26.07.2016
1) This portfolio is prepared by a job candidate, who is aimed at changing his/her major and now is looking for a new job.
2) The portfolio is created for possible Human Resources managers in psychology centers and/or in clinics with the department of psychology, who are looking for a new specialist.
3) The portfolio includes: the memoir essay with the short story of the candidate’s professional and personal life and the explanations, how different life events and peculiarities have influenced the person’s life, skills, major choice, and other things; the brochure speaking about the features of a psychologist’s work (requirements, prospects, advantages); the reflective essay, where the candidate enlists the advantages of psychology as a new major and career prospects and opportunities, which have persuaded the author to give up the fashion major; two job advertisements, about a clinical psychologist in Wabash Valley and a Sales Representative, which is juxtaposed to the previous one and contains many demerits and disadvantages of sales.
4) My work on the portfolio included several steps. First of all, I devoted some time to the selection of content, which involved thorough study of much material and separation the most necessary information from useless one, and looking for pictures and graphics, which will support my ideas. Moreover, I spent some time on studying and researching the carbonnade. After the draft and the final work were written, I had it reviewed by my instructor and my peers. Their analysis and critics helped me to correct my mistakes and revise some moments in the work. After I have introduced the necessary changes, I have double-checked the work myself and wrote the reflection of the work done.
5) Week 1. I have devoted the first week to thorough analysis and data collection of information, which will be necessary for the portfolio. First of all, I have analyzed many other portfolios from the same work area (psychology), spending on it 2-3 days, and written down the most interesting and useful ideas which I would use in my own work. Then I studied the vacancies in different resources (the Internet, magazines, newspapers, TV, etc.) and prepared a list of the most highly sought skills and talents, as well the most popular requirements and recommendations – they were further used in my personal essays and even memoirs, in order to show that I perfectly suit the position in all aspects.
6) The portfolio will be distributed among possible job agencies and HR departments through e-mails, website forms, and maybe by ordinary mail. I suppose it is better to send the portfolio as soon as it is ready and you are ready to start looking for a new job, since good positions are very rare and won’t wait for you for a long time.
7) I would evaluate the portfolios by two main criteria: the appearance and total impression from the first sight and the content of the portfolio, evaluated after thorough reading and analysis of a person. Thus, the first criterion includes many aspects, like the graphics, the font, the amount of the text, the photo of the person, the creativity, etc. The second criterion contains such things as the professional and personal skills, the achievements, the person’s life (family, children, age, and gender), the arguments he/she provides for himself/herself, etc. Moreover, I believe that each portfolio should be evaluated by a few people, at least two, in order to exclude the subjective approach and prejudices. However, this option is hard to accomplish nowadays, and very much depends on one person.
8) The work has a number of advantages worth mentioning and disadvantages, which need consideration and correction. As for the reflective essay, the author shared the personal story, which is a strong argument, as one of the main reasons for choosing psychology as the major. However, this aspect shouldn’t be the only ground for changing career, especially if it is devoted to somebody else. The author evaluates the field of psychology from different perspectives and estimates the possible future of a psychologist from the financial viewpoint as well. As for the memoir essay, the author managed to speak about his/her personal life and current position and at the same time mention his/her strong and weak features, which would be helpful for the new major. As far as I am concerned, mentioning weaknesses is a very strong point, since it presupposes critical thinking and objective approach to oneself, which is a significant trait for any specialist, especially the one working with emotions. The brochure includes photos and little, although sufficient, information about the profession of a psychologist. The text is very well organized and has a very clear structure. The brochure can be surely called a strong point in the portfolio. The job advertisements are also quite strong; besides, it was a good idea to include the job advertisement of a contrasting specialization, not connected to psychology, which helps to compare two options and assess the peculiarities of both. However, the second advertisement of sales manager is far from ideal, it includes pros and cons, which is not typical of job advertisements. I suppose, it should be elaborated.
I would work on the job advertisements more and I would once again check and possibly change the memoir essay.
It was interesting to learn how to write the memoir and the reflective essay, which was a new experience for me. Looking at the previous paper of the same work, I would say that the new one is much better organized and represents a certain progress in complying portfolios for jobs. I got stuck when I was writing the memoir essay, since it is not very easy to connect your personal story with your career aspirations. One skill I couldn’t perform but now I can is the skill of distributing arguments in the text and making them a coherent part of the work. From viewing this piece I learnt that every case of looking for a new job and preparing any application anywhere requires profound work and analysis. Even though your employer doesn’t demand a full portfolio with all these documents, preparing such work would be very useful for you, especially of you are only beginning your work in this field.
