3 Reasons Why a Project Portfolio is Essential for Landing a Tech Job

During the tech job interview process, project portfolios can help you showcase your skills, creativity, and commitment to software development. The portfolio represents your best work, allowing prospective employers to see what you’re capable of.

When choosing a path for software development education, it’s important to consider your portfolio. Seek out programs, bootcamps, or other training options that guide you toward a well-rounded, professional portfolio that covers skills employers want to see.

The portfolio is essential for landing your first tech job. Let’s take a deeper look into why, and then dive into how we can help you build one.

The Value of a Well-Rounded Project Portfolio

1. It demonstrates your practical skills.
One of the main reasons – and perhaps the most important reason – that portfolios are important is that they demonstrate that you have the practical skills to be a successful software developer. Your resume provides a summary of your skills and experience, and when paired with a project portfolio, your words are backed by action. A resume says you have certain skills, the portfolio proves it.

2. It highlights your versatility as a programmer.
Especially for software developers, project portfolios should cover a variety of examples showing how you’ve worked solo, how you’ve worked with others, what tools and programs you’ve worked with, and the list goes on. An impactful development portfolio shows you understand various technologies and can work within multiple systems. Versatility is highly valued by companies of all kinds and a well-rounded portfolio can help you tell that story.

3. It shows your growth and learning.
A good portfolio is never finished. Portfolios should be dynamic to demonstrate current, up-to-date skills. Regularly updating your portfolio with new projects shows your commitment to continuous learning and professional development. It shows that you’re proactive about staying current with the latest industry trends and technologies.

How Tech Elevator helps you create the project portfolio you need.

At Tech Elevator, we help you build your project portfolio throughout the coding bootcamp experience, no matter if you choose the full-time or part-time program. Either way, our curriculum is loaded with portfolio-building projects.

During their chosen program, students work with teammates on paired mini-projects that help them build skills and practice working together as they will with future coworkers.

We also focus on larger projects so every graduate can demonstrate project variety. Here’s how it works, broken down by program:

Full-Time Coding Bootcamp Projects:

Students complete Mini Capstone projects – one covering the concepts learned in Module 1 of the bootcamp and another covering the concepts learned in Module 2. For these, students team up with a partner to build a program from scratch. The instructors provide feedback, and once improvements are made, these can be added to their growing portfolio.

At the end of the bootcamp, they work on a Final Capstone project. Students complete this over the final two weeks of the full-time program, and it encapsulates everything they’ve learned during the bootcamp. They work in small teams that emulate real-world development teams to build a software application that meets a unique, specific requirement.

Part-Time Coding Bootcamp Projects:

Because of how the part-time program schedule is organized, these students have a different project experience – but one that covers the same breadth of skills, tools, and knowledge. Part-time students work on Mini Capstone projects covering what’s learned in each of the three modules in the program.

Throughout, instructors provide feedback, changes are made, and these projects can be added to each student’s growing portfolio to showcase their skills.

For alumni, we host a week called Project a Day. During this, the instructor guides graduates in the creation of four different portfolio-worthy projects that demonstrate the ability to put their skills to work in a short amount of time. This is a great way for graduates to continue honing their skills during the job search process. During this week, the instructor will work with individual graduates to create projects using new technologies at the alumni’s discretion or can work with a team of alumni to create a robust full-stack project.

Ready to build your project portfolio?

We understand the importance of a high-quality project portfolio. We help students learn the skills of software development, and guide them on how to demonstrate (and communicate) those skills to employers.If you’re ready to learn software development and build your professional portfolio, start by taking our coding bootcamp Aptitude Test. We look forward to helping you build a portfolio that’s sure to impress employers and help you launch your new career!

 

 

Written by Margaret Green,
Technical Skills Development Manager