Key elements of a successful digital career portfolio for building a strong personal image in the competitive labor market
Afanasyeva, Olga (2018)
Afanasyeva, Olga
Jyväskylän ammattikorkeakoulu
2018
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2018061113474
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2018061113474
Tiivistelmä
The labor market is a competitive field for job applicants, and it is a time-consuming process for recruiters to find the most suitable candidates for a job. Strong personal branding with a portfolio as a vital element is a way to differentiate in the labor market and create advantage for a job applicant. In the world with the constant development of technology, it is more relevant to focus on a digital career portfolio.
The main objective was to examine a successful digital career portfolio as a positive addition to a resume and its influence on the decisions of the recruiters. Two sub-objectives for the study were exploring theoretical information with regard to a career portfolio and examining the current and possible future platforms and applications for creating a digital portfolio. The research questions focused on determining the key elements and characteristics of a successful digital career portfolio.
The qualitative research approach was selected for the implementation of the study because it allowed to assemble information for a detailed understanding of the phenomenon. Semi-structured interviews were used as a method for obtaining the primary data. Purposeful sampling was used for selecting the interviewees who were responsible for recruiting employees for various fields. The interviews were organized through Skype in March 2018. All the interviews were recorded, and prior to the data analysis, they were transcribed and coded.
The results demonstrated the significance of a digital career portfolio in the process of selecting potential employees and its influence on the recruiters’ decisions. The results also highlighted the key elements and characteristics of a successful digital career portfolio. Those elements were high-quality photographs, collection of successful work tasks from diverse fields, unified design, organized navigation, recommendations and feedback. Communication with the users, modern techniques, organized structure, briefness and relevance to the position, visibility and completeness of information as well as user-friendly and personalized design were defined as the key characteristics of a career portfolio.
The main objective was to examine a successful digital career portfolio as a positive addition to a resume and its influence on the decisions of the recruiters. Two sub-objectives for the study were exploring theoretical information with regard to a career portfolio and examining the current and possible future platforms and applications for creating a digital portfolio. The research questions focused on determining the key elements and characteristics of a successful digital career portfolio.
The qualitative research approach was selected for the implementation of the study because it allowed to assemble information for a detailed understanding of the phenomenon. Semi-structured interviews were used as a method for obtaining the primary data. Purposeful sampling was used for selecting the interviewees who were responsible for recruiting employees for various fields. The interviews were organized through Skype in March 2018. All the interviews were recorded, and prior to the data analysis, they were transcribed and coded.
The results demonstrated the significance of a digital career portfolio in the process of selecting potential employees and its influence on the recruiters’ decisions. The results also highlighted the key elements and characteristics of a successful digital career portfolio. Those elements were high-quality photographs, collection of successful work tasks from diverse fields, unified design, organized navigation, recommendations and feedback. Communication with the users, modern techniques, organized structure, briefness and relevance to the position, visibility and completeness of information as well as user-friendly and personalized design were defined as the key characteristics of a career portfolio.