Welcome

Creating an e-portfolio may be one of the best things you can do for your career. It helps you organize and showcase your work, helps you reflect on where you have been and where you want to go, and can be what differentiates you when an employer makes the decision of whether to shortlist, interview, or hire you or not.

Another benefit of creating an e-portfolio is that you can learn some valuable computer skills. In fact, you can use the same techniques and technologies used in this tutorial (e.g. RSS feeds, file storage, Google AdSense, etc.) to create a website or blog for a small business, hobby, area of interest or expertise, etc. Most bloggers write for enjoyment and only earn a small amount of money to cover some of their website hosting but there are some like Richmond, B.C.'s John Chow, that is making more than $30,000 a month with his john chow.com blog... a blog where he "makes money online by telling you how to make money online". He's not the only one... but this isn't about money, this is about building your career.

You may not want to quit your day job just yet, but creating an e-portfolio may help you get that first, entry level job or get a better job for someone already further along in their career.

This 10-step tutorial shows you how to create and develop an e-portfolio using Google's Blogger tool. It wasn't so long ago that it would cost tens of thousands of dollars and take several months to build the same kind of sites you can develop today for free and in hours if not minutes...



There are lots of different tools you can use to build your e-portfolio. Google's Blogger is just one of them. Links to tutorial instructions for other e-portfolio development tools will be added here soon.

It normally takes between 2 and 5 hours to complete this tutorial. In reality, it is a project that is never really over... at least not until you are six feet under and pushing up the daisies. Everyone's has heard that the days of having one job for life are over... the average person switches careers at least seven times in their life. You should never stop learning and you should never stop updating your e-portfolio. Your e-portfolio is only as good as it is current.

Feedback

Each section of this tutorial has a comments posting. If you have questions with a step or would like to comment on something you have found that might help others developing their e-portfolio, please click on the comments link and submit your feedback. I will respond shortly to your feedback (the comment postings are moderated so you won't see your submitted comment right away).

Assignment Purpose

The purpose of this assignment is to help you develop your career by developing a career-oriented e-portfolio and to learn about computer application integration while doing it... specifically how to integrate MS Office applications with Web-based applications like Blogger, and other third-party tools. Some people may decide to customize their blog using HTML, the design language of the World Wide Web, but this is optional.

You are the owner of your e-portfolio. Not your school, not your company... you will move between schools and employers frequently in life so don't expect anyone else to take responsibility for your career. You have gone to a lot of hard work to takes courses, learn software programs, languages, community service etc. It's worth spending just a little bit of time now showcasing what you have done and where you are heading.

Increasingly, employers want more than just a traditional resume and this e-portfolio can help give you a competitive edge. It's a good idea to keep your e-portfolio current to improve your chances of getting the job you want after graduation or additional companies interested in you even if you already have a job.

In some fields (especially in the marketing sector), companies are looking for employees that have "blogging skills" as blogs have hit the mainstream... something that you will get while working on this assignment. A few years ago, when blogs weren't quite as mainstream, there were even "blog consultants" charging $100 per hour to essentially set up what anyone with limited technology skills could do in five minutes.

So it's time to "storm the bastille".

What is an e-Portfolio

What is an e-portfolio?

According to the Wikipedia, "an electronic portfolio, also known as an e-portfolio or digital portfolio, is a cohesive, powerful, and well-designed collection of electronic documents that demonstrate your skills, education, professional development, and the benefits you offer to a target reader" (more information from the Wikipedia available here)

Companies are increasingly using them as evidence to back up a job seeker's resume and cover letter and to see if you have the skills and experience necessary to do the job. It's a good way to make your application stand out!

e-Portfolios also have an archival nature since they document and record a person's past experiences and projects. They also form a permanent record over time of a person's evolving activities and progress.

Some jurisdictions require all students graduating from secondary school to have an e-portfolio as part of their graduation requirements. The European Union has an ambitious initiative to have all EU citizens develop an e-Portfolio by 2010!

More than half of all employers use keyword scanning when shortlisting job applicants... that is they store electronic copies of resumes or e-portfolios and scan for keywords related to open job postings. Most employers now also "google" prospective employees before making the final offer. In some cases, when Facebook comes up high in the search engine listing with pictures of that wild and crazy party you were at, it might not be what the employer was hoping to see.

Having your e-portfolio appear in the search engine rankings instead can be very powerful and could make the difference between getting the job or not.

Here are some e-portfolio samples that were done by students in the Financial Management and Marketing Programs at the British Columbia Institute of Technology back in 2005 using this tutorial.



Katherine K. (Financial Management)
Alim A. (Financial Management)

Here are some e-portfolios students from Capilano University made using this tutorial (with some modifications... in some cases with different blog tools).



Choyal Brown (School of Business)
Jess Sloss (School of Business)

Career Research

Before you even develop your e-portfolio, it's a good idea to consider what type of career options you have... where you want to be heading.

There are some really useful sites that show the various job positions and the typical salaries by region for these positions.

In Canada, salary.workopolis.ca is an excellent resource.

In the United States, salary.com is another excellent resource.

Both sites offer useful job descriptions and detailed statistics on salaries, based on real job posting data.

If you know of good career planning and salary sites in other parts of the world, please leave a comment.

What is a Blog?

What is a Blog?



According to the Wikipedia, a blog is:

"a website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order. Blogs often provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. Most blogs are primarily textual although some focus on photographs (photoblog), videos (vlog), or audio (podcasting), and are part of a wider network of social media. The term "blog" is a contraction of "Web log." "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog."

For more information on blogging, see the full Wikipedia section on blogs here.

Here is an example of a Blog... (not an e-portfolio but just a "regular" blog).



For this tutorial, you will use a blogging tool, Google's Blogger, to create your e-portfolio.

Privacy, Safety & Professionalism

Privacy, Safety and Professionalism

Before you start creating your e-portfolio, it is critical to consider the privacy and safety issues related to sharing your e-portfolio on the World Wide Web. The challenge is to create an e-portfolio that is useful and accessible to employers but that does not put you at any risk from dangerous predators / fraudsters on the Internet. In this tutorial, you will password-protect your e-portfolio so only those that you invite will be allowed to view your e-portfolio.

Professionalism

Your e-portfolio should display professionalism... it will backfire if an employee types your name into Google, finds your e-portfolio (or is invited to your e-portfolio by yourself) and then sees postings about your wild partying, bad-mouthing former employers, swearing, typos / spelling mistakes, etc.



Some students when they first get started with their blog may start fooling around with inappropriate remarks, swearing, etc... Don't do this! Although you can delete postings, once they have been published some search engines will archive your original postings and you may find that you can't erase your unprofessional postings!

I once created a blog to complain about a company I felt didn't honour their refund policy. Within days, I received a knock on the door and a cease-and-desist letter from their lawyers. Not wanting trouble, I decided I would delete the blog only to find out that it was too late... it had already been archived by another site and it was no longer in my control. I tried to explain to the upset company's lawyers that I had done what I could take down the site but it took a lot of effort to sort out.

Of course, you must also make sure you follow any acceptable usage rules at your local college or university if you are a student. All other federal and provincial / state laws apply in the online world, just as they do in the off-line work so make sure your content is appropriate.

Safety considerations

The e-portfolio that you set up for this assignment is set up with the full privacy and security functionality available with Google Blogger so that only the people that you invite will be able to view your e-portfolio. Despite this, you should still be careful to only post information that you feel comfortable with -- information that you feel okay viewed by the public (even if you give permission to an employer to view your e-portfolio, you may not want to disclose anything too personal that may put your potential employment at risk).

Privacy

You also want to make sure you aren't giving away any information that you wouldn't normally provide... e.g. IDs, passwords, banking info, too much details about your contact information, etc... you don't want people signing up for credit cards or applying for student loans in your name!

Some of the above items may be common sense but they can not be stressed enough and should not be taken lightly. Investigators of a murder suicide in a school in Colorado are looking at the possibility that the killer researched MySpace to learn about the kids attending the school (Sheriff: School shooter sent letter to say sorry).



This may be the extreme case and involve younger, more vulnerable kids... it is equally important for college students to safeguard their privacy, safety and online professional reputation.

Here are some articles on the blog privacy, safety, and professionalism theme:
Blog it now, regret it later
MySpace makes new online safety push
MySpace Invader

The World Wide Web and e-portfolios are here to stay... the above considerations aren't intended to scare you from developing an e-portfolio... You just have to be smart about how you do it so that you can leverage the power of the Internet to help you secure employment and manage your career and be safe and secure while doing it.

Step 1 - Register and Set up your Blog

Register and Set up your Blog

Approximate time: 5 minutes

a) Go to www.blogger.com and begin to create your blog (website) by clicking on the "Create Your Blog Now" orange arrow.




b) Fill in the "Create a Google Account" form . If you already have a Google account (e.g. Gmail, Google Groups, etc.) then click on the "sign in first" link.

Your username will have to be quite unique as there are already millions of Blogger users. Your display name will be what is used to sign your website postings.



Be sure to use a strong password (click on the "Password strength" link for more information).

For the "Word Verification" field, just type the word that you see on your screen. This step is to ensure that you are a real human being, and not an automated robot trying to automatically create hundreds or thousands of accounts.

Once you have completed the form, click on the box next to "I accept the Terms of Service" and then click on the orange continue arrow on the bottom right hand side.

c) Name your blog.

For the "Blog title" field, enter a display name for your e-portfolio website... this display name will appear in the masthead (main area on the top) of your website. It's usually best to name this something descriptive and it's good to include at least your first name (you may not want to put your full name for privacy considerations). For example, if your name was Maria Gonzales you might want to call the blog title, "Maria Gonzales' e-Portfolio". You can change the blog title quite easily later if you wish.



For the "Blog address (URL)" field, enter the name that you would like to use for your location (URL). You can change this URL later if you wish...

It is recommended that you use a descriptive address that also includes the word e-portfolio. It's best to separate any names that you use with dashes. For example if your name was Maria Gonzales, you might want to use a URL like maria-gonzales-eportfolio (Blogger will add the blogspot.com after the blog name you come up with so the full URL would end up being: http://maria-gonzales-eportfolio.blogspot.com).

d) Choose template

The next and final step in creating your blog is to select a template -- i.e. your blogs' "look and feel". You can easily change or modify your template later on so don't spend too long choosing!



Blogger will now start creating your blog. This usually only takes a minute or two.



When you see this "blog created" screen, you are ready for Step 2, creating your first blog posting...

Step 2 - Create Your First Posting

Approximate time: 10 minutes to create first posting, 15 minutes to explore Blogger posting functionality

a) Enter Title field and main paragraph field
You are now ready to create your first posting to your e-portfolio website.

First, here is some basic information on Blogger's post editor and making a blog posting:

Blogger's post editor
Making a blog posting

In the Title field, type a welcoming title such as "Welcome to my e-Portfolio". You should include a link to the e-portfolio tutorial instructions (to http://create-an-eportfolio-using-blogger.blogspot.com/).

In the main field (under the "Recover post" link and on top of the "Post and Comment Options" link), type a brief welcoming paragraph... don't worry if it's not perfect, you can always edit it later.



b) Apply basic formatting

The blogger create posting window contains a "mini-HTML editor" where you can do basic formatting (bold text, italicize text, create "blockquotes"), add hyperlinks, spellcheck and add images to your postings.

Here are some links to the Blogger help section that provide instructions on formatting your posting:

Making text bold or italicized

Using Keyboard shortcuts when posting

Spell check a post

Since you want potential employers to be impressed with your e-portfolio, you should always spell check your postings... your e-portfolio will backfire if it doesn't look professional and spelling mistakes mean lost credibility.

c) Create a hyperlink

Here is a link to the Blogger help section with an overview of creating a link to another website:

Linking to other websites

When you click this, a new window will pop-up where you should enter the URL of your link (the website address that you want your text to link to). For example, to create a hyperlink from the BCIT word in your welcome sentence, you would first highlight "BCIT" and then click on the "insert hyperlink" icon. You would then enter www.bcit.ca (after the http:// that appears in the field).

d) Miscellaneous information about posting (reading this step is optional... you can always check these links out later...)

Here are some links to Blogger's help section with instructions no editing posts, saving as drafts, changing the post date/time, etc.

Saving a post as a draft

Difference between "draft" and "publish"

Editing a post

Changing the date/time of a post

Deleting a post:

Here is some optional information you may want to look at if you run into troubles with posting:

Trouble posting pictures:
Recovering lost posts

If you run into other problems with using Blogger, go to the Blogger Help section:

Okay, now you are a guru with making postings to your e-portfolio! The next important step is to take a close look at Blogger settings that enable you to maintain your privacy. The trick is you want to attract employers with your e-portfolio but not all the crazies and fraudsters on the Internet!

Step 3 - Improve the Privacy of Your Blog Site & Create Generic Username & Password to Give Potential Employers

Approximate time: 15 - 30 minutes

As mentioned in the previous section, it's critical that you consider privacy and safety when developing your e-portfolio. The trick is to make your e-portfolio conveniently accessible to the right people (e.g. employers) and inaccessible to those that would use the information to harm or defraud you.

The following steps will help secure your e-portfolio site.

a) Turn off the public listings



From the Settings | Basic tab, change the "Add your Blog to our listings?" setting to "No".

b) Limit comment posting to blog members (people you have invited to your blog)



From the Settings | Comments tab, change the "Who Can Comment?" setting to "Only Members of this Blog".

c) Turn profile sharing off

The last setting to change for improved privacy is the profile sharing. Go to the Dashboard and select Edit Profile. Uncheck the "Share my profile" section.



d) Set Blog Permissions

Now the most important privacy setting... Go to Settings | Permissions and under Blog Readers "Who can view this blog?" select "Only People I Choose". To invite potential employers to view your e-portfolio, you type their email address(es) into the "Invite some people to read your blog".



If you send a cover letter out to an employer prospect, you could mention your e-portfolio and that it is available upon request (they would just need to send you an email and then you would paste their email into the "Invite some people to read your blog" section).

The problem with this approach is that you don't always know the email addresses of the employers you want to invite. Also, employers often don't want to go through the registration confirmation process in order to view your blog.

Employers would prefer if you can just send them a username and password so they can access your e-portfolio directly.

Although Blogger doesn't offer password protection functionality the following is a workaround so you can still have a "generic" username and password so that those that you want to be able to access can conveniently do so.

By creating a generic password and username, you can also register your e-portfolio with this username and password with an e-portfolio directory service (see Step 8) to automate the process of employers requesting to view your e-portfolio. This service is set up so that only those employers that you grant permission will be able to view your e-portfolio. At that point, the employer is automatically provided with the necessary log in information to view your e-portfolio. More later on this in Step 8.

These next steps will focus on creating a generic username and password that you can give potential employers. The first step is to create a new Google Gmail account.

e) Set up a generic username and password for your e-portfolio that you can give potential employers

i) Create a Generic Google Gmail Account

Click here to create a new Gmail account.

You first part of this form looks like this:



For the First name and Last name fields, just type in n/a.
For desired login name, enter a word that is not identified to you (e.g. canucks555)... remember we aren't going to be using this as an email account but as a workaround password solution for your blog
Click on the check availability to see if your selected name has been taken.
Choose a password (again that is not identified to you... just use a random word/number combination... e.g. 4car847)

The second part of the form looks like this:



For security question and answer, pick something that does not identify yourself (e.g. Question: What is the meaning of life. Answer: 42)
Important: Don't list a secondary email address
Select a location (it can be anything)
Type in the Word Verification (sometimes this takes a few tries to get it right!) then click on the "I accept. Create my account button"

Once you have filled in this form and clicked on "I accept. Create my account" you should see the following screen.



Click on "I am ready - show me my account" link in the top right hand corner.

You should now see a screen like this.



You can just click on the "Sign out" link in the top right corner. Now it's time to add this new generic gmail account to your e-portfolio blog permissions list.

ii) Add your "generic" gmail account to your e-portfolio blog permissions list

Now go back to Blogger (log in if necessary) and click on the Settings tab and then the Permissions link (the last one on the right hand side). In the Blog Readers area, click on the "Only these readers" radio button, then in the form, type in the gmail address you just created in step 1 (e.g. canucks555@gmail.com). The screen will look like this:



Click on the orange Invite button (just below the form where you entered the email address).

iii) Confirm this new email permission by logging back into gmail

You will first need to login to the gmail account you created in step 1.



You should see an email waiting in your in-box from Blogger.



Open up this email and click on the invitation link inside the email.



Once you have done this, you can now log out of gmail.



iv) Confirm in Blogger that this new generic account is now listed on your permissions list

When you go back to your Settings | Permissions in Blogger, you should now see that this new generic gmail account you created now has permission to view your e-portfolio.



iv) Give out this generic username and password to potential employers

Now you can give out a generic username and password to potential employers

They will be able to view your e-portfolio right away using the username and password you provide them rather than having to go through the custom invitation and accepting process that you would otherwise need to do.

This is what the potential employer would see when they enter the URL of your e-portfolio in their browser and fill in the generic username and password you gave them:



Now it's time to collect and host the files that you want to be part of your e-portfolio...

Step 4 - Collect and Host Files

Estimated time: approximately 30 - 60 min.

Having a repository to store your assignment and other files (e.g. resume, your photo, etc.) will be an important part of your e-portfolio. Having this repository accessible from the Web will enable any visitor to your site to have access to files you want to share.

a) Select file storage approach
To store and host your files, you can use a number of different file storage services. Most schools also provide their students with some Web-accessible file storage.

It's really important to keep backups of all files that you store in a third-party or school hosting service.

For the past years, this tutorial used the MediaMax hosting service... until they shut their doors and now all the files previously hosted by them are gone. Unfortunately, this meant that some of the e-portfolios that linked to samples of their work stored at MediaMax are gone and if a visitor tries to click on the showcased work they now see a "not in service" message instead... not a good way to impress potential employers.



The same thing happened with files stored at a school's free file repository. The problem is that most schools don't have a long term file storage policy or plan. Once students graduate, their files stored at school file storage services often are deleted.



You need to be the owner of your e-portfolio and all files in it. This means finding an external file storage service that is reliable but also having backups so if necessary, you can move your files to another location (you would also have to modify your hyperlinks to point to your new file service if you change services).

Before



After



For this tutorial, I recommend you use the file storage service from Box.net.



Box.net offers a free, Lite box for 1 User. You get 1 Gigabyte of storage where you can share and store documents and smaller files. They say they are being used by more than 2 million people and they have been around for quite awhile and appear to be stable. They also have paid options for more storage.

It's a good idea to create a new folder called e-portfolio and then keep in here any digital assets you think you will want to use developing your e-portfolio (e.g. copies of your assignments you will showcase, images, screen shots of title pages of projects, etc.)



Once logged into Box.net, you can right click on one of your stored files and then select "Link to this File" then click on the "Send Link" button. That will create a unique URL for your file such as:
http://www.box.net/shared/yj8bz5fgx2

You can then use this URL within your blog postings (use the insert hyperlink tool within Blogger and then copy and paste your box.net URL into the hyperlink box).

When viewers of your e-portfolio click on the link to your sample work files, they would see a message like this...



Other possible storage locations include:
- other third party free storage services (e.g. XDrive, and Wikispaces) or fee-based storage services (e.g. Strong Space, XDrive).

If you know of other good file storage options, please leave a comment on this posting and I will add to the list.

This article by Michael Arrington at TechCrunch.com provides a good overview of some of the file storage options available. Note: it's from January, 2006... some of the services have changed since then but most of the information is current.

Back to Box.net...

Box.net offers a batch upload tool that makes uploading files a lot faster. To use this, you need to download and install a small plug-in.

b) Upload files to your File Storage Space
Gather the required files as listed above and any optional files and then upload them to your file storage space.

c) Backup your files
You should always have a backup of all your files that you have stored at a storage service like Box.net or your school storage options. If your original storage location changes, you would have to update your links in your blog template and postings so they point to your new file storage location.

Your back up files could be located on your home PC, a portable storage drive, CD-ROM, etc. You may even want to keep three copies of everything in case your primary and secondary storage options have problems at the same time (not a far-fetched scenario!).

Now that you have your file storage space sorted out, you're ready for the most important part of your e-portfolio... making postings to showcase your work, interests, skills, etc.

Step 5 - Make Postings Showcasing Your Projects and Experience

Approximate time: 2-4 hours

The most time on your e-portfolio should be spent on writing your posts that showcase the work that you have done.

For a starting e-portfolio, you should have at least four postings showcasing your work or experience. You want to have enough content to make it worthwhile for someone to take a look at. Later, you can add more postings... ideally, you want to make regular updates every few weeks or months to showcase the latest things you have done.

A good posting should contain the following:
- clear, short, title of project or experience you are showcasing
- well-written, concise paragraph or two describing the project
- picture of some aspect of the project (e.g. you could show an image of the first page of a marketing report or communications MS PowerPoint presentation)
- link to a portion or the full project (e.g. link to a Word file containing your report). Make sure you do not disclose any confidential information though. If your project was for an external organization, make sure you request permission to feature all or parts of the work.
- In some cases you may want to contain other related hyperlinks (e.g. links to companies that you mention in your posts).

Here is a sample posting from a student's e-portfolio.



This posting provides a good overview of the skills she learned from the project (i.e. developing a marketing plan). There is a good image from her project included in her posting and there is a hyperlink (final assignment) to the actual assignment (a MS PowerPoint file). An employer could find evidence of her abilities by looking at her work (something not possible with a simple resume).

In order to develop this type of post, you need to be familiar with posting basics (described in Step 2) such as basic formatting and creating hyperlinks). It doesn't take too long to get up to speed with this... if you're stuck with any formatting issue, try the Blogger help menus.

You will also need to be comfortable with finding or creating images that you can use in your posting.

The following section provides some tips on adding images...

Adding images

You can add an image to your posting using the "Add Image" icon (picture of mountains and sky).

Here is a link to Blogger's Help section with instructions on posting pictures.

Before adding an image though, you will first need to have an image saved that you can upload or be able to link to an existing image already on a website (you would normally need to get permission to link to an existing image on another website though so you should stick to using your own images that you have saved to your computer).

You can find photos on the Internet or use your own photos. Here are three sites that offer different forms of "creative commons" copyright where you can get images for free and legally... more details on the licensing is available on the sites.

Flickr Creative Commons

Open Photo

Creative Commons Search

You can also create your own images by using the Print Screen (PrtScr) key... this will take a picture or screen shot of whatever you see on your monitor. This is ideal for "taking a picture" of the cover page of a report.

You can then open up MS PowerPoint, click on the opening slide, and then select paste. This will paste the screen shot image into the MS PowerPoint slide.

Adjust image if necessary

You can use MS PowerPoint as a mini-graphics editor by using the Picture toolbar in MS PowerPoint 2003 version or the Format tab in MS PowerPoint 2007.

In MS PowerPoint 2003, if you don't see the Picture toolbar, from the main menu options in MS PowerPoint, go to View | Toolbars | and then select Picture (if you see a check mark next to Picture, this means you already have the Picture toolbar opened).

In MS PowerPoint 2007, you need to first click on the picture (the one you created by using the PrtSc key) before you will see the Format tab.

One of the most useful tools on the Picture toolbar (in MS PowerPoint 2003) or from within the Size group on the ribbon in MS PowerPoint 2007 is the cropping tool. You can use this cropping tool to cut parts of your image that you don't want. This is different than resizing your image since cropping cuts part of your image off as selected rather than just changing the size but maintaining an image when you resize.

You can see the cropping tool in the picture below... it is circled in red. Note: this is using MS PowerPoint 2007.



Saving images

Now that you have tidied up your image, you can save the image by right-clicking on the image within the MS PowerPoint slide and select "Save as Picture".



Enter a descriptive file name and then select the down arrow for the Save as Type field so that the GIF or JPEG format is selected.

Upload image to posting

Now that you have saved the image, it is now time to upload to your posting. Select the "Add Image" icon (the mountain and blue sky icon)... when you click this icon, the "Upload Images" window pops up where you can browse to the location of your image, choose a layout (left, center or right) and the image size



Once you have made at least four postings, you can move on to Step 6 -- modifying the look and feel of your e-portfolio.

Step 6 - Modifying Blog Settings

Approximate time: 5-15 minutes

In this step, you will change the "look and feel" of your Blog.

To modify the look of your blog, go to the layout tab.

Changing Look and feel of your blog

Click on the Fonts and Colors tab from the main layout tab. On the left hand side, a drop down menu shows the different components of your blog that can be changed (e.g. Text Color, Blog Title Color). Simply click on your preferred color for the different components. You can even select a "shuffle blog colors" to get a random selection of colours.



If you don't like the changes you made, you can always revert to the original template by selecting "Revert to template default".

Picking a new template (optional step)

If you like, you can pick a new template from the "Pick New Template" tab within the Template section. There are more templates to choose from than when you first set up your blog (mostly variations on the main templates)



Remember that changing your template will discard any changes you made in Fonts & Colors.

Step 7 - Adding Google Gadgets

Approximate time: 15 - 60 minutes

This next step involves adding some "Google Gadgets" to your blog. This integration to other applications like site visitor counters, guest books, polls, tagboards, quizzes, stock charts, weather reports, etc. in most cases only requires knowing how to cut and paste code! You don't need to understand the code, you just need to paste to your blog.

Blogger makes it easy to add these Google Gadgets... small tools that can be easily integrated into your e-portfolio.

From the Layout tab, click on the Page Elements link and then on the Add a Gadget (from the Navbar area).

You can see this blog already has an AdSense (Google Ads), Followers, Blog Archive and About Me page elements.



You can see there are a whole bunch of different gadgets you can add, from slideshows to subscription links... from polls to news feeds. Use your creativity to select gadgets that would be appropriate for your e-portfolio. You don't want your e-portfolio to look junky so be careful not to add too many or distracting gadgets. Try to stick to gadgets that enhance the look and feel of your e-portfolio and that provide useful information.

Step 8 - Gather Feedback and Promote Your e-Portfolio

Time required: 10 to 15 minutes.

This step focuses on getting feedback on your e-portfolio and setting yourself up so you can promote yourself to employers down the road or right away if you are looking for part time work.

If you get stuck or have questins, you can click on the comments section.

a) Sign up for ZENPortfolios



Go to Zen Portfolios and click on the Create your Profile link (on the green arrow on the left side of the screen).
You will then see the registration screen. You need to fill in this form then go to the email service for the email address you provided. You should have an email waiting for you that will confirm your registration. Click on this link in your email.

b) Fill in your profile info

You will then go through a series of forms as follows:
- e-Portfolio info
- Work experience
- Education
- Awards
- Certifications
- Resume
- Skills
- Summary



Most of the data requested is optional but the more you fill out, the better your profile will be and the better your chance of being matched with employers wanting to view your e-portfolio

c) Collecting Feedback

When you are finished entering your profile information, you will then go to the dashboard. This is where you can set up your desired target jobs. Note the employee-employer matchmaking service won't be launching until Jan. 15th, 2009. Click on the Feedback tab. You should invite at least two people to provide feedback on your e-portfolio. One person can be a friend, fellow student, relative or colleague. The other person you invite to provide feedback should be someone ideally from the industry you would like to get into. For example, if you would like to get a job as an entry level accountant, it would be good to approach someone in the accounting sector and ask if they would be willing to give you feedback on your e-portfolio.



To request feedback, just fill in the form at the bottom of the feedback area from your dashboard. The people you invite for feedback will receive an email with your generic username and password so they can view your e-portfolio. They click on a link within their email to provide feedback on what parts of your e-portfolio they like best and which parts they think you should improve. Once they have entered feedback, you will receive an email notification. You can then log back on to ZEN Portfolios and then see your feedback from the Feedback section of your dashboard.

d) Editing

If you want to edit the profile info you have entered, you can go back to zenportfolios.com and login using your username and password. You can then click on the Edit Profile link from the Employee Dashboard (bottom right hand side).


e) Creating Job Targets and Job Matchmaking

This service will be commencing in mid-January, 2009. More information will be available shortly... In the meantime if you like, you can create job targets. You can list up to 10 positions you would like to get along with the region. You will also be able to track how many times your profile matched with what an employer is looking for, how many requests employers have made to you to view your e-portfolio and how many times you have granted employers permission to view their e-portfolio.

Step 9 - Create Resume and link to your e-Portfolio

Approximate time: 30 min. - 1.5 hour

a) Retrieve or create your resume

If you already have a resume (hopefully, most of you do!), you just need to find your file and move to the next steps where you will modify your regular resume to create a "Web-friendly resume".

If you have a resume but it is not in MS Word (e.g. if it's in a different program like Corel WordPerfect, MS Publisher, etc.), you will need to save / export to a MS Word compatible format in order to complete the following steps.

Here are a few resources that might help if you need to convert your resume to MS Word format from another application:

WordPerfect to MS Word

Opening various file formats in MS Word

If you don't already have a resume, you will need to create a resume using MS Word.

Sample finance related resumes

Sample marketing related resumes

b) Create keyword list

The next step is to use MS Word's indexing functionality to create a Keywords List section at the end of your resume. Approximately 50% of employers use electronic keyword searching of resumes to find or shortlist their potential employees (i.e instead of reading and sorting through a big pile of print-based resumes, they often require job seekers to submit an electronic copy of their resume... they then search all their electronic copies of the resumes to find keywords of specific skills or designations they are looking for).

Here is a guide for how to create an index in MS Word 2007 (when you create a keyword list, this is really just an index but you can call it Keyword List)

If there are important skills that you have that you think employers might search for, make sure those words are included on your resume since the computer program that automatically searches for keywords normally can't read "between the lines". If there are some keywords that you think are especially important to employers you may want to include those words in your resume several times. This will increase your "keyword density". Of course, you want to still make your resume readable and not overdue it with repeating the same words.

Another benefit of adding a keywords list and considering your resume's keyword density is that it will make it easier for search engine "robots" to search your site and appropriately index your website, increasing your chances of someone finding your e-portfolio when typing your name in a search engine (because we have set up the privacy settings so people must be invited before being able to access your e-portfolio, this benefit will be reduced however).

The first step of creating an index in MS Word is to "mark" all the words that you want included in your keyword list. If you forget how to mark up words for an index, use the MS Word help menus to guide you (hint: you access the index dialogue box from Insert Reference Tables and Index).

At the end of your resume, you should then create a heading that says "Keyword List" or something similar (e.g. "Keywords", "Skills summary" etc.).

Below this heading, you can then create your index. Again, if you forget how to create an index, use the MS Word help menus for guidance.

Here is an example of a keyword section at the end of a resume...



Here is the MS Word file of the sample above. Notice how the words in the index (keywords list) have been "marked up".

c) Spell check your resume

There is nothing worse than having spelling errors on your resume! Before we create an HTML version (Web version) of your resume, you should use MS Word's spellcheck functionality to ensure you don't have any spelling mistakes. You may also want to use the grammar check.

d) Link to your resume from your e-portfolio

Once you have created / refined your resume, you should upload it to your file storage space (e.g. Box.net). You can then create a posting or sidebar link from your e-portfolio to the location where your resume is stored.

e) Add the URL of your "public e-portfolio" to your resume

Note: Instructions for this step will be available on Friday, Oct. 10th (they are related to the Step 8 instructions that will also be available on Oct. 10th).

Step 10 - Summary

Approximate time: 5-10 minutes

You have now finished the e-portfolio tutorial! Hope you learned some new integration skills and created something you can use down the road when it comes to job hunt time. :-)

Note: You can use the same techniques and technologies used in this assignment (e.g. Beta Blogger, RSS feeds, etc.) to create a website for a small business, a hobby, area of interest etc. It wasn't so long ago that it would cost tens of thousands of dollars and take several months to build the same kind of sites you can develop today for free and in hours if not minutes...