In the virtual world, we are living in, online presence means a lot. Over the past few years, market jobs and opportunities have expanded more in the internet domain than physical applications and the selection process that takes too much time and effort. This is where portfolios come in and save the day for you. You need to have a dossier containing your talents and work experiences in hard and soft copy. They link your work and skills and present them to any employers or companies looking for fresh talent. They speak for you more than you could possibly think.
While its true portfolios do reflect your talent and skills, it’ll be too much to expect them alone to land you a handful of opportunities without investing your effort to upgrade them. In this section, we’ll talk about ways to upgrade and improve your personal statements to effectively stay on top.
Look for collaborations
The fastest way to grow and develop yourself is to look for collaborations with already established setups. Button up your shirts and walk into the offices you want to be associated with. Offer them long or short-term associations in terms of mutual benefits as photographers or promotions on the internet and social networking sites. This step will get you much-needed belief in your talents in addition to career development and extension and financial stability. So go for it without being discouraged by proposal rejections. Not everyone is going to endorse your ideas but then again, not everyone needs to do that. Sooner or later you’ll find what you’re looking for.
Invest in a local business
Investing in and learning from a local business is the fastest way to get your foot in the door and build a pretty solid client base. The idea you might pursue includes the design or redesign of a local and small non-profit or neighborhood business in your portfolio. You can also take a shot at rebranding your favorite restaurant. If you try hard enough you can give it a completely modern and fantastic feel— making it stand out —while preserving the original business’ identity.
There’s absolutely nothing holding you back— except for some things that you should keep in mind: First, make sure that the final product associated with the business you choose for your portfolio is the exact product you want to be associated with—in simpler words, ask yourself this question if your potential clients will want to be associated with the concept products you’re presenting.
Shoot Stock themes and Images
Without a doubt, Stock themes and images are the biggest source of images for most of the internet. One of the prominent advantages of integration and capturing or developing a stock theme is that you can also sell it yourself as a premium theme, generating additional income while contributing significantly to your portfolio. Or you can publish your theme away as a means of promoting your business and yourself (you can consider offering someone support or proper customization for an additional price as in this case). All you’ll need to do is do a bit of market research and create a standout product.
Create a versatile body of content
Your gut feeling intuition can derail you, so coupling it with market research for informing your content creation is all fine and good-looking. Research and Data say that certain kinds of review articles and content pieces are performing the best. You would feel bored exclusively promoting and writing them alone, though. You want to actually experiment with newer and exciting content formats to satisfy and broaden your vision.
The joy of creation cannot be contained in a few themes and paths. A creative career in content calls for building a versatile and strong body of work — something you feel excited about even while putting sweat and extreme effort and something you feel really proud of — and that can’t happen with “safe” career choices and “proven” frameworks alone. You need to take risks and let your inner curiosity guide you — maybe even when everyone tells you otherwise and even when it doesn’t seem to have a financial impact potential. Always Remember your portfolio reflects your creative potential and will result in career opportunities of that magnitude. So go out there and offer themes to big names that are worth your time and effort.
Work for a “CAUSE”
It’s true you won’t have much time in your professional career but taking out time for a cause will be beneficial instead of detrimental in the long run. Volunteering to take photos at a charity event or an event run by non-government organizations and offering to write descriptions on media for them can do wonders for your career as these associations go a long way. And it’s a mutual effort on your part as the work will be done by a professional with the best possible experience which will also give you the much-needed “exposure” and recognition which in turn will boost your career significantly.