Jim Parham, PR Chronicle

Yep, those resumes start popping up like mushrooms in the spring again. We spend a lot of time in the blog talking about resumes, cover letters, marketing approaches to land the first interview, internship or job. But, that’s what is of interest to budding professionals.

I’d like to emphasize the importance of developing a portfolio of material to reside alongside the resume. As someone who deals with the written word, you need to show potential employers, your written material. Simple, right?

Unfortunately, my experience is that young people put a lot of time and effort into the resume and cover letter, but do little to develop a strong portfolio of material. This is a mistake. You must sell yourself through your work.

A few questions and answers about the public relations portfolio:

Does all the material in there have to be published work?
It would be ideal, but many young people don’t have enough to impress, so they need to show school work, too. Well done press releases for classes, fact sheets, even communication plans or audits are good to show.

Do I need to leave the portfolio with them?
Well, that’s a good question. Ideally, yes, but there is a risk it might get lost or misplaced. So, I’d take the bound portfolio but leave only “representative” copies of what’s in there. Better yet, direct them to your web page you’ve created to highlight your good stuff. That’s impressive.

What, specifically, should be in a PR portfolio?
Representative samples of the tools of the trade: A press release or two, a pitch letter, a fact sheet, a backgrounder, a communication plan or a marketing piece. You can also include samples of special event plans, annual reports, video news releases or newsletters you’ve worked on or written.

How should I organize and present the work?
Don’t go cheapo on the binder. Make it nice, professional, leather, slick. Put some time into the typography on the cover, make the layout look nice. Organize it with the best stuff first, in case you don’t get to the later stuff. It must exude professionalism and pride. Also, sometimes creative packaging is a good attention-getter, but don’t go overboard on that.

At the end of the day, no one particular item, idea, answer or sample will land you a job. It’s the cumulative impact of the total package – your maturity, grace under questioning, variety of experiences, samples of your work and quite possibly a writing test and AP style quiz.

I remember the rage around paradigm. Once I learned how to spell it, it seemed to drop off the face of the earth. In graduate school, we had an exciting lecture on paradigm shift, and then, bang, a television commercial with the word paradigm, big time, right in the middle of it. That was the beginning of a useful word’s death.

Today, a new presidential administration means a whole new set of buzz words. They sprouted on the early campaign trail, grew like weeds in the summer months and blossomed in full regalia in the fall. Harvesting them now would be a good idea.

Transparency. Now that’s a word that sounds good. Looking through something, seeing everything behind the veil, examining the hidden. The US government has been using that word in nuclear non-proliferation for years. We look into Russian silos, they look into ours. Like playing a megaton version of doctor.

But now, transparency has become transparent. I use here the meaning listed third in the Oxford dictionary…open to public scrutiny. C’mon. It’s time to place it along side other grave diggers like, “going postal,” “ballistic” and “parse.”

I like the word “change,” and even better “hope.” You cannot beat these timeless gems of our English language. And they are getting a workout on the national stage. Besides going aerobic, they have staying power and a strong image. Sort of like, Jane Fonda.

However, it may well be time to do something about crisis. It’s up there with chaos and my favorite, “train wreck.” Crisis been thrust into the limelight as an almost unwilling participant in explaining our national economic [pick one] (1) Disaster (2) Downturn (3) Catastrophe.

Actually, we need to spice up crisis a bit. I suggest cataclysm, debacle and fiasco. But they are a lot harder to spell. So, maybe paradigm is sounding good again.