The American Statistical Association’s (ASA) Committee on Career Developments (CCD) Portfolio project focuses on building a personal portfolio website. This focus is purposed with making career development intentional and not an activity that is only undertaken when there is a request for a portfolio from a perspective employer (business or academia) is needed. Career development should and must be ongoing from start of a career until its completion. This is possible with a personal portfolio website and an e-portfolio.

The start of a career generally takes place after college graduation. This is the time when effort is made to showcase one’s skills, training and education that has taken place during class projects, internships, or work-study arrangements. This is the time when the portfolio may be limited with experience but heavily based on accomplishments under guided instruction of a professor. Whereas, for mid-career professionals, it is a matter of tailoring the portfolio to meet the requirements of the pursued position. Then, for near-end career professionals, it is a matter of showcasing the vast experience one has attained over a lifetime body of work. Each of these scenarios is best met with a personal portfolio website and an electronic-based portfolio (e-portfolio) that can grow with you as you move along your career path.

The pursuit of a career with its exposures and accomplishments being adequately portrayed is so important that a month of the year is dedicated to it. November of each year has been described as National Career Development Month. Sziron (2021) writing in HigherEdJobs addresses each of the stages of career development in her article, “Ways to Celebrate National Career Development Month.”¹

For those early in their careers with freshly minted degrees it is recommended seeking out three mentors that are not your potential boss or your boss. The mentors include someone in your field that doesn’t have competing interests with you. Someone, perhaps a professor, that is from your time spent in undergraduate or graduate school and someone that is familiar with your lifestyle (hobbies, what is important to you, a person to recalibrate your aspirations). These are or can be your job references and career guides.

For those in mid-careers, it is recommended that the portfolio be engaged to consider leadership moving up and moving on determiners. This would include salary considerations, circle of influence in a new position, and upping your game with new skills, training and/or education pursuits. Design of the personal portfolio website and an e-portfolio in this career stage should demonstrate mobility of experience that is stepwise to higher and higher roles and responsibilities.

For those professionals at the near-end of careers, the personal portfolio website and e-portfolio should demonstrate transition and managing career disappointments. Identifying possible career perceived barriers is needed to include background in a different field, and cultural and/or group chemistry that appears not to be in alignment with a potential job. Also, the personal portfolio website and e-portfolio should demonstrate efforts to be successful even when career disappointments arose. This would be exposed as questions pertaining to what you have to offer that hasn’t already been achieved in your career or hints of overqualification for a position.

The recommendations for stages of a career whether it is just getting started, in the middle, or at the end of a career all require planning and development along with most importantly self-care. Self-care is recommended to ensure mental health is maintained in the career development and job search. With the changing times of at-home work locations or remote work opportunities, pandemic regulations and requirements, and feelings of getting stuck in managing your future, a self-care routine is important.

In summary the personal portfolio website and e-portfolio can grow with you and provide instant access to potential employers. For that reason, it must be planned and maintained to be current and accessible. So, be reminded that a purposeful career is more than the content of a resume or curriculum vitae, although that is extremely important; it is also the technology used to document it. A personal portfolio website and e-portfolio can be filled with content that demonstrates an effort to document and track career aspirations over time. It can display measured steps to obtain those aspirations, and an awareness that your personal portfolio website and e-portfolio represents you as a first impression.