrating their editing and mixing capabilities post production, utilizing sound effects, dialogue, background music, and more.
It highlights your best work.
While you want to show off your capabilities, you still have to keep in mind that most employers will only spend a couple minutes looking at your portfolio. Choose the best examples that you can find, limit them in number, and keep clips short and impactful. If you have produced a number of longer videos, pull short clips from each and compile them into a highlight reel. A good highlight reel can act as a commercial for you – keep it fast-paced, entertaining, and fun. You can even post it to social media where it might catch an employer’s eye.
It’s easy to share.
There are a number of online platforms that make it easy to create your own digital portfolio; you can even build an audio or video portfolio on YouTube. Once you’ve chosen the platform that you think best shows off your work, have uploaded your high-quality clips, and written brief descriptions of each, you’ll have a URL that’s easy to share. Add that link to your resume, your email signature, your social media accounts, and use it to help promote yourself during your job search. If you create a truly outstanding portfolio, people will take notice and forward it along.
It can grow with you.
It’s great to think that building a portfolio can help you land a job, but it’s also a dynamic tool that you should keep updated throughout your career. As you gain new and different experiences in the audio or video industry, add them to your portfolio, or remove items that seem outdated or no longer reflect your best work. Then, if you ever go to change jobs, ask for a promotion, or are trying to capture new business, you’ll have your latest and greatest work ready to show.
If you’re passionate about pursuing a career in broadcasting, video, audio or multimedia production, the International College of Broadcasting can provide you with the expert training you need to get started. Check out our cutting-edge programs in Broadcasting, Video Production and Audio Engineering, and Multimedia Production & Broadcasting and get ready to take your talents to the next level. To learn more, schedule a tour of our campus or contact us today!