Tailoring An Engineering Portfolio For Different Roles

Your school projects don’t have to stay in school. Make them the foundation of your dream career. When I first started building my portfolio, I thought showing everything I could do was the way to impress. So I added all kinds of projects, hoping variety would catch attention. But over time, I realized that wasn’t enough. Your portfolio isn’t just a collection of random projects — It’s a message about the kind of work you want to do. Even if your projects come from different classes or have different goals, you can make them work for you by aligning them with the industries or roles you want. For example: ➡️ If you’re going to design a logo for a class assignment, make it for a sports team, gym, or nutrition brand, if that’s the industry you want to work in. ➡️ If you’re building a website as a project, create one tailored to an athletic brand like Gymshark or a fitness startup. This way, you’re showing intentional work that speaks directly to the clients or employers you want to attract. If you want your portfolio to open doors: → Dig deeper into the projects you care about and shape them around your target industry → Expand on them to reveal layers of thinking and expertise → Highlight work that aligns with the roles or clients you want next → Make every piece purposeful — tell a story about your strengths Your portfolio is more than past projects and random classwork. It’s your future career blueprint. Start building it intentionally. Showcase what you want to do next. Make your portfolio work for you. (Here's a look at my college print portfolio that got me to the NFL) 👇

Looking for a job? Build a portfolio. Not just a résumé. If I were job hunting in 2025, here’s what I’d do. Build ONE great portfolio project in the next 30 days. Something that shows - not tells - your skill, thought process, and creativity. I say this as someone who's also hired half a dozen people in the past 2 years. There's too much noise out there. You've got to find a way to stand out. Here are 3 roles and 3 portfolio projects you can build in the next 30 days to stand out: 👩🏽💻 1. Product Manager Build: A new feature for an app you love → Pick a product (Spotify, Notion, Duolingo) → Design a new feature: user problem → solution → wireframes → Write a PRD (problem, KPIs, edge cases, success metrics) One of the most creative ways I've seen a friend get an interview was this: He mocked up a "Spotify Social Listening" feature - then sent it to Spotify PMs. This got him an immediate response and interview. Tool stack: Notion, Figma, Canva, ChatGPT, Whimsical 📱 2. UX/UI Designer Build: A 2-week redesign challenge → Pick a real-world flow that sucks (e.g. booking train tickets on IRCTC lol or the entire Goodreads web app) → Interview a few users (just ask around within your friends) → Redesign the flow with better UX → Share your case study on Behance or your website Write a post on the entire process you followed. Tool stack: Figma, Maze, Framer, Medium 📊 3. Data Analyst Build: A dashboard + case study → Choose a public dataset (NYC taxi data, Netflix ratings, upcoming Indian startups) → Clean + analyze it using SQL/Python → Build a dashboard in Tableau or Power BI → Publish your insights + charts as a case study Once again, write a post on the entire process you followed. Tool stack: SQL, Python, Tableau, Canva, Medium ... It's easy to get stuck in the rut of applying to jobs every day. Try something a tiny bit different... and you can easily stand out from the noise. Best of luck! 🌿 Found this useful? Repost it to help someone who’s job hunting. 🟢 Want a free guide to acing your first PM interview? Comment below “portfolio” below and I’ll send it over. :)

If you're building a portfolio to showcase your work in an interview, pick pieces that show you're the best fit for that role—not just your best work. I'm helping a client prepare for an interview this week. And they picked three impressive pieces of work from their career. But they weren't sure if those were the right pieces. So we went over the job description. We looked for statements about the work they'll do when they get the job. We found one sentence with three key objectives. Then we reviewed the three pieces in light of those objectives. We confirmed they picked three good pieces. After that we focused on building a story they will tell during the interview about those pieces. The story will include five elements: 1. a challenge faced 2. their approach 3. their outcome 4. their lessons 5. application Lesson If you're building a portfolio for a particular job, pick pieces that will showcase your ability to do the job. Tie the pieces you picked back to the job description. Mention how it demonstrates your ability to do the job at hand. Application For example, if a job wants you to design new experiences, pick a piece the shows when you designed a new experience. Talk about how you approached the challenge, what you achieved, and what you would do next time you encounter that sort of thing. -- #techjobs #jobseekers #interviewprep #portfolio

Last week, someone asked me, “How do I showcase my skills as a data scientist or engineer to land a job?” So here’s my take for this week’s post, where I try to break down what I’ve learned (and struggled with). First, your portfolio isn’t about quantity; it’s about relevance. Think of it as your personal pitch deck. Recruiters aren’t scrolling through it like Instagram —they’re looking for proof you can solve their problems. Here’s a real-world example: Take Amazon’s recommendation system. It’s not just about suggesting items; it’s about driving sales. If I were building a portfolio project, I’d take a dataset like movie ratings and show how to design a basic recommender system. Then, I’d highlight how it improves user engagement or retention. Make it more specific by adding technologies you used, like Python, Spark, or AWS. If you're thinking, but where do I even start?—just pick a problem you find interesting and tackle it like a mini-case study. For example, in my own project on sneaker resale dynamics, I analyzed market trends and built predictive models to forecast price fluctuations. What I realized is that recruiters were interested not just in my Python code but in the why. Why does this matter? What was the impact? That’s where you stand out—connect your work to real-world outcomes. Another tip: share your work publicly. Use GitHub or even LinkedIn. Show that you can communicate findings, not just code. It’s one thing to build dashboards in Tableau; it’s another to explain how that dashboard helped optimize inventory or reduce costs. And lastly, remember: your portfolio is like dating it’s not just about looking good; it’s about compatibility. Tailor it to the job you want, not just any job. What projects are you working on right now? Would love to hear how you’re making your portfolio shine! #datascience #dataengineering #jobsearch #portfolio #projects #career #linkedin