The author conducted a two-year study of the career portfolio programs in place at high schools in two Midwestern communities. By pursuing this research project, the author was able to develop answers to his questions about career portfolios and student differences. More generally, this project allowed him to reflect on the ways all writing assignments--not just those connected to career portfolio programs--invite students to present themselves and view the world in certain ways. Moreover, it enabled him to consider how particular ways of presenting the self and viewing the world are often more familiar to some students than they are to others. Thus, the author contends, the arguments offered in this paper speak to larger dynamics of identity and power that work through English classrooms from middle schools to universities. (Contains 1 figure and 1 note.)