The International Schools Review Forum

This sort of came up on another thread, so I thought I would ask. Personally, I would not take a portfolio to a job fair. However, I am wondering what others think? Did anybody do so and was it useful? What about others who did and it wasn't useful? Feel free to chime in. Remember - there IS NO RIGHT OR WRONG ANSWER.

I recommend taking a portfolio to a fair, especially if its digital and resides in the cloud, your really taking it everywhere you can send a link by email. I have only known a small handful of candidates that were asked for a portfolio, many of them didnt have one. Many of them were still ultimately successful (in terms of gaining an appointment somewhere). How many lost out on a dream appointment based on not having a portfolio, is likely with the rest of the data artifact.

A primary issue is how do you define a portfolio. If you envision a traditional portfolio such as in the fine and performing arts as a 'book' of accomplishments and works than its utility is greater for an Art, Music, Theater IT.

If your definition or capacity for a portfolio consists of transcripts, degrees, credentials, PD certificates, references then your application packet is essentially a portfolio.

Where the issue of utility is greatest is the digital portfolio thats essentially a web page indexing links to your resume, etc.. and video/audio that shows examples of teaching and projects. Its difficult to email those size of files, and you cant readily present them in an interview (though Ive seen ITs with tablets that had teaching demos on them, though there are better uses of time in an interview than showing a video).
Teaching Demos are the increasing value factor in terms of portfolio recommendations/requirements. Is recording a lesson on a phone, and uploading is to a cloud server, and sending a link when requested constitute a portfolio? If the IE or leadership response to that is yes, than portfolios are becoming of greater significance and value, if the answer is no, and your not an 'arts' IT than portfolios have marginal utility.

We've been to 3 job fairs and brought portfolios to the first two. No one ever asked if we had one and there really was only one interview where it seemed a perfect place to pull it out. We thought we had done a nice job with some documents, photos and other teaching artifacts but it seemed that the recruiter just looked at it politely (like the 100th baby photo your friend has shown you).

We didn't bring them to our third fair and felt that the universe would taunt us with a recruiter who was dying to see a portfolio from us but it didn't happen. It can't hurt to prepare and bring one and it may help you to focus on the things about your teaching success that you would like to work into the interview. But, we would never bother again.

As PG says, they may lend themselves to some other subjects/teaching areas. If I saw another job fair in my future I might contemplate putting something together digitally but I still don't really see it playing into an interview (although it certainly could be useful for prospective recruiters to learn more about you, inside or outside of a job fair).