Why you need an electronic professional portfolio

[rninformatics, DNP, RN]

Why you need an electronic professional portfolio

Mary Smolenski, ANCC's Director of Certification Services and Kenneth W. Dion, President of Decision Critical, have written a clear and informative article on why you need an electronic portfolio. If you would like to learn more

AmericanNurseToday_PortfolioArticle_September2008.pdf

[nurse2033, MSN, RN]

Thanks for the link!

[llg, PhD, RN]

A word of caution about electronic portfolios:

I have recently interviewed 2 job applications that included electronic portfolios -- and neither helped the candidate. In fact, they hurt a little bit. They were not tailored to the particular type of job the person was applying for. For example, the one person was applying for an educational position -- but her online portfolio barely addressed education. It was all about her hopes to be Nurse Practitioner and projects related to her NP education. It made us question whether she was just applying for our job as a way of "settling" because she was having trouble finding an NP job -- and would leave our facility as soon as she found what she was really looking for.

[rninformatics, DNP, RN]

Agree llg,

I've found electronic portfolios to be more useful in (and appropriate to) the academic arena than in the real world for job seeking purposes.

A word of caution about electronic portfolios:

I have recently interviewed 2 job applications that included electronic portfolios -- and neither helped the candidate. In fact, they hurt a little bit. They were not tailored to the particular type of job the person was applying for. For example, the one person was applying for an educational position -- but her online portfolio barely addressed education. It was all about her hopes to be Nurse Practitioner and projects related to her NP education. It made us question whether she was just applying for our job as a way of "settling" because she was having trouble finding an NP job -- and would leave our facility as soon as she found what she was really looking for.

[llg, PhD, RN]

I can see that, rninformatics. And I can see where they could be useful in other circumstances, too. But as you pointed out, they might not be well-suited for every ocassion -- and I worry that some people reading allnurses won't make wise judgments about what to include, not to include, etc.

Thanks for the insight from your perspective.