In the past years PDS has been using portfolios as a way to showcase students’ achievements and allow them to show potential employers all of their hard work. Sophomore PDS was based solely around the development of your portfolio. Creating a resume, cover letter and figuring out all the assignments you wanted to add were just some of the tasks you would have to do for this. Once it was completed, everything was added into a binder and presented to the class.
This year however is the first year that Nichols decided to use the iWebfolio. The iWebfolio is an online portfolio that rid the need of the binder.

When talking about it in class, a lot of students were confused on how to add and edit the documents that were going into it. However, with all the informational meetings Nichols offered and the step-by-step instructions that were given to us, it was made very clear.

In creating your iWebfolio, you first need to create an account, which Nichols gives to you. Then you have to upload or scan in all of your work that you want to showcase in your portfolio. I found that this step was a little time consuming and if you wanted it to be perfect you would be need to make sure it fits into the section you were adding it to. You also had to include a description of each piece being added and how you think it relates to the section. When adding a previous class paper, exam or assignment, you would need to add why you think you succeeded at the assignment.

Some thought it was pointless to change to the iWebfolio, but others, including myself, believe it is a smart decision. Switching to something that is so easy to use and much easier to send to a future employer is very beneficial.

Nichols offers a four-year Professional Development Seminar to help prepare yourself for life after college. At first when I heard about this class I didn’t think it was very necessary. When told about it freshman year it was all about time management and how to properly adjust to college. To my surprise, without this class I would have been completely lost. It provided me with all the skills to do well with all the classes I would be taking, along with a few pointers on how to start preparing for the real world.

Sophomore PDS is where I learned how to create a portfolio along with the proper way to compose a resume. This was very essential to me because sophomore year is when I was looking to find an internship.

I would have been so lost if I didn’t learn how to properly write a resume and cover letter. Friends of mine that go to different schools were completely embarrassed when seeing how well prepared I was and that they still had no idea what to do or even what a cover letter was.

For junior year, we are being introduced to a new type of portfolio that is done completely online. In my opinion this is one of the best tools the PDS program has come up with. Having it completely online, in my opinion, is a lot easier then carrying around the binder. Knowing I will have something completely different from the others applying for the internship will help the nerves a little bit.

In a PDS class, the topic of the importance of portfolios came up and if all the time and effort we put into them is worth it. With the examples my professor gave, I feel they are absolutely important; We need something to help us stand out from the others!  When my professor brought up that at her company a Nichols student was hired for a dream internship just because she brought her portfolio with her, a lot of students including myself quickly changed our negative opinions on this.

I can’t wait to see what else we will be learning about in the upcoming weeks!

In preparation for the upcoming career fair, this week we were asked to present our elevator speeches. For those of you that are not familiar with an elevator speech, it is a pitch you would give to a potential employer to market yourself for a job. At first when hearing about the task and what I had to do, I was very nervous. Standing in front of a group of people and talking about myself is not something that I am very comfortable with. Thinking about what I would say in my pitch was the hardest part.  I want to say something that makes me stand out from the other candidates. As an athlete, the first words that came to mind were leadership and good communication skills. Obviously, these are very common adjectives to describe yourself with, but with the pointers my professor was able to give, we were all able to come up with ways to help our speeches stand out.  In my speech, I talked about my previous and current experiences that will help me in my future and my passion for marketing.

After giving my elevator speech I feel more confident for the career fair and how I will be presenting myself. I think learning how to develop an elevator speech is very useful, and I am excited PDS has taught me how to prepare for future jobs. Most importantly, the career and internship fair.