Expanding Your Professional Portfolio | Rowan Schaaf

It’s incredibly important to build professional skills and create a portfolio that will help you land a job and advance in your career. Doing so will allow you to align your skills with your current role and take advantage of your talents. Here are some ways that you can grow your professional portfolio.

Volunteering

During your free time, you can explore other ways to develop new skills and enhance your existing ones. For instance, volunteering with a non-profit organization or start-up can give you more autonomy and allow you to control the type of work that you choose to do.

There are many different types of volunteering opportunities that you can choose from, such as event-based activities and those that require a lot of commitment. Before you commit to a project, make sure that you have the necessary skills and knowledge to help the organisation.

If you are volunteering, you will most likely feel very grateful and fulfilled to support the organisations and people that you care about. Doing so will enable you to build a portfolio that showcases your skills and connect with potential employers.

Passion projects

You have the power to manage your own projects and outcomes. Although it won't show much in terms of teamwork or collaborative skills, you can still showcase the work that you have created.

Before you start a project, it's important that you identify your interests and hobbies. This will allow you to develop a strategy that will help you build the skills that you need for your future career.

For example, if you enjoy traveling and want to improve your skills in video production and editing, you can create YouTube videos from the clips that you took on your last adventure.

Rather than "tell" your skills, use your portfolio to show them. For instance, if you're a good writer, you can use it to promote your writing skills by creating articles or other written content. You can also contribute to organisations' newsletter programs.

Collaboration

You can also ask other people or organisations that you know that could use your skills to collaborate or receive your work. In order to connect with them, send them a message asking if they are interested in working with you.

In your pitch, explain what you're willing to provide them and see whether they're interested in working with you. It could be something as simple as a blog post or an event that you're planning on running.-

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About Rowan Schaaf

Rowan Schaaf is most well known for being the CEO and co-Founder of the company Pattern-- positions that he's held proudly since 2014. In his company, Rowan is currently in charge of working with a number of incredibly skilled and intelligent industry professionals, who are all dedicated to giving their clients a number of cloud-based business solutions. Rowan's clients range anywhere from corporations and government bodies to not-for-profit organisations, eCommerce businesses, and educational institutions.

Throughout his entire career, Rowan Schaaf has worked toward developing a number of different skills that complement his career, as well as becoming an expert in things he was already knowledgable in. Some of these skills are more technological development based, including digital strategy, web development, online marketing, creative strategy, brand development, web project management, information architecture, CRM, UX, eCommerce, and mobile applications. He's also developed a number of business development skills, such as mobile marketing, strategic planning, creative direction, integrated marketing, product development, marketing communications, leadership, and management.

One of the things that keeps Rowan going is that he is first and foremost a parent. One of his favorite things to do when he's not working is spending time with his beloved family. Not only that, but he also loves to help develop his community. Rowan joined Make-A-Wish New Zealand back in 2011 as a Trustee, even working his way up the organisation in a Chair position. While a member of Make-A-Wish, Rowan was directly involved in some incredible organisational changes. One of the things he helped out with was bringing Bayleys as a cornerstone sponsor. He also helped implement a direct giving programme. While working with the not-for-profit organization, Rowan gained invaluable experience and knowledge when learning how the Board and organisation Executives work together to bring about success for the organisation.

To learn more about Rowan Schaaf, be sure to visit his websites!