On June 23rd I attended an online event on Portfolio Development organized by CUNY and Google. I was really excited about this event because I know how important it is to have an outstanding portfolio for successful job search.
Even though we are not even halfway through the bootcamp, it’s crucial to start building a portfolio now. Of course the course I’m taking is project driven and by the time it’s over I’ll have something to show to my potential employers but that’s probably not enough. Also, how do you put it all together in a way that will both get people’s attention and demonstrate all the skills I’ve gained? That was my main question for the workshop.
The host first gave an overview of the event and then it was followed by 2 parts: UX portfolios, Software Engineering portfolios tips.
First. What is a portfolio? It’s a collection of your works – evidence of the work you’ve done, illustrates skills and abilities and shows the quality of your knowledge.
Questions to ask yourself while planning a portfolio:
- what is the goal?
- what are the work samples?
- who is your audience? (the whole world or recruiters)
- where and what platform should you publish it on? (GitHub or a separate page)
- where to share that page?
- do I need it? (most likely yes! it’s gonna set you apart!)
Portfolio Tips:
- Cautious with NDAs
- State a specific role
- Links to your resume and info
- About me sections (humanizes you)
- Include certifications and education
- Keep it short and to the point
I learned that it’s important to show your thought and development process, not just share the final result.
For SWE (software engineers) it’s important to focus on languages and frameworks you use (not as much the visual part). GitHub Pages is probably the best way to showcase work. One option is put info in a read.me page in a repo. It’s also important to always add read.me files to GitHub repos to explain a little bit about the project (what language you used, what was your part, what problem you were solving and so on).
The event was extremely useful for me. I will definitely take my time to plan out my future portfolio based on what I have learned.
Kristina's blog 