Prior to my gig with Artisan, I was a writer with a global consulting firm. My work included writing online benefits content viewed by internal audiences of other global organizations. Let’s say I wasn’t penning Addy-winning pieces but the content was dense, information-heavy material spun to target a professional global audience. Most of my day was mired in uploading and organizing content using a content management system. I spent a year with this organization and it pained me to think about the negative impact the lack of creative work would have on my portfolio.
Fast-forward six years and here I sit at Artisan where daily I field requests from clients who want to see samples of precisely this type of content. Seriously! People want to see this stuff! Fortunately I had the foresight at my old job to familiarize myself with the organization’s copyright and presentation restrictions otherwise I’d have nothing to show for the previous year of employment.
The morale of this story isn’t ground-breaking; it’s a gentle reminder for writers to not only save your stuff, but print it. Get a cheap three-ring binder and print out screen shots of your work because future clients and hiring will want to see it no matter how mundane you think it is.
I’ve already written about the importance of familiarizing yourself with using various CMS tools and providing screen shots of your ability to work within them provides proof that yes, you can upload your writing to the web.