The Folio blog
Portfolios, resumes, and getting hired.
Practical, no-fluff guides on building a portfolio that ranks, writing a resume that gets past the bots, and owning your corner of the internet. Written by the team building Folio.
All guides
Careers
The cold email for a job that gets a reply
Most cold emails fail on the first line and die on the attachment. Here is how to write one a hiring manager finishes, and where the link at the bottom should send them.
11 Jul 2026 / 8 min read
Personal branding
How to create a speaker one sheet, and why it should be a page before it is a PDF
The one sheet is the document an organiser forwards to the person who signs the contract. Here is what goes on it, in what order, and why the file version is out of date the week you send it.
11 Jul 2026 / 9 min read
Portfolios
How to build a virtual assistant portfolio with no experience
Nobody has hired you yet, so you have no client work to show. Fine. You can manufacture honest proof in a weekend, write it up properly, and publish it at a link a client can open and reply to.
11 Jul 2026 / 9 min read
Portfolios
Making a resume website on Wix, Squarespace or Canva: what each one really costs you
Every one of these tools can put a resume on the internet. They differ enormously in how much of the work they hand back to you, and in what happens to the PDF a recruiter still asks for.
12 Jul 2026 / 8 min read
Careers
How to start a cover letter, and who to address it to
The start of a cover letter is two decisions, not one: who you greet, and what your first sentence claims. Most people get the greeting wrong and then spend an hour on the hook.
12 Jul 2026 / 8 min read
Careers
How to write a cover letter with no experience (3 full examples)
Most advice on this tells you to "highlight transferable skills" and then shows you half a letter. Here are three complete letters, start to sign off, and the exact reasoning behind every paragraph.
12 Jul 2026 / 9 min read
Personal branding
LinkedIn About section examples that do not sound like everyone else
Six About sections you can adapt tonight, and the three structural rules that separate the ones people finish reading from the ones that die at "See more".
11 Jul 2026 / 9 min read
Personal branding
Should I make a personal website? Mostly no, and here is when yes
Everyone who ranks for this question sells websites, so everyone says yes. We sell one too, and we still think most people should skip it. This is the honest version.
12 Jul 2026 / 8 min read
Resumes
Customer service resume: how to describe work nobody measured
Support, retail and hospitality resumes fail for one reason. They list duties instead of evidence. Here is how to write the evidence version.
12 Jul 2026 / 9 min read
Resumes
The sales resume: your number, your quota, your attainment
Sales is the one job where your performance is already a number. A sales resume that hides that number is competing on adjectives against people who are competing on results.
12 Jul 2026 / 9 min read
Resumes
Should you put a photo on a resume? It depends entirely on where you are applying
The advice online contradicts itself because the people giving it live in different countries. Here is the rule by region, what a photo really does to a machine parse, and where your face actually belongs.
11 Jul 2026 / 7 min read
Personal branding
Personal brand statement examples, and where the statement actually goes
Ten finished statements you can read end to end, the template that produced them, and the part every other page on this topic skips: the line is worthless until it is the first thing a stranger reads about you, in all three places at once.
11 Jul 2026 / 9 min read