Career

How I Updated My Portfolio

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So I’ve been talking a lot about this design portfolio re-do, but being new to blogging, I didn’t realize I need to tell you how I did it. So here’s the how-to. I use Cargo Collective, “…a personal publishing platform aimed at creating accessible tools and a networked context to enhance the exposure of talented individuals on the Internet.” I’m using the “Polaris” template, very spare and clean, much like this blog.

DID THEY UPGRADE THEMSELVES?
I mentioned my portfolio was formerly rather anemic. In my defense, I’ve actually had this portfolio site for about a year or so, and I could swear when I first started using it, it was much more limiting. You were only allowed to post very few things for free before you had to upgrade. So I only posted a few things, more than I thought was the limit, and thought I would just wait to see if they asked me to upgrade. They never did. Then when I went to update it last week, it now says I can have up to 12 “projects” and 100MB of image storage.

IT HELPS TO HAVE PHOTOSHOP
I wanted to add new samples of my web design work first and foremost, since the last ones I did were 2-3 years old. The first thing I did was create templates in Photoshop to drop each kind of media into so they would all be the same size. This keeps the flow from one sample to the next smooth so your images are not “jumping” all over because of size changes from one to the next.

www.cargocollective.com/paulachandesign

www.cargocollective.com/paulachandesign

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Related posts on That Was Then | This Is Wow:

  1. Portfolio Update Completed!
  2. Progress on Upping My Game

Portfolio Update Completed!

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Hooray! My portfolio / LinkedIn update is done! I’m still working on the “branding” thing, but I’m not sure how much the “personality tests” will help. In fact, there’s an article from the New York Times here that says these kinds of tests are basically worthless.

So I’m still a bit stymied for the “branding” thing. Nonetheless, that does not keep me from feeling a huge sense of accomplishment for having done a complete overhaul on my formerly anemic portfolio. I had gotten so far behind on updating it, that the mere thought of how much work it would be was overwhelming. I thanked the person who gave me the wake up call this evening; she will receive the email in the morning.

I spent a week editing the projects and preparing the Photoshop files and uploading them, sometimes several times to get the size of the image just the right to make a good page layout. The flow from one project to the next needed to be right as well, so there was a lot of shuffling the projects around. But now I can feel proud of what’s there, and it will give potential clients a much greater sense of the depth of my work. Yay!

I’ll keep working on the “branding.”

What do you think about the need for everyone and everything to be “branded?” Do share in the comments.

Ciao! Paula

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Related posts on That Was Then | This Is Wow:

  1. How I Updated My Portfolio
  2. Upping My Game
  3. Progress on Upping My Game

Even More Progress!

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Woohoo! I am plugging right along with the portfolio update! And it’s paying off already. I had a phone interview today that went very well. Because I had loaded up so many more samples and organized things so well, I was able to point out specific samples to illustrate my expertise, and walk the interviewer through my concepting process. For the first time in a long time, I felt like I had control of the interview and truly made a good impression.

I have a couple more samples I want to prepare and put up, then onto re-writing my resumé, the final step of what I need. I’ve gone through my design sample folder and organized my files so I can find things easily as well.

I’m trying to get this done in the next day or so, as I’m dying to do another Holiday Fashion post that I’ve done the research for, but haven’t had time to write. It’s coming, I promise!

How are you coming along with any of your personal projects? What are you working on? Do share in the comments.

Ciao! Paula

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Related posts on That Was Then | This Is Wow:

  1. Progress on Upping My Game
  2. How I Updated My Portfolio

Progress on Upping My Game

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So I’m getting there. I’m making progress on Upping My Game. The first thing I’m doing is revamping my portfolio website. I’ve added tons of new samples and have a list for more. It’s taken a while going through so many projects and deciding which are useful and which are not. You can’t (and shouldn’t) put everything up.

It’s not going as quickly as I’d hoped. Part of the problem is creating web-ready images from other formats, and the other part is the website itself. It’s through Cargo Collective, one of those sites where you can upload stuff and hit the ground running to have at least a simple site up fast. But it’s not perfect and it has its limitations.

Several times after uploading an image, I didn’t like it and wanted to change it. But for some reason, no matter how many times I changed and saved the image in Photoshop, it reverted to the original version uploaded. Aaaarrrrgh! It also would not hold a 1 pixel border on some of the images, even though I could clearly see it on the file, and re-saved and re-uploaded it several times. Some kind of glitch in the system. I hope it looks fine tomorrow.

I’ve been working on it for several days now, and I’m getting closer to a stopping point–for now–there’s always new projects to include and old ones to remove. After I get the images up, I need to re-do my resumé and “About” page for the site. Then I’ll re-link everything and re-write some stuff on LinkedIn. I might also have the person responsible who pointed out the need for better representation of my work take another look and also thank her.

What are you working on for self-improvement? Please share in the comments.

Ciao! Paula

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Related posts on That Was Then | This Is Wow:

  1. Upping My Game
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Upping My Game

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Recently, I was told my LinkedIn profile could use some work. So in an effort to improve it, I took several different “personality tests,” all similar to the Myers-Briggs type.

What Type Am I?
I got: ESFJ, ENFP, EIFP, and BEOGD. The most consistent evaluations were the Extrovert and Feeling, with some Intuitive and Perceiving. One considered me to be a “Sentinel” (ESFJ) and another a “Commander” (BEOGD). Then there was the “Spontaneous Idealist” (EIFP), and ENFPs are “idea” and “people” people. From all this, I’m supposed to figure out the best way to write a bio, profile, summary, “mission statement” or, I suppose, an “About” page.

It’s All About Branding
As luck would have it, More magazine has an outstanding feature this month on this very subject, titled “Personal Branding for the Image Impaired” (p.88 — you’re welcome). Yes, we’ve all heard that word for a while now, and I fully admit I’ve been trying my best to ignore it.

But the time has come for me to face it full on, not the least because I’ve started this blog. The exercises are very good and I know in the end I will benefit greatly from it, if only to improve my profile and resumé, and therefore avail myself to more job opportunities (see my post about Freelancing here). Maybe the real reason I hate job interviews is I don’t have my brand together…. I only wish I could add the tagline “New and Improved!” when I’m done (with this iteration).

Branding is the New Black
These days, everyone has a brand, one of the biggest being Kim Kardasian’s booty (pun intended). But say what you will, the girl’s got name recognition, whether you want to know it or not.

If each of us can figure out how to get just a little of that, we could all get further ahead than we think. So here I go. I’ll meet you on the other side.

Please do share tips and experiences in the comments!

Ciao! Paula

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Related posts on That Was Then | This Is Wow:

  1. Progress on Upping My Game
  2. Portfolio Update Completed!