A portfolio is an important tool for any developer, especially a beginner. It showcases your skills, experience, and qualifications, attracts the attention of employers, and increases your chances of getting your dream job offer.
What should be in a portfolio
A portfolio should complement a resume by showing what a specialist is capable of. It is developed gradually and may initially consist only of educational projects. Over time, as you gain more experience, you will need to update your portfolio by adding new educational and commercial projects.
It is important to attach your portfolio correctly to your response to a job vacancy — provide only one link that leads to a page with all your projects. This page should contain links to the layout, code, description, and published version of the application or website. The projects themselves should be selected so that they include the technologies and skills specified in the job vacancy. For example, if the ad states that a developer with knowledge of Sass is required, then at least one of the projects should use this preprocessor.
What to add to your portfolio
Profile name. Do not use non-standard or frivolous names. A portfolio is your working tool; creativity is unnecessary here.
Personal information. Be sure to add your name, contact details, and skills, and upload a photo.
Work and personal projects. For each project, write a brief description in the Readme file: what it is, what technologies you used, what problems you solved, and what results you achieved. Ideally, the project should have a published version.
If you have projects under NDA and cannot publish the entire work, add only the best pieces of code. Let them show your ability to handle complex tasks.
By default, the project should be accessible. If it involves automation and the project can be compiled, add a list of commands for compilation.
While you are looking for a job, you need to constantly update your portfolio — add new work and projects. When a potential employer views your profile, it is important for them to see that you keep your page up to date.
What not to add to your portfolio
Unsuccessful work. Don’t add projects if you’re not confident about them. Show only your most successful and interesting work, because HR specialists don’t have much time to look at your portfolio. If you are currently working on a project, indicate this in the description.
Other people’s projects. Only add your own work or work that you participated in. If you provide a link to a large collaborative project and you did not write part of the code or design, mention this in the comments. It is good practice to add links to the code you wrote and commits.
Everything you have ever worked on. Do not add too many projects. It is better to choose a few of your strongest works than to show how much you have managed to do.
Irrelevant projects. If you previously worked on a different stack (for example, C++ is irrelevant for a front-end developer), do not include examples of such work. You can leave a link to a separate portfolio in that language. This may be important for a future employer and will be an advantage for you during the selection process.