Survey Questions

1. I found that the most challenging aspect of the process was trying to complete the portfolio at the end of my college career. Had I been able to work on the portfolio each year or each semester, I would have been better prepared to tie it all together at the end and make observations about how I have improved.
   
2. The portfolio could be improved by giving more control over the presentation and inclusion of matrix squares to the user.
3. I think the first year students will respond well to the portfolio. There are certainly aspects of the portfolio which are not relevant to first year students, but I think that the portfolio will give them a unique opportunity to step back and consider where their current path is taking them.
4. 70% of the students who start their portfolios in their first year will still be updating them when they are juniors. I think some students will not see the utility of the portfolio until their senior year when they are preparing to enter the workforce or apply to grad school.
5. Most of the instructions are easy to follow, but there were some points where I was confused, which I explained in my journal
6. I do feel I learned something about my Rutgers experience. There were skills I acquired at Rutgers and elsewhere during my college career that I had not considered, and others which I would not have felt prepared to explain in an interview or resume until I completed the portfolio.
7. Now that I have worked on the portfolio, I have quite a bit of content to add to my portfolio on my personal website. I also feel that I am better prepared for an interview.
8. I am graduating in October, but I will most likely return to the Rutgers portfolio at least once more as I continue searching for a job.
   

Resume/Portfolio Creation and Final Thoughts on the Experience Matrix & Resume Builder

Resume/Portfolio Creation
Today I spent a few minutes constructing a resume. I didn't have any supporting materials to add, but I noticed that the list of possible items contained every resource I had available to me through Sakai, including supplements professors had provided through Sakai class sites. I also received an error when I attempted to preview the portfolio.

Now that I've created a resume/portfolio, I think I would have been better off if I had created it from the start, because it provides a better way to review the work I have completed so far in the experience matrix. It's really convenient to be able to edit something in the Exp. Matrix and have it update automatically in the portfolio.

I was a little bit disappointed that I couldn't pick and choose which squares from the matrix to include in the accomplishments section. There was one which doesn't contain any content because I was unable to delete a reflection, and another which was not quite complete.

Final Thoughts on the Experience Matrix & Resume Builder
The resume builder and the experience matrix were quite useful. The resume builder forced me to structure my resume a little differently than how I'm used to doing it, but it was nice to experiment with an alternative approach. My only complaint about the resume builder is that I couldn't see which sections I had completed from the main resume builder menu.

The experience matrix was an interesting exercise that forced me to think about what I've accomplished over the last five years. While I'm not sure I would want to present all of the information I entered to an employer, I think I am better prepared to present myself in an interview.

Overall I would say that the Rutgers Portfolio was very helpful in preparing me for a job hunt. I will most likely use the content generated from the portfolio in my own personal website, because I would like to have more control over how it is presented, and because I want the resume itself to be an example of my technical skills.

Experience Matrix

Today I had to rewrite some of the work I completed on a reflection again, because of some difficulties with my browser that caused me to have to restart the program. I've started typing my reflections in Microsoft Word so that I can more easily save as I go. It would be a vast improvement if there were some sort of 'save and continue' button or a 'save as draft' button in the editor for the experience matrix. It would also be helpful if I could tell weather or not a reflection has been entered into a square, and what the question is for the square from either the editor or the matrix overview.

I spent about two hours working on another four squares (all of which need some additional work)

Resume Builder: Experience Section & More on the Experience Matrix

I spent about a half hour reentering my reflection for the square that I lost. Incedentally, I think the problem was that at some point I used the back button. I don't think Sakai is very friendly with the back button. I also noticed that the squares don't seem to change if I enter a reflection, they only show icons for the attachments I've added. This leaves me somewhat confused about what completed, locked, and pending mean in the legend at the bottom.

I also worked on the experience section of the resume builder. Under description of responsibilities, I'm assuming that whatever I enter will automatically be shown as a bulleted list, judging by the examples.

While working on the experience section of the resume builder, I was uncertain as to weather I should include positions which don't directly relate to my field. For example, should I include my jobs at Applebee's as a server and UPS as a package loader? I know they do not demonstrate any knowledge of technical skills, but they do show that I have worked consistently through college and that I know the value of hard work (commiserating with another former UPS package loader is always a helpful bonus in job interviews.)

More on the Experience Matrix

For the Oral Communication/Coursework & Projects square I uploaded a video of a 15 minute class I taught half of. I noticed that there weren't any reflective questions for this square. I decided to also upload the reflection paper I wrote for that course and I put a brief description of the assignment in the reflection area.

I am curious as to whether I should occasionally ignore the questions presented in a square in favor of describing an experience which fits the square's location but doesn't answer the square's reflexion question. For example, I was considering describing my time working as a waiter in the Internship/Oral Communication square. I could describe how my time as a waiter helped me become more comfortable in both public speaking and one on one conversations with interviewers and customers. I have also considered describing my job as a lab assistant and tutor at Brookdale Community College as an experience where I learned to use my oral communication skills to help students troubleshoot their problems and learn more about their problem areas (as opposed to simply providing them with the correct answers)

I found myself occasionally having to open a new window to look back at the reflection question I was in the process of answering. I would be easier to answer the question if it were displayed on the page that I enter my answer.

I completed 2 squares in about 2 hours, but one of the squares was lost when "and unexpected error occurred" I wish there was an auto-save feature like there is for this blog.

First Impressions of the Resume Builder

Under contact information, what does the 'order' field do?

When faced with the task of writing an objective for my resume, I was somewhat at a loss. The directions for constructing an objective were helpful, but I felt compelled to find more advice elsewhere online. Perhaps if career services has a more developed tutorial for writing objectives or more examples of good objectives they could link to it to open in a new window.

While looking at the summary example, I can't help but wonder whether all of the example students are over achievers or if I am an under achiever....

"Rutgers University – School of Communication, Information and Library Sciences" doesn't fit under institution.

With respect to the relevant courses section, is there any way to indicate which school a particular course was taken at? I have courses at both Brookdale and Rutgers that are relevant to my field.

I spent about an hour working on the Resume Builder

Matrix: First Impressions

Here are some of my first impressions of the experience matrix:

What if one of my experiences fits into two categories? For example, leadership/service and social responsibility/service are both good places to talk about my experiences achieving the Eagle Scout award and subsequently becoming an Assistant Scoutmaster in the BSA. I'm guessing that the matrix is just there as a tool to help me create the content and it isn't really present on the front end. Therefore it doesn't actually matter which square I put a particular experience in, as long as the display name is accurate. I'm still not sure whether it would be best to mention the same experience in two different squares and just discuss it in the context of each square, or if I should talk about the experience on one page of the portfolio with respect to both topics (leadership and social responsibility).

What if I have two experiences that fit into the same square?

I spent about 45 minutes considering what artifacts I could put in each square. I came up with about 8 different squares worth of work, and noted that I would have to come up with something good for a 9th square--Coursework vs Computer skills--because of my field. I haven't written any reflections for this section yet.

Section 1:First Impressions

These are some of my first impressions from the section 1 reflection area:

I have to wonder, if the content isn't going to show up in my portfolio, is it only viewable by me, or is it also available to career services councilors, etc.?

The default display name is spelled incorrectly.

Work Interests and Goal after Graduation seem a little redundant. At least they are in my case. I know I want to work "in IT", but I'm not clear on whether the question is asking me what sort of work I want to do or what sort of company I want to work for. I've answered both questions to the best of my ability already in the Goal After Graduation reflection area.

I don't think anyone wants to work in a stressful environment. At least I don't think people who do work in stressful environments look at it that way. Perhaps "High Pressure" or "Fast Paced" would be a better description.

When I tried to save my work for the part 1 reflections, I was over the 100 character limit on all of the responses. If there is a character limit, why couldn't the text box be set to limit my response so that I find out about the limit before I submit my answers? And why am I being punished for providing carefully crafted--if not terribly concise--answers? After trying to trim all of my answers down to 100 characters I become frustrated and gave up.
Here is the error message:

!Value I would like to secure an IT related position at a company that doesn't necessarily provide a computer related product or service. Possibly doing database design/data modeling or web development. for field Goal after graduation must be less than 100 characters

!Value I would like to live relatively close to family and friends here in New Jersey. I would prefer working in central/north Jersey or possibly some place where public transportation is available from central/north Jersey (like NYC, for example) for field Desired location must be less than 100 characters

!Value Oral Communication skills, Customer Service skills (may be applied to "Internal Customers"), Computer Research skills, Teaching skills, Computer Programming skills. for field Skills must be less than 100 characters

!Value I'm not sure what sort of company I would like to work in exactly, although I think I would prefer to work in the IT devision of a company that doesn't sell a computer related product/service. I am interested in Database Design, Web Development, and Education (ie designing technology oriented training programs, developing software for education, etc.) for field Work Interests must be less than 100 characters

!Value I would like to work about 40 hours a week, but I feel it is more important that I work somewhere where the hours are consistent and based on a normal 9-5 work day. I wouldn't mind having to put in extra hours or having to work an occasional weekend as long as I'm not working with a changing schedule or late night/overnight shifts. I would prefer to provide a service to the company's 'Internal Customers' as an IT professional over developing a product. for field Work Values must be less than 100 characters

I finished this section after about an hour.