Chapter Eleven: Professional Online Presence

Meg McGuire

15 Chapter Eleven: Professional Online Presence — Writing at Work: Introduction to Professional Writing

In today’s job market, recent college graduates or those looking to break into professional and technical writing need to demonstrate job preparedness beyond academic achievements. Excelling in the classroom is important, but many employers are just as interested in your work experience, expertise, and job-related skills.

Demonstrating your writing skills is especially important, and creating an online portfolio of samples will help you as you apply for jobs. Online writing portfolios supplement what you’ve learned in the classroom and are the best way to get your work noticed by potential employers because they give an employer the opportunity to view your previous work and understand your experience in more than just a one-page résumé.

Additionally, your portfolio is often the first impression a potential employer will have of you, so it is important to put your best foot forward. Portfolios provide an advantage in today’s competitive market as they provide you the opportunity to illustrate and market your brand. Regardless of career level, professional and technical writers should have an online portfolio to showcase their work.

Woman working at a white desk in a sunny office.

Photo by Betta Living. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Online Writing Portfolio

When considering what to include in your writing portfolio, look at relevant class assignments or work produced in a previous or current role. Save everything in a file, especially work from a class that requires you to write common communication materials such as newsletters, press releases, brochures, and news articles. If you do not have internship or work experience, try to do volunteer writing for a nonprofit organization or a small project for a startup company. What matters is that you have writing samples to show, not whether you were paid to do the work. In addition to showcasing examples, online portfolios include an “About Me” section, which is a description or summary of your professional background.

From there, create clear sections and headings and arrange the content by article or document type. Tailor the portfolio to jobs or industries you’re interested in and arrange it by chronological order, with the most recent work first or at the top of the online portfolio. For example, if you’re applying for a job that requires proficiency in AP-style writing, include writing samples that use this style, such as press releases or feature articles. If you’re applying for a job that requires social media writing skills, include social media posts that you’ve created for an organization. Here’s a list of some of the materials you could include in your portfolio:

Press releases
Website copy
Feature articles
Media pitches
Social media posts
A sample RFP (request for proposal) for a campaign or a detailed public relations campaign proposal
News media clippings of coverage you secured from pitches (it helps if you provide the original pitch that led to the media coverage)
Design artifacts

It is important to provide context for each piece you include to give the audience a better understanding of how the document came to be. These summaries can be brief, but should include information such as the name of the organization (or class) it was created for, as well as the goals of the document, and your process in creating the document. Describing that process may include discussing ideation, challenges, and even limitations you encountered.

Be ready to discuss your writing samples during a job interview. You may explain why you created the material and the results that came from it, such as increased website traffic and social media followers. For more examples of writing portfolios, click on the following links:

Other Important Points about the Online Writing Portfolio

As you work on more projects and articles, remember to include them in your portfolio. Constantly update the portfolio so that employers and professional contacts can see your most recent work. Include a minimum of two to three writing samples, although the quality of the portfolio materials matters more than the quantity.

Platforms for creating your online writing portfolio:

LinkedIn

LinkedIn, a professional social networking site, is an important space for connecting and networking with others in your field. LinkedIn profiles provide spaces for more traditional résumé content, such as education, work experience, skills, etc., but also provide opportunities to share the work you have done and additional images, join groups with people in similar roles/professions, and begin to brand yourself overall.

Because LinkedIn is an online platform, your profile is not going to be a static document and should be updated. Many people use LinkedIn on a daily basis to network with others and find jobs. As a professional writer, it will be important to use LinkedIn as a space to share your skills. Here is an example of the LinkedIn profile of a freelance writer.