Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

In the age of the temporary job, the portfolio becomes important to us all.

For most of my life, I heard of the artist’s portfolio—the collected works of an artist. Well, welcome to the age of everyone-is-an-artist. Everyone needs a portfolio to show potential employers. Wikipedia has a few definitions of portfolio that I like.

This age of everyone-is-an-artist causes me to change a few things in my life. These include:

1. accept that I need a portfolio
2. keep my portfolio in mind as I do everything
3. how can this work be part of my portfolio?
4. put my work into my portfolio
5. keep my portfolio organized, i.e., keep my work organized
6. keep my portfolio available
7. do all my work knowing that potential employers will see it

Item 7 can be frightening. EVERYTHING I do will be seen by others. Yikes. Perhaps I should focus on each task a little better and produce high-quality work all the time—especially when I find the task to be mundane.