Career Strategy Secrets: Capture your receipts

“I don’t have the receipts.”

“I signed a confidentiality clause not to talk about client work.”

“I was worried about doing my work, not getting my next job.”

Over 700 people have joined Growclass so far this year, and the majority of them are marketers. I’ve had the good fortune of running career strategy sessions with many of them. Getting a mention in their celebratory posts as they level up weeks or months later is the biggest rush.

One thing that comes up (A LOT) in these conversations is how important and daunting it can be to build a portfolio. There’s a lot of resistance to talking about—and showing—our work.

But I’ll tell you a secret: Receipts are how marketers get hired.

And any project can be anonymized enough to show the shape of it in an interview–which is what matters.

In my LinkedIn tear-ups sessions, I talk often about having examples that show:

1. What you walked into in a past role.

2. What you delivered while you held that seat.

3. How you left the company better positioned for commercial success after you left.

If you don’t have the receipts, I feel your pain. I’ve been there.

Popular hacks include:

• Brainstorm everything you can remember about your projects and augment your case study with public-facing assets.
• Reach out to close peers who are still in house. They screenshot the data, you build the case study, and both of you get a stellar piece for your portfolio.
• Look at your peers: How do they tell the story of your mutual success? What can you learn from them? If they’ve got better assets, ask for permission to use the visuals with attribution.

Better still, learn from your mistakes.

Set a 30-minute meeting with yourself once a quarter. Call it something unrelated. Use that time to save the visuals that prove you know how to deliver excellent work.

It’s the best recurring meeting you’ll ever take.