By Rae Maher

Building out your portfolio is one of the main purposes of a senior project. To help you build your best portfolio, here are a few questions that should guide you in choosing what kind of project you want to do.

  1. What skills are employers looking for?
  2. What have you already done?
  3. How well does your portfolio show off the most important skills?
  4. What do you feel you can do better?

After your resume, a portfolio of your work is what employers will be looking at to determine if you’d make a good hire. You want to make sure you have good examples of the kinds of skills your chosen profession uses the most as well as a few more niche skills.

 The Balance, using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, breaks down the skills digital media companies are looking for into several categories. The main two are communication and technology.

Adobe Creative Cloud and the various Adobe applications it grants access to are right at the top of the technical skills list. Analytics, HTML, Java, presentation software, Microsoft Office, and management software follow swiftly after.

Including a gallery of still images, panoramas, videos, and audio samples is a good way to demonstrate a working knowledge of the main Adobe programs, including Aftereffects and Illustrator.

Multi-media journalism is where communication skills are only marginally more important than technical skills.

According to The Balance, client relations is one of the most looked for communication skills. Copywriting, copy editing, teamwork, and interviewing make up the rest of the top five communication skills.

Examples of copywriting, copyediting, proofreading, Microsoft Office, teamwork, and storytelling can be found in the same place: your writing homework. When you complete a peer edit, you work with a peer by proofreading and editing their work. Most writing assignments are completed using Microsoft Office, demonstrating knowledge of the program. All journalism is storytelling, for a certain point of view.

Social media is a quickly growing and ever evolving market. Adding a link to your social media accounts in your about page and the first page of your resume is an important step to take. Linktree is a great resource, allowing you to keep links to all your work organized in one location.

Diversity and flexibility are important as well. As is making your senior year a good experience. Take a look at the projects your professors have given you and what they haven’t. If there’s a project type you don’t have a good example of in your portfolio, think about if it’s something you’d like to try. Similarly, if there’s something you’ve done already but feel you’d do better as a senior, that might be a good place to start.

One final thing to keep in mind as you build your portfolio and plan out your capstone project is what industry you want to go into. Tailor your capstone to the job you want just like you would a resume.