For example, if you are going to apply for business school, the aspects to focus on would be:
- Strategic Analysis: An expert in business should be able to evaluate a new project's or idea's potential, comprehend market opportunities, and evaluate an organization's strategic position. So, make sure to include a strategic analysis report or a business model canvas to showcase your entrepreneurial ideas as a candidate.
- Financial Analysis: In today's data-rich environment, you must possess the ability to assess big datasets. Apart from that, it is important to be proficient with numbers to analyze financial accounts and have a solid understanding of the terminology and fundamentals of finance. Financial analysis also helps in creating financial models, evaluating businesses and projects, and offering advice on investments. So, if you can build a financial model with the project valuation report, that will showcase your financial efficiency.
- Great Communication: Communication is not bound in oral in case business. The communication is related to written reports, sliders, and presentations, too. So, suppose a student can showcase the record of their great communication skills, the slide deck, or the blog where they have expressed their opinion. In that case, it will be a great opportunity to express their communication skills in detail.
- Leadership & Management: A business can not stand without management and leadership abilities. A business professional should have the following skills to assemble a team to generate a deliverable (project management) and participate in a team. In addition, they need to be qualified to negotiate on behalf of the group they represent. Here a student needs to be focused on the narrative feedback from where they have supervised the team. You can also include feedback from the project management team to make the portfolio more credible.
- Technological Efficiency: It is not required to be a programmer while preparing a business-related academic portfolio. But to organize the business program, basic technological activities are required. If one possesses knowledge of project management, email marketing, calendar management, video conferencing, and file sharing, that would be great to include as hard skills in the portfolio
Maintain a Logical Flow of Information:
Maintaining a logical flow while creating a portfolio is important. Divide it into these parts:
- Headings
- Subheadings
- Other sections
Every field has different requirements to arrange the data efficiently. But there are a few common sections that you need to include in your portfolio:
Contact Information
- Name, contact number, email address, LinkedIn id, affiliation
Skills
- Communication, attention-to-details, management, leadership
Work Experience
- If any (You can also include an internship)
Education
- Degrees year-wise, percentage, institution name
Publication
- Your pre-written publication in journals, magazines, books
Awards
- Received awards during school or college days
Language
Focus on Highlighting Your Achievements:
Showcasing your academic achievements can create a great impression. It provides the evidence to support your claims. Consider it as an opportunity to demonstrate your contribution and the impact you have created.
Proofread Your Portfolio:
Don’t submit the portfolio without proofreading it. Every hard work will go in vain without proper proofreading. Create a flawless portfolio with up-to-date information. You can use free Grammar-checking tools. Apart from that, you can also focus on creating different types of portfolios for different target audiences.
ENDNOTE
In this world of uncertainty, enhancing skills and showcasing that, through a portfolio can lead you to think outside of the box. A portfolio can lead you to greater ownership of your career. So, we have discussed how you can build a strong portfolio to enhance your career prospects with a unique professional identity. Wish you good luck in future endeavours!