Having a portfolio doesn’t mean what you think it means.

You probably think that a portfolio contains work you produced in your classes and you probably hope that it is applicable in the real world. The portfolio has become part of what Briana Reilly calls the American College Dream, where young adults believe they will be able to use their education to get a decent-paying and fulfilling job.

The belief is that you need to produce a portfolio before you can continue successfully down that path.

If this is what you believe a portfolio is about then go grab yours, empty it and come back and finish reading this story. Don’t have one? Good. Now forget all that you’ve been told about portfolios. We’re starting fresh.

Let me start by asking you the question that changed my life. Do you believe life is best built by traveling on a set path or through working on projects that add up to a valuable portfolio of experiences over time?

I’ve toyed with various answers to this question and concluded that a set path works – and in many cases, it works wonderfully – but if it’s a matter of what works “best” then a set path should be a last resort. (After all, inherent in their definition is the fact that they’re not going anywhere!)

Projects, on the other hand, define you. They build your brand and they make you into the person that a company or business wants to hire. Projects don’t just reflect the result of hard work; they are the story of those results.

I’m seeing a shift in the job market. When employers ask what you have done so far, they don’t want a chronologically ordered list of your previous occupations or a folder containing classroom creations. They want a story.

Very little impresses an employer more than a story of how you had a project outside of school involving work that was special to you, that you worked late at, that you went off-roading with. This is a basic show-and-tell concept. I mean, no one ever brought in their homework for show-and-tell, did they?

Think about it like this: Employers have listened to the same freakin’ stories for years! They’ve looked at thousands of resumes and cover letters. They’ve interviewed people who have previously worked at every oddball organization and that have attended every college and university in the nation. They have seen it all … well, almost.

Every day you have an opportunity to work on a project, to create your story, to stray off the path (yes, even stray far from the edge of it) and to build something for you, not for an employer or school.

Ironically, it is that very intention that makes your portfolio perfect for employers.

So it goes. Life truly is best built on projects that, over time, add up to a portfolio of valuable experiences. It’s not about the degree – it’s about all the stories of projects that you took up on the way to that degree.

To quote my favorite line in the film “Wanted,” “So, what the fuck have you done lately?”

Garth Beyer ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in journalism.