The Professional Presence (PP) project communicates your expertise, credentials, experience, and overall professional readiness through appropriate digital documents: resumé, digital portfolio, and social media profile (e.g., LinkedIn). The centerpiece of the PP is a portfolio that can anchor your digital presence for professional marketing and beyond. The PP challenges you to establish and control a narrative about your professional development, knowledge and abilities, and career goals.
This project requires draft and final submissions. Submit your project files in a folder labeled ProfessionalPresence through your shared course space on Dropbox.com. Because individual projects may take different forms, there may be several options for posting relevant content.
The draft and final submissions of the project require the following elements.
You may be able to link the components of the project through the memo of transmittal.
Document type: memo; digital portfolio (html, interactive pdf); resumé; social media profile
Document length: 150 words (memo); variable, see below (portfolio); 1-2 pages (resumé); variable, see below (social media profile)
Project value: 450 points (50 points for draft, 400 points for final submission)
Evaluation rubric: _RPW425_Eval_ProfesionalPresence.pdf
The Professional Presence (PP) requires you to craft a coordinated online presence that establishes a sense of identity and ability for colleagues and prospective employers. Although you may customize the array of components to best suit your needs as a professional, the baseline assumption is that your project will include a social media profile (e.g., LinkedIn), a printable resumé, and a professional portfolio. Each element should somehow connect with and complement the others. The goal is to construct a professional narrative to support your networking and job seeking activities.
Note the potential for content shared among the various components of your professional presence. Use the overlapping qualities of these project elements to be strategic for how you present content. Consider how each specific design context might impact your decisions for presenting that content.
The profile portion of your PP should provide one important focal point for your online presence. Although your other PP elements may also appear online, your social media profile serves as a primary networking site for many of your professional connections.
Your profile should incorporate all of the following content elements.
The resumé portion of your PP should provide a quick distillation of the core details in your professional narrative. Your resumé is one possible tool for inviting an interview from a prospective employer. Although they now rarely serve as the first point of contact with other professionals, the resumé remains relevant for sharing details quickly and succinctly.
Develop and organize your content strategically, to most efficiently and effectively communicate your qualifications for the kind of professional positions you seek. Emphasize achievements, impact, and contributions over generic details that offer primarily descriptive information.
Your resumé should incorporate all of the following content elements, although not necessarily in the order listed.
The portfolio portion of your PP should provide a more-focused and sustained professional narrative. This is your opportunity to craft a document that explores your accomplishments (or elements of them) in a detailed, narrative-driven manner.
Your portfolio should incorporate all of the following content elements.
A memo of transmittal introduces the accompanying document to its audience(s). You will craft such a memo with each submission for the project. Your memos should be addressed from you to me, and should introduce the accompanying project. Your memos should incorporate the following content elements.
Recommended tool(s): professionally appropriate design software (for the portfolio); Adobe InDesign (or Scribus Team Scribus), scanning app/device, digital camera, digital video camera
This section offers guidance for how to interpret the project, and for how to proceed with your work on it. Therefore, as you work, consider the following 3 strategies:
Frame your professional narrative so it serves your goals and needs. Construct the story at the big-picture level as well as at the level of smaller details. Consider how all the parts stand alone and how they work together to craft a coherent narrative about you and your professional development.
Examine the challenges of professional promotion as a design strategist. Consider how visitors might learn from each component, and how all of the components coordinate and complement one another. Evaluate how each of your documents might and might not meet audience expectations.
Use past projects to demonstrate your abilities by showcasing your accomplishments. However, hold your work to high standards. If it is not professional grade (even if it was good enough to succeed in a course), then elevate each project prior to integrating it into your professional narrative.
This section is designed to help you anticipate and avoid problems as you work on this project. Therefore, as you work, consider the following 3 hints and tips:
Research the documents in your professional narrative as genres. You have ample tools and resources for doing so. Develop designs that support your content effectively, and that establish a strong professional ethos.
Observe what makes these professional documents effective, complete, and authentic. Incorporate those observations into the construction of your presence and narrative. Strive for high levels of professionalism and consistency in your work. Draw on any design samples that I provide.
The revisions and refinements you make from the draft to the final submission may help you understand your design process, and therefore your professional development in more-sophisticated ways. Archive your drafts of projects throughout your coursework, so you are able to examine your growth and maturation.
Read and attend carefully to these submission guidelines. Failure to do so may result in delays in receiving feedback on the draft of your project, or in points lost on the final evaluation of your project.
Create a project folder inside your shared class folder on Dropbox.com. Remember, I can only view files that you place inside the shared folder. Until you place files in that space, you have not in practice submitted them.
Name the folder ProfessionalPresence.
Make the files I need to review your work available to me in the project folder by the draft deadline. Model your filenames on the listed examples:
Remember that your submission may not include all of these components as separate files.
Note. Do not share the individual files with me. By placing them in your project folder, you have already shared them by default.
Make the files I need to evaluate your work available to me in the project folder by the draft deadline. Model your filenames on the listed examples:
Note that the Feedback file is one you receive from me in response to your draft submission. Move it into your project folder when you assemble your final submission.
Again, remember that your submission may not include all of these components as separate files.
Note. Do not share the individual files with me. By placing them in your project folder, you have already shared them by default.
This section describes the standards by which your draft and final submissions will be evaluated.
There are 50 possible points for this project draft. I will award points according to the following standard.
There are 300 possible points for the final project. You will earn points according to the standard described on the policies page (40% content development, 20% design execution, and 20% professionalism & attention to detail, and 20% impact of revision; see Policies). The specific areas of emphasis for this project are drawn from the description and discussion of the project, and are detailed in the evaluation rubric (_RPW425_Eval_ProfesionalPresence.pdf).
Remember that I will only post the point values for projects on the Grades page in SVSU Canvas. I will post the details relevant to that evaluation in your class folder in a project-specific file.
If you are here because of random chance, or because this content came up in a search, then poke about, and read if you see something useful or interesting. If you are a teacher in any context and would like to use any of this content in your courses, feel free to do so. However, if you borrow this material, please do two things: