Interviewer: Are you a team player?

Lani: Yes. Let me show you an example in my portfolio. I was project coordinator for the Arizona State Lupus Control Program, and Arizona had never had a lupus grant. A $60,000 grant (including my salary) funded the 25-member advisory committee I formed to write a Lupus state plan. My vision was to integrate a team of professionals and heal lupus in Arizona by interweaving Western medicine with Eastern and Native American medicine. [opens portfolio and shows photos of diverse individuals collaborating with each other] I gathered, interviewed, and invited physicians, Native American healers, chiropractors, Reiki masters, orthopedic surgeons, the chief of military medicine physicians, senators, private researchers, professors, and physicians to join together to heal Arizonans by integrating healing and medicine [shows copy of the Lupus state plan]. I led the writing of the plan, which was distributed to the legislature and the U.S Congress. Our U.S. senator wrote a letter [shows copy of letter] praising the plan's philosophy.

Use your portfolio to tell stories in response to questions about specific problems and work situations, answering the questions while showcasing corresponding work from the portfolio. "The portfolio can be used more to highlight an example of a topic or question in the interview," states a career expert from the Quintessential Careers research. "The candidate should think of the individual parts of the portfolio as examples in the interview, rather than trying to incorporate the whole portfolio to be worked in somewhere. I think of the portfolio in the interview as a teaser. Once you pull out something as an example, then I might wonder, 'what else do you have in that portfolio' Then I want to definitely see it, or at least more of it."

Be proactive in presenting your portfolio to interviewers in response to interview questions. You can begin your responses to many interview questions by saying, "Let me show you an example in my portfolio of exactly what you're asking about..." Don't overdo it, though; time is often constrained for interviews, so limit your portfolio presentations to responses that illustrate your best and most relevant skills and accomplishments.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.