Portfolio

by Deborah S. Ray

Searching for a job is hard work, no doubt, and it often isn't as simple as sending out a general resume and strolling through an interview process. Instead, it's often a multi-phase process that takes time and effort: You update your resume. You craft a letter of application. You select samples from past projects that best showcase relevant skills. You then go to the interview and show your stuff. That's a lot of work--even for people who are practiced in the job search process.

by Liz Russell

At a recent job interview, I was sitting before two interviewers who, between them, were certain of only one thing: They needed a technical writer. One potential boss, the one with the highest notch on the company's IT totem pole, hid her face strategically behind the screen of her laptop. She glanced around it a few times during her fifteen-minute introduction to the company--providing information that was also readily available on the company's Web site. She then pointed to her cohort, the other potential boss and a lead developer. For several minutes he glanced repeatedly between my face and a copy of my resume that was balanced on his knees. He'd scratch his goatee-clad chin, look up, open his lips, close them, then look down at the paper again. This went on for several minutes before he confessed: "I don't know what to ask you." Looking somewhat stunned at this admission, the big boss peeked around her laptop and added, "Me either. I don't know what we need."