Module: Professional Persona

Concepts of a professional persona and initial steps to build and improve your online professional presence.

Learning Outcomes

Create a high quality professional persona

You can join and participate in two professional networks (LinkedIn, TechHui).
You can design and implement a high quality website providing a portfolio of your professional accomplishments and interests.

Create high quality technical essays

You demonstrate the ability to write professional-quality technical essays.

Readings

Guided tour of the professional persona module

Why, what, how, and when you will learn about professional personas.

Screencast 3 min

Professional Persona

Concepts of a professional persona

screencast 10 min

How to get an internship

The author had internships at Pixar, Google, and Two Sigma, and is now employed at Google. Here are his tips, including the importance of a professional portfolio.

Professional portfolio style guide

Guidelines for creating a usable and effective professional portfolio

Technical essay style guide

Guidelines for creating high quality technical essays

Software engineers should write

“The best software engineers are great writers because their prose is as logical and elegant as their code.”

Experiential Learning

E03: Experience LinkedIn

Learn how to join LinkedIn and set up your profile.

26 Aug 11:30 PM

E04: Experience TechHui

Learn how to join TechHui and participate in discussions.

27 Aug 11:30 PM

E05: Experience a professional portfolio

Learn how to design and implement your professional portfolio.

04 Sep 11:30 PM

Assessments

A01: Assessment of your professional persona

Outcomes assessed: Create a high quality professional persona, Create high quality technical essays

This assessment evaluated your ability to define a professional persona consisting of a portfolio site, membership in professional networks, and technical essays that satisfy class standards.

Discussion:

Around 80% of your portfolios are “fit to publish”, only a dozen would reflect poorly on their author if a recruiter saw them at this point in time. That’s not bad! Even though the grades are in for this assignment, I still hope my comments can help some of you improve your portfolios and get them over threshold. Remember, these are for you, not for me!