A portfolio is not only for designers. It is for anyone whose employer cannot watch them work.
Three to five pieces, not thirty
Depth beats volume. For each piece: what the problem was, what you specifically did, what changed as a result. Two paragraphs each.
For non-visual fields
- Writers: a page of links with a line on the brief
- Engineers: two repositories with real commit history and a readme that explains a decision
- Support and ops: a redacted process document or macro library you wrote
- Finance: a sanitised model or a description of a reconciliation you fixed
Make it inspectable in ten minutes
If it needs a login, a download or an explanation, it will not be looked at. One public URL on your CV, working, is the whole requirement.
Common questions
Do I need a portfolio for non-creative roles?
It helps in any remote role, because it substitutes for the in-person judgement the employer cannot make.
What if my work is confidential?
Describe the problem and outcome without the client's data, or rebuild a sanitised version.