In 2022, I secured my first Data Science (DS) job, credited in part to my online portfolio. Today, I’m dismantling this portfolio and starting anew.
An online portfolio is a crucial tool for a data scientist or anyone venturing into this field. It effectively highlights your skills to potential employers. My initial portfolio, created in August 2022 with the guidance from Ivanna Kacevica’s tutorial, was designed on a free GitHub Pages site. It helped me articulate and present my skills, landing me my first DS job. It also, unexpectedly, propelled me into the limelight when I penned a viral article, “The Portfolio That Got Me a Data Scientist Job” for TDS.
Fast forward 1.5 years; I am tearing apart the same portfolio that won me my initial DS position, reconstructing it from scratch.
Why am I doing so? This article aims to answer this question.
I will guide you through the process of how I am creating a new portfolio and share my custom-made template that you can utilize to create your own data/analytics/AI portfolio in just 30-40 minutes.
Despite deciding to rebuild, I still value my old portfolio. It is straightforward, concise, and neatly shows off my works without bombarding the reader. Any potential employer might merely glace at your portfolio for 30 seconds, or even less, so it’s essential not to bore or quit before they reach the end. As previously mentioned, the aim of the portfolio is to open the door to interviews and assessments, not to get the job. It’s a brief overview of your skills, showing what you’re capable of.
In August 2022, I was convinced that my portfolio served this purpose. Here’s a snapshot of my old portfolio, judge for yourself:
Remember to head back to this blog in the future to follow my progress rebuilding my portfolio.
Original article by Matt Chapman: “Rebuilding the Portfolio that Got Me a Data Scientist Job” published on AI Quantum Intelligence, February 2024.
