The need for proof of work has greatly increased ever since companies started hiring people based on projects they've built, not just university degrees. Recruiters want to see what you've done, how you've done it, what tools you used, basically everything involved in your said project. But not everyone knows how to showcase their skills online, so I've curated the 3 most important things you need to to. Chill, this won't take a while :)
First things first,
1. Build projects.
This cannot be emphasized enough. Like I said earlier, the only way you can prove to recruiters that you can use a particular technology is building projects with it. If you say you're a frontend developer, you should build websites that you can easily show as your proof of work. A designer should have sample designers they've previously done. Writers should have articles they've written before. It's the only way to prove yourself. It's also a great way to learn and keep growing in your area of specialization.
So now you've built projects, where do you put them?
2. Have an online portfolio.
Portfolio might be a new/slightly big word, but it's just a sugar coating for a collection of your projects. You would probably not receive a valid response if you're applying for a job, the recruiter asks for your portfolio and you start spamming them various singular links to projects you've built.
You need a collection.
The good thing is, it's not quite hard making that collection, no matter what yor field is. I listed a few ways below:
| Field | Tool |
| Writing | Medium, Hashnode, Dev.to, etc |
| UI design | Dribbble, Behance |
| Website development | Build yours. C'mon, that's your specialty, isn't it :) |
| Graphics design | Google Drive |
| Software Development | GitHub, CodePen |
| Generalists | Fueler.io |
Great! Now you have a portfolio. There's one last cruicial thing left...
3. Only add relevant skills.
Yeah, that's important too. You don't want to be applying for a Backend developer role with a portfolio that includes a brand design you created for a shipping company. You only need to add skills that are relevant to the collection. You can add your brand design to another of you're portfolios that showcase your other brand designs (yes you read right, you can have more than one portfolio).
Having an optimized portfolio is your first step in getting a job, or at least putting your self out there.
Are there any portfolio optimization tips you have? I'd like to hear them in the comments :)