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A resume expresses your work in words.
A portfolio expresses your work visually, with only necessary words.
We will refer to "portfolio" as any designed text and visuals (and other related media) that shows your design and engineering work to potential employers, academic programs, and other interested people.
Welcome to Ideation Lab's Portfolio Resources. Throughout the academic year, we hope to have various workshops to give students an opportunity to learn about portfolios and develop the materials. Please fill out our survey so we can plan accordingly:
Email Geoff and Justin at ideation-portfolio@mit.edu if you have any thoughts, suggestions, or stories of making use of this information. We'd love to hear any feedback. Thank you for your patience and support as we begin to develop and refine this resource.
Looking for a way to get a quick portfolio up and running? Consider Seelio.
Website Structure
Here are the goals for the sections throughout this web resource:
Getting Started
provides specific instructions that help you begin your portfolio development, whether the content, layout or medium
examples of portfolios from fellow students
Software Tools
describes basic software to aid in the production of your portfolio and points to tutorials found elsewhere
Testimonials
professors, practitioners, hiring managers, and former students will provide brief pieces of advice in developing your portfolio
Where to Apply
a non-exhaustive list of product design related companies and degree programs
Motivation
Through its IAP design course, 2.97 Designing for People, members of the MIT Ideation Lab realized that students wanted resources to help them develop their portfolios: written and visual materials that convey their prior experiences to various audiences, such as peers, professors, and employers.
Development began in Summer 2010. In Fall 2010, Professor David Wallace provided an opportunity to develop this program as a part of the 2.009 special workshop series. In Spring 2011, we received an Alumni Class Fund grant.
As of July 2012, we have held 9 workshops, 2 of which were part of class lectures and consulted with over 10 undergraduate students in a one-on-one setting.
Justin Lai (SB '07) and Geoff Tsai (SB '09) have been the primary organizers, with the support and advice of their advisor Professor Maria Yang, Writing Across the Curriculum lecturers Jane Kokernak and Jane Connor, and countless other colleagues.