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Students will be able to define what professionalism means in various contexts, including academic, networking, and job interview settings. They will understand the importance of first impressions and identify ways to present themselves professionally.

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Begin the lesson with a discussion on the definition of professionalism. Ask students to share their experiences and examples of professional behavior they have observed.

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Example Sentences

For writers such as Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson, struggling in the transition from the age of patronage to that of Grub Street professionalism, Shakespeare offered not only a body of poetic invention but also an inspirational career trajectory. - In Washington, careerism has so trumped professionalism among political journalists as to render Alterman's ethical concerns almost quaint. - It is difficult not to contrast the professionalism of modestly paid firefighters and police doing their duty on September 11 with the secretive ... behavior of six- and seven-figure accountants, lawyers, CEOs, bankers, and financial analysts who failed at their duty with Enron. - A high level of She is highly respected for her Jonathan Bate, Gene Lyons, Bruce Nussbaum, professionalism is expected when working with clients. professionalism. Business Week, Harper's, Harper's,

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'professionalism.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

1856, in the meaning defined at sense 1

The first known use of professionalism was in 1856

Dictionary Entries Near professionalism

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More from Merriam-Webster on professionalism

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Merriam-Webster unabridged

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the conduct, aims, or qualities that characterize or mark a profession or a professional person; the following of a profession (such as athletics) for gain or livelihood... See the full definition

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Engage students in role-playing scenarios to practice professional introductions, body language, and dress code in different settings like interviews, networking events, and class presentations. This interactive activity encourages collaboration and reflection on personal presentation.

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Show a video on the impact of first impressions in professional settings. Have students identify key elements that contribute to a positive first impression. Discussion to follow on how these elements can be incorporated into their personal and professional life.

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Guide students through the process of creating their own elevator pitch. Include tips on succinct self-introduction, highlighting personal achievements and goals. Offer examples and templates for practice.

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14 Elevator Pitch Examples to Inspire Your Own [+Templates]

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An elevator pitch isn’t an opportunity to close a deal, but to capture attention. Adapt these examples to your own situation and get ready to network.

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Assign students to create or update their professional portfolio, including a resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn profile. Provide resources and examples for reference. This task allows students to apply the concepts of professionalism to their personal branding.

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A professional portfolio is a powerful tool to advance your career. That's because it's a great showcase of your expertise and dedication, using real-world samples and examples of your work.

These examples may come from your studies, previous work experience, and even hobbies. What really matters is that you use your earlier experiences to land a new job, more clients, bigger professional network, or recognition.

It's easier to understand this concept by checking out a few exceptional examples of professional portfolios:

Professional portfolio examples

What is a professional portfolio?

A professional portfolio is a physical or digital document containing work samples. Whether a professional portfolio should be a digital or physical document depends on the standards in your field. If you're not sure, just know that nowadays, digital portfolios are the standard.

The work samples in your portfolio can be

organized into galleries or folders, or

included in case studies that reveal the process behind them.

Case studies mix visuals and text to demonstrate professional skills and processes in practice. Galleries achieve the same while remaining almost purely visual: grids, feeds, carousels, etc.

Who needs a professional portfolio?

In some professions, having a portfolio is mandatory to land a job. In all other cases, you should consider having a professional portfolio if you think it could advance your career: get new clients, grow your professional network, and help you reach more people. But also, wanting to have a portfolio is reason enough.

The 4 purposes of a professional portfolio

1. Back up your resumé

Almost all jobs require a resume listing your skills, achievements, educational background, and work experience. However, there are many fields where you also need to submit a professional portfolio.

Such fields include design, architecture, engineering, artistic fields, and everything that's heavily visual. In many of these professions, the portfolio is weighted heavier than the resume.

There are many reasons for this, two of the most important being taste and precision. Using your work samples - drawings, designs, layouts, and whatnot - you can prove that:

1. You're familiar with industry standards and practices, and

2. Your work and taste are fit for the potential employer.

2. Show your personal taste

Since portfolios are a more substantial format - mostly websites - they provide the perfect canvas for you to showcase more of your work, your personal taste, or your process. There's an important takeaway here:

Throughout your career, you might have been influenced to make choices that don't necessarily represent your aesthetic preferences, and that's a valuable asset: it shows that you can adapt. But in the case of your portfolio, you are the commissioner. Therefore, how it looks will give your potential employer or client a better idea of your taste.

So, choose your portfolio layout, colors, fonts, whitespace, and visuals wisely.

3. Reveal more about yourself

A portfolio can also contain your professional manifesto. Many professionals use their About page to tell their story of becoming who they are today - their inspirations, goals, and struggles. People find it much easier to relate to such stories than a timeline of work experience.

People find it much easier to relate to stories than a timeline of work history.

4. A hub for all your professional material

Portfolios are also practical. They are like a one-stop hub for everything relating to you as a professional: samples of your work, case studies, resumé, and contacts. This is especially beneficial if you do freelance work since a potential client can check out your work, your accolades, and contact you from the same place.

Create a professional portfolio in 8 steps

Step 1: Choose your platform

Unless you're specifically requested to submit a physical or PDF portfolio, you should go for a portfolio website. To build one, the first step is choosing the best portfolio-building platform for you. You can go for dedicated portfolio builders - such as ours, UXfolio, that's made for UX designers - or general website builders. Both comes with its own benefits:

Website builders

With website builders you can create any type of website: e-commerce, blog, landing pages, portfolios, and more. They usually have a vast gallery of templates that can be altered for your purposes. However, website builders can be overwhelming and distractive for those who just want a professional portfolio.

Portfolio builders

As their name suggests, portfolio builders are more specialized. Their templates are designed for portfolios, and their features are aimed at people who want to build something simple yet expressive. Because of their limitations, portfolio builders will keep you focused on all the essentials that are necessary to land a job.

Step 2: Pick a template

Once you have the platform, you should take a close look at its template gallery to find the template that's best for you. While browsing, keep in mind that those are just templates, nothing but a foundation: you will be able to customize them according to your liking.

What makes a good portfolio template?

Above all, a good portfolio template is usable. Think of the people who will come in touch with it, and make sure that the template you choose will be convenient for them to use. Don't try to reinvent the wheel: if something works or is the industry standard, there's a good reason for it.

Our advice is simple: it's hard to miss with a clean and streamlined portfolio template.

Step 3: Customize your template

The next step is to add your personal touch to the template. For most people, this is the most enjoyable part of portfolio building. Customization means that you can play around with colors, fonts, images, page layouts, and all the fun stuff.

If you're easily distracted or prone to procrastination, we suggest you keep this step for last. Yes, the look of your portfolio is important, but it's only second to content.

Step 4: Add your work samples

This is the part where your professional portfolio fulfills its purpose, which is to showcase your skills through samples and examples. Depending on your profession, this step can be time consuming, but here are a 5 pointers that'll make it easier:

1. Feature your best work only ("kill your darlings").

2. Leave out everything that's irrelevant or outdated.

3. Lead with the most impressive samples/projects.

4. Be frugal with your words (keep the copy to a minimum).

5. Create order with whitespace, visual hierarchy, and font styles (weight, size).

Step 5: Create an About page

According to our data, About pages are extremely popular among portfolio visitors. Not only do they click on them, but they also spend a considerable amount of time reading them.

This reflects our time as we realize how vital company culture is. Today, HR managers are looking for people who, on top of being qualified, are also a good fit. An About page can help them in this quest.

What to write about on your About page?

If you're not sure what to write about, just answer a few questions from this list:

Why did you choose your profession?

What was your journey to becoming a professional in what you do?

What are your inspirations? Where do you find inspiration?

What motivates you to do what you do?

What is your favorite part about being

Who are your professional heroes, and why?

Your favorite books that relate to your profession.

You can also upload an image of yourself (if you feel like it). This doesn't have to be a professional portrait unless you're working in one of those serious professions (looking at you, architects). For the rest of us, a high-quality selfie will do.

Step 6: Fill in the details

By this time, the most challenging steps are behind you. The rest can be done on autopilot with a nice playlist in the background:

Upload your resume in PDF format and make it easy to find. Always use a downloadable format so it's easy to save. Remember: the wheel doesn't need any reinventing.

Add your contact information or a contact form (preferably on a dedicated contact page). You can use a mail-to link for your email address to make everyone's life easier.

Step 7: Find your domain

Having a domain with your name makes a big difference. It signals that you take your career seriously and makes a portfolio feel complete. If your name is already taken, try with various abbreviations, add your title, or try different top-level domains (.info, .net, etc.).

Step 8: Test your portfolio before sharing it

Now that's everything set up, send the link to your portfolio to that one friend (or more) who loves you enough to be honest. You can also ask a colleague or classmate to check your portfolio. The purpose of this is to make sure that everything works as it should.

How to utilize your portfolio?

On top of sending it with your applications, your portfolio can help you in many different ways. Here are a few ideas on making the most of it:

Ask for portfolio reviews in Facebook groups, Slack communities, or online forums. With the feedback you'll receive you can polish your portfolio. Also, in the process you can find new opportunities and build your professional network.

Share your portfolio on LinkedIn and in professional communities. LinkedIn is given, as its purpose is to promote yourself. Other professional communities (Slack channels, Discords, Reddits, Facebook groups) have dedicated channels or days where/when you can do self-promo. This makes it less awkward, as everybody else will be self-promoting.

Reach out to people you look up to in your profession. No, this doesn't have to be pushy or awkward. Just ask for their professional opinion on your work and for career advice. This, also, can help you perfect your portfolio and build your professional network.

If you've read this far, you're ready to take the first steps toward creating an impressive portfolio for yourself. If you want to learn more about portfolio building and portfolios in general, check out some of our relevant guides and articles:

If you're looking for a portfolio builder that was made for UX/UI and product designers, try our product, UXfolio!

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14 Fantastic Professional Portfolio Examples - UXfolio Blog

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A professional portfolio is a powerful tool to advance your career. That's because it's a great showcase...

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Throughout the activities, observe students' ability to apply professionalism concepts such as appropriate attire, body language, and communication skills. Provide immediate feedback to guide improvement.

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Have students present their elevator pitch to the class or in small groups. This serves as a summative assessment of their ability to succinctly and professionally introduce themselves.

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Conclude with a group discussion where students reflect on what they learned about professionalism and first impressions. Encourage them to share how they plan to apply these concepts in their academic and future professional lives.

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Write a reflective essay on a personal experience where first impressions were key. Discuss the outcome and how the concepts of professionalism could have improved or changed the situation.

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Instruct students to review and update their online professional profiles, such as LinkedIn, with the principles of professionalism in mind. They should ensure that their digital first impression aligns with their professional goals.

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LinkedIn best practices

We get it. Writing your LinkedIn Profile summary isn't at the top of your to-do list. You're not sure what to write. Your photo and headline make your Profile complete enough. It's not worth your time since your company already attracts so many great candidates. [Insert your own excuse here.]

Well sometimes you need a great example - or 14 great examples - to see the summary's magic and figure out how to write your own. Read on and prepare to be inspired.

Wait, what's my LinkedIn Profile summary again?

Your summary is the text box at the top of your LinkedIn Profile, aka the "About" section. It's just under your photo. It's an open-ended space (sort of; 2,000 characters max) where you give an overview of your professional life.

Why have a summary at all?

Your summary or About section is the one place you define yourself in your own words, free of start dates and titles. Whether you use it to put career choices in context, highlight your biggest achievements, or show off your personality, the summary is your chance to put your best self out there. It strengthens your first impression in a way no other Profile section can.

I need an example. What does an excellent LinkedIn Profile summary look like?

There are many paths to a great summary, so we rounded up examples from professionals in a variety of industries and roles. Let's take a look at 14 and explore why they shine.

Inspiring. But how do I write my own?

We put together a handy set of tips based on the best practices in the below examples. Follow this guide and you'll be on your way to a winning profile summary.

14 examples of great LinkedIn Profile summaries - and why they work

1. Tanmoy appeals to candidates from underrepresented groups in the most authentic way

Tanmoy, director of talent acquisition at Peloton, stands out because he:
Lines we love: My job is to find and hire the current and future badasses in the technology industry. I do not like pushy people.
2. Karen uses a numbered list to highlight her main career achievements and defining moments

Lines we love: I love selling brands. I hate selling myself. I don't like to advertise this fact, but I'd do this job for free.
3. Desiree focuses on her communication skills to explain why she's a recruiter and why she's great one

Lines we love: One of my first memories is going to a parent-teacher conference in kindergarten and having my teacher tell my parents, "Desiree is definitely my most . . ." Throughout my life, I have developed this art of being able to communicate with anyone at any given time.
4. Gijo shows off his passion, skills, and accomplishments using a hybrid paragraph-bullet combo

Gijo, chief product officer at VTS, stands out because he:

Nails the opener by succinctly stating what he does and why and why he's good at it.

Casts accomplishments as lessons learned, a subtle humility that makes him even more likable.

Organizes his points to read like true introspection and career synthesis, not jargon.

Includes numbers (proof) to quantify his achievements.

Concludes by asking for connections.

Lines we love: I can successfully scale software businesses from from $5 million to $1 billion in revenue. I can align, lead, and grow product teams from 10 to 100 people. Reach out if you want to talk about emerging tech, creating software products, or baseball.
5. Katrina hooks her readers and then connects the dots in her nonlinear career path

Gary, cofounder of Kids Industries, stands out because he:
Lines we love: We do three things: Insight, Strategy and Creative. We're proud to call GSK, Disney, Mattel, WWF, Save the Children, DHX, TUI, PepsiCo, Kellogg, Manchester City FC, The English Cricket Board, Amazon and ICC as some of our clients.
9. Shanay ties her job to her company's big picture and shows pride in what she does

Related Resources

If you found this post useful, you might enjoy some similar articles from our team:

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14 LinkedIn Profile Summaries That We Love (And How to Boost Your Own)

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Here's how to write a LinkedIn Profile summary that will get you noticed. Learn from 14 great examples to get inspired and find out what makes a LinkedIn Profile summary standout.