The Open University (2024)

A professional online profile or portfolio can help make a positive first impression with prospective employers and bring your career history and skills to life.

Many businesses and employers actively use social media platforms to develop professional relationships, grow business and recruit staff. LinkedIn is the main platform for professionals with millions of members worldwide. A LinkedIn profile enables you to add career examples and evidence, highlight key skills, share your employment history, connect with employers, and receive endorsem*nts to enhance your career progression.

A professional portfolio is a collection of examples and evidence to showcase your experience, capability and potential for employment and professional development. Professions that might require you to present a portfolio at the recruitment stage include designers, product managers, developers, business analysts and journalists but it can help you stand out to employers in other sectors as well.

You can have a link to your profile or portfolio on your CV, include it in a job application or interview, or share it when making contacts.

Create a LinkedIn profile

To get started you need to sign up to LinkedIn and create your profile. Your profile acts like your digital CV and can be seen by a huge audience so it’s worth spending some time working on it. Below are some points to consider.

  • Make your profile as complete as possible. LinkedIn has five levels of profile strength ranging from 'Beginner' to 'All Star'. The strength of your profile will increase as you add more content to it.
  • Use the profile level meter to improve the discoverability of your profile in search results and increase profile search appearances.
  • Adding a profile photo will improve your profile views and connection requests. See 10 tips for taking a professional profile photo.
  • If you’re currently working, add your position on your profile. Members with current positions are discovered more in recruiter searches.
  • When your profile is complete, check your privacy settings and manage your public profile visibility.

For further help getting started with your profile see How Do I Create a Good LinkedIn Profile?

We don’t get around to building our brand because we’re busy, and because it can sometimes feel selfish or egotistical to invest time in marketing ourselves. However, when we neglect personal branding, we don’t just sell ourselves short – we also miss a big opportunity, from a sales perspective.

Jane Deehan - Senior Content Marketing Manager at LinkedIn

As well as building your profile, if you want to achieve ‘All-Star’ status, you must have fifty or more connections. See our advice on Networking with LinkedIn to help you grow your network, plus LinkedIn has an online guide with a 5-minute video to help you find and add connections.

LinkedIn also offers a huge resource for job hunting and researching opportunities. See our advice on finding a job using LinkedIn.

Create an online portfolio

Your portfolio should contain written and visual overviews of projects and pieces of work that you’ve managed or been involved with. It should include an insight into skills you have, methods you've used, the impact of your work, along with any relevant outcomes and/or lessons you've learned. Identify relevant examples and evidence that best match the jobs or development opportunities you’re seeking. Make sure it’s easy for people to view your information, use plain English and check it for spelling and grammar.

What to include on your portfolio

  • Personal statement - this is an overview of your career journey, inspirations, background knowledge and career goals.
  • Reports, evaluations, research summaries or visual presentations (charts/tables etc.).
  • Published articles in which you're mentioned.
  • Photos of products you helped develop or artwork you've created for customers.
  • Photos of merchandise displays, if relevant.
  • Awards and certificates.
  • Appropriate professional licences.
  • Contact information for personal and professional references, or written endorsem*nts from them.

Online portfolio tools, websites and templates

Careers and Employability Services do not endorse or support the sites listed but provide them as examples of online portfolio tools. Some websites will charge a subscription fee to create an online portfolio, whilst others may offer a free version.

An individual web page portfolio can be created with sites such asAbout me or for a multi-page portfolio, Portfolio Boxwhich has a choice of templates for different sectors. You don't need extensive web skills, but you need to manage the website yourself and market and promote your portfolio. Blogs and templated sites such as WordPressprovide a website building toolkit and allow you to have more control over your digital portfolio. Other tools for online portfolios include Weebly, Wix and Prezi.

The Prospects website has further advice on Putting together a creative portfolio.

How to make use of your profile or portfolio

You can promote your profile or portfolio on social networking sites including Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn, and include it on your CV when making job applications. Many job sites allow you to upload your CV, which will be visible to employers, or you could send your CV to a prospective employer directly. Many sectors are continuously seeking the best candidates for employment opportunities but you may want to check whether an employer welcomes speculative applications or prefers not to receive CVs or portfolios unless a vacancy is advertised.

Many sectors, for example, psychology, have a professional body and website where practitioners can promote their service and provide any relevant specialist areas and contact details.

Remember your career is a work in progress so review and update your profile and/or portfolio at regular intervals with evidence of your continuous professional development (CPD).

The Open University (2024)

FAQs

Do employers take Open University degrees seriously? ›

Do Employers Respect Open University Degrees? Depending on your area of study, you may be expected to attend a certain university to work at certain companies or firms. However for the majority of degrees, your employers are going to respect your degree like it is any other degree, after all, it's a degree.

How credible is The Open University? ›

International recognition. Open University degrees awarded are comparable with those awarded by other UK universities. In fact, many employers and organisations worldwide employ Open University graduates and understand that an OU degree is equal in academic standard to a degree from any other British university.

Are Open University exams hard? ›

An OU degree is just as difficult as any other degree from a recognised university. Of course you have to work hard.

What score do you need to pass Open University? ›

Coursework Evaluation for Master's Degree
GradeMarksQuality
B50-59%Good/Pass
C40-49%Marginal Fail
D35-39%Fail
E0-34%Absolute Fail
2 more rows

What are the disadvantages of Open University? ›

Open university education may lack the extracurricular activities and social engagement that traditional on-campus institutions offer. Students may miss out on clubs, sports, cultural events, and networking opportunities typically available in a physical campus environment.

Do employers look down on online degrees? ›

Experts say employers are largely more interested in the person than the degree. They generally won't recognize immediately if that person's degree was obtained online or in person. Some schools are fully online while others offer online programs in addition to their traditional in-person options.

Can I get a job with an Open University degree? ›

Do employers recognise distance learning degrees? Yes. Employers accept degrees achieved through distance learning, and view them the same as an identical qualification that was studied on campus.

Do people accept Open University qualifications? ›

Open qualifications at the OU

Highly regarded by employers for its breadth and valued by students for its flexibility, an Open qualification equips you with a wide range of expertise, skills and capabilities that are much sought after in today's highly competitive job market.

Is a PhD from Open University valid? ›

A Ph. D. is considered valid only if it is pursued in regular or part-time mode at a recognised university. The IGNOU is recognised by the UGC and offers PhDs in regular and part-time modes, so it is valid.

Is Open University 100% online? ›

Modules are taught through entirely online study, or a combination of online and printed materials. Most tutorials are delivered online, so you'll be able to dial in anywhere you can get an internet connection.

What happens if you fail Open University? ›

If you take your exam but don't achieve the required standard for a pass on your module you may be offered a resit opportunity. There is a minimum requirement to qualify for a resit specific to your module/s which is explained in the Assessment section on StudentHome.

Can I transfer from Open University to another university? ›

If you would like to transfer credit awarded by The Open University towards study at another provider, we recommend that you contact that provider directly to find out about their credit transfer or Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) arrangements.

Are Open University diplomas recognised? ›

Many of the Open University qualifications and modules are accredited or recognised by a wide range of Professional, Statutory and Regulatory Bodies (PSRBs).

What is a pass 3 in Open University? ›

The OU grading system is particularly ruthless. Imagine you get perfect scores on all your homework, resulting in a continuous score of 100, but you bomb your exam, resulting in an examinable score of just 65. Since only the worst score is used to determine your course grade, you end the course with a Pass 3.

Does the first year of Open University count? ›

Yes and No. Studying part-time for an Open University degree can take 6 years or more so rather than first year, second year, etc., an OU degree consists of Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 modules. The credits for level 1 modules you complete do count towards the minimum 360 credits required for an OU honours degree.

Can you get a good job with an Open University degree? ›

It's probably a good idea to check out the available modules and the pathways you might follow, to get an idea of what's workable. In terms of jobs, a large percentage of graduate jobs are open to graduates in any discipline, so an open degree would certainly be fine for those.

Is the Open University employable? ›

According to THE (Times Higher Education), OU graduates are regarded as among the most employable in the UK (we're ranked 13th in the list). OU study certainly stands out on a CV, demonstrating initiative, resilience and the determination to succeed.

Is an online degree respected? ›

As many as 83% of business leaders see an online degree at a “well-known” institution as having the same value as an on-campus degree. If they are not familiar with a school, however, or the institution isn't known for producing prepared graduates from its programs, your degree may not be seen as having the same value.

What degree do most employers look for? ›

Among the Top Bachelor's Degrees in Demand
  • Business Administration.
  • Finance.
  • Marketing.
  • Accounting.
  • Computer Science.
  • Management Information Systems.
  • Information Sciences & Systems.
  • Logistics.

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