Building a tech portfolio that opens doors
Lesson 1 of 3 in Portfolio, Interview & The Tech Hiring Funnel · 24 minutes
A strong portfolio differentiates IEPs whose resumes look generic. GitHub, a personal site, and 2-3 well-presented projects can produce dramatic interview increases. This lesson teaches what to build and how to present it.
What you'll learn
- Choose 2-3 portfolio projects that signal capability
- Present projects in a way recruiters can quickly evaluate
- Use GitHub effectively
- Build a personal site (optional but high-leverage)
From the lesson
Resume tells the recruiter what you've done. Portfolio shows them you can do it. Many IEPs have impressive resumes but no portfolio — the recruiter has only your word for what you can build. A good portfolio (GitHub + 2-3 polished projects + maybe a personal site) lets recruiters and hiring managers verify capability in 15 minutes. This dramatically reduces hiring risk and increases interview invitations.
1. What a portfolio is for
Three audiences:
• Recruiters scanning quickly. They look at the GitHub homepage and your top pinned repos. 30 seconds to form an impression.
• Hiring managers evaluating capability. They look at 1-2 projects in detail — the README, the code, the architecture…