Who will be the persons reviewing your e-portfolio?

Only You?

Your initial e-portfolio audience might be only be you. However, as you collect more evidence, and have included commentary about this evidence, you will want to share it with people close to you that can give you feedback. This might start out being your friends and/or parents.

Faculty/Advisors?

Faculty, advisors, counselors or other mentors can give you feedback to help you see connections between your experiences and potential opportunities in your program. You want to make sure they see evidence about your previous experience. Just as important, you want to show them what your interests are, what you would like to become involved in, the opportunities you are seeking.

Share your accomplishments and interests in the spirit of "wanting to get the most" from your learning experiences by including honest and convincing self-assessment. Showing off or trying to impress faculty is missing the point and can serve to devalue your efforts.

What evidence would make the most sense to share? What evidence do you think would be important for your advisors to see? Think of your audience and the role they will play in reviewing your e-portfolio to help you. What kind of information will help them help you?

Potential Employer?

The target audience here is a potential employer or graduate school program. Depending on the job, internship or program you are applying for, the organization will be looking for specific things. Keep this in mind. Sometimes it will be possible to emphasize certain aspects of your e-portfolio to stress specific strengths or skills that the position may require.

Remember, this is the same for both your resume and your cover letter. Some people send the same resume to every job they apply for. If the employer is looking for something specific, make sure you stress that you have that specific skill in your resume and cover letter. In any case, schedule an appointment with Career Services counselor and talk with them about your purpose and how you are going about your job search. They can review your resume, cover letter and e-portfolio and give you lots of advice to help give you that edge!

Critically evaluate what pieces of evidence you plan to include in your e-portfolio. Sometimes evidence that were created for a course or for recreation might be quickly revised to better fit the skills/abilities that your reviewer is looking for. Just because you have one particular piece of work that you like, doesn't mean that you should automatically include it in the portfolio. Try and determine what pieces of work you have done will most closely fit with the decision you are trying to make or the position your are applying for, in terms of style, content, design, etc.