Build Your Online Portfolio and Maximize Your Job Search | Disabled Person
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Build Your Online Portfolio and Maximize Your Job Search
Resumes, cover letters, curriculum vitae, and references. Add online portfolios to the list, and you boost your chances of getting hired.
How so? Online portfolios demonstrate your capabilities in one place. HR people would love nothing more than easy access to an applicant’s vast information. Therefore, it could spell a faster response and success rate.
However, without the right skills and information, creating your own promising portfolio might seem an inconvenience. After all, a good one takes time, effort, and sometimes money.
So to avoid seeing online portfolios as an unnecessary step in your job hunt process, we’re here to guide you.
First, we’ll uncover the purpose of online portfolios. Next, we’ll discover what it should contain — what information to place and what to leave out. Finally, we’ll provide some helpful tools and sites to get you all hands on deck!
What is an online portfolio?
I'm sure you’ve heard of portfolios. You might even have one. It could be a file folder with a bunch of papers or an envelope with all your materials.
Online portfolios are just like traditional portfolios. Only they’re accessible via the Internet. But there are more advantages to online portfolios than the concept of online vs. physical copies. Here are some:
Able to store videos and moving pictures
If you’re a videographer, filmmaker, film student, or digital graphic artist, the digital portfolio is a perfect place to showcase your work. Unlike the physical portfolio, the digital version can hold data-huge items like videos, GIFs, NFTs, music, sounds, and more!
Plus, the quality does not degrade, whereas a paper-printed image lacks the pixel strength of the digital version.
Able to contain links
If you were to point the recruiter to other online references from a paper-based portfolio, they need to manually type in the links. In other words, it’s bothersome for recruiters, and their tight schedules and overwhelming submissions might make them rethink visiting that link.
If the link is placed in a digital portfolio, it’s a lot easier to click and visit. Therefore, for most people where links are a vital part of their work projects, a digital portfolio might have served them well.
Fast access
Now that most companies opt for online interviews, physical portfolios are outdated. You can quickly send the digital version to your recruiters with a single link.
This is especially true if the company sits on the other side of the world and you’re applying for a remote position. Or you have some form of disability that you’re unable to travel far or even hand out physical copies of a portfolio.
This way, you hasten the interview process and the job hunt itself since you could send a portfolio to as many people without having to expensively reproduce your work.
Personalization features
With a host of web development tools out there, you could design your online portfolio in immensely different ways, enabling you to stand out and be unique.
Apart from the color, font, and picture variation, you could also change the cursor, the backdrop, the format, the music, the presentation, and many more. You could create an entirely new experience — either you go for an interactive or a minimalist version. It’s your choice.
What should an online portfolio contain?
Sample works
Your sample work is the most important piece of information to place in your portfolio because there’s no point in owning an exclusive site without a project to showcase anyway.
So take your time curating your best work. Do note that just because a portfolio can host a massive amount of data doesn’t mean you’ll jam in your entire body of work.
Recruiters don’t scan everything. So focus on the ones that will make the biggest blow to your job hunt or client search.
And if you think all of your work is indeed impactful, carefully organize these pieces of information in a pattern or format that is easy to follow. For example, you can present all of your articles by publication date. Or have your images by theme: clean and classic, eclectic and edgy, etc.
Captions
Every sample needs an explanation. So don’t forget to place your captions on every content. Captions provide contexts and further elaborate the depth of your work.
This is applicable to almost all kinds of industries: writing, graphic design, software development, mobile application, UX, UI design, interior design, architecture, and many more!
Metrics
To further prove your capability, why not go for a data-backed report? Because a digital portfolio can contain lots of words and images, you could present your metrics in a fun, engaging, and interactive manner.
Go for pie charts, bar charts, line charts, Gantt charts, maps, and more. Numbers are not only easier to understand, they’re also arguably the best way to prove your point.
Reviews
If you’ve received an overwhelmingly good response from an agency or a client, don’t let it go to waste. Display it on your portfolio. Have everyone see how good your services are.
It’s one of those features that not only add content to your portfolio but it also makes it stronger and more competitive. This is especially important if you work in a saturated industry where competitors run abound.
Blog
A blog page is not necessary, but having one can make your site or portfolio more appealing.
First, it displays the author’s expertise via articles, round-ups, and research reports. Second, it suggests that the owner has been updating the site and is continually working.
Other than it boosts the author’s credibility, a blog page also ramps up the SEO-friendliness of an otherwise static site portfolio. A regular high-quality blog post is guaranteed to make your site appear on top of search results.
Without these updates, your portfolio sits idly. Make it work. Bring in other online visitors apart from recruiters. Your blog posts can provide expert answers to certain search queries. This way, you attract searchers who, in some way or another, might be interested in the services you can offer.
Contact
Obviously, even if you already included this information in your resume, you still want to place it on your portfolio. We'll never know when an executive stumbles upon your online site and chooses to contact you.
So contact pages are a must. If you don't want your personal information out there, you can opt for a contact form instead. This way, hackers won't have access to your email and numbers.
About page
if a person were to see your portfolio, and you can only show one piece of information, it has to be this. About page or summary is a simple presentation of what you do and what you offer.
it has to be succinct and brief, enabling a time-constricted recruiter to tell whether you're cut for the position.
An effective summary contains your strongest skill sets for the job, the most relevant experience, and even your favorite past-times.
Tools To Develop Your own Portfolio
Branding Tools
Branding is not just for businesses. Personal branding exists too, and it is a powerful strategy for online portfolios. All color choices, font options, and layout patterns are part of your brand.
Of course, for most portfolios, a name logo is a better choice than an icon-based logo. So try visiting websites that offer free and inexpensive name logo options. Replace the template with your name; change some of the design features, such as the color and typography, and see how it goes.
Apart from logos, you can mix and match fonts for your wording. Try visiting Google Fonts, Fonts.com, SkyFonts, FontBundles Free Fonts Collection, Behance, and many others.
For free images, head on to high-quality stock photo sites such as Pexel, Freepik, Vecteezy, Morguefile, Pixabay, Stockvault, Picjumbo, Rawpixel, Reshot, and more!
Website Tools
Wordpress is the number one website builder. But before buying a wordpress subscription, you need to get a hosting service. Bluehost, Go Daddy, Wix, and many others are viable options for hosting.
The best part about creating your own website as a portfolio is that you have all the freedom to design it however you want. Whether you want a game-like site or a site full of moving images, then you’re good.
Although this option allows you to start from scratch and has the most customizability features, this is also the most difficult choice for most people. It might take a while before you learn the hoops of website creation.
Portfolio Tools
Let’s say you don’t want to build a website from scratch. Understandable. It’s a steep learning curve that not everyone is willing to delve into.
For that, you can try easy and beginner-friendly portfolio makers. All the tools you need to set up a portfolio are right within the platform. The caveat is that the domain is still on the developer, the customization is limited, and it’s not mostly free.
Display your work fast and easy using these platforms: Behance, Dribbble, Portfolio, Coroflot, Portfoliobox, and more!
Ready your portfolio!
Your portfolio is only one of many tools you can use to get your dream job. Although having a portfolio immensely helps your job search, don’t forget to ramp up your other tools, such as resume and cover letters.
As for portfolios, make them loud or make them quiet. Create one that suits your online brand. And couple it with professional networking online and offline, surely your digital portfolio will get the traction it deserves.