Upon receiving a diploma, many college graduates find themselves facing an increasingly competitive job market. This poses a challenge for candidates when it comes to finding ways to stand out and tell their unique story in an application. For many Geography and GIS students, a great way to highlight their skills and interests is through the power of ArcGIS Story Maps, by creating a resume or portfolio using ESRI’s pre-made templates. The inclusion of this kind of portfolio in a job or internship application can help applicants stand out from their peers, as well as market what is often extensive experience with the ArcGIS Suite. Story Map resumes and portfolios can be created in a number of ways, and the ESRI Story Map options provide enough flexibility to meet the needs of a variety of different portfolio and resumes.
Examples
This Story Map Cascade shows a great way to highlight experiences and background alongside a portfolio of work. The Cascade allows for the inclusion of a variety of multimedia, and links out to specific projects.
This Story Map Series showcases experience and portfolio work examples in a different format than the Story Map Cascade. The Story Map Journal format is slightly less dynamic than the Story Map Cascade, but includes a variety of embedded multimedia content.
This Story Map Series features different tabs for different categories of the author’s portfolio. The format allows for different applications (such as Cascades) to be embedded into each tab, allowing for diversity in the types of content which can be featured to highlight different experiences.
This Story Map Journal takes a different approach than the previous examples, highlighting the individual’s resume experiences through the embedded maps feature. Through its emphasis on experiences, the Story Map Journal also links out to examples of the individual’s work.
This final Story Map Journal resume introduces the author and features her experiences and portfolio through a combination of content, including text, embedded maps, and embedded images.
Tips & Ideas
- Find creative ways to incorporate maps into a Story Map, using the interactive features available through the software!
- Think about how best to visually display the information you want to convey – for example, do you want your portfolio include a lot of graphics or interactive maps or text, and how can you highlight those features through the available options when building a Story Map? This point applies to displaying information within the portfolio, as well as selecting a template initially. Some templates or display options are better to highlight images and maps as compared to text. Think about your goals carefully before making your portfolio!
- Make your portfolio accessible, so people can see and admire your work! Make sure the portfolio is public, and include a link on your resume, cover letter, and/or LinkedIn for recruiters or employers seeking more information about you.
As you can see, the ESRI ArcGIS Online suite provides a wide variety of options to create a resume or portfolio through Story Maps. This is a great opportunity to highlight work in the field of geography when applying to internships, jobs, and other opportunities!
Post written by Milan Liu.