How to Build a Portfolio: A 5-step Guide
Learn how to build a professional portfolio that shows real skills, projects, and job readiness, even without industry experience. Step-by-step advice.
As a career advisor, I hear this same thing often from people looking to break into a new sector: “I’m ready to apply, but I don’t feel like I’ve got enough experience yet.”
Worrying about standing out, particularly in competitive entry-level roles, is completely normal. That’s exactly where a well-built portfolio helps.
A portfolio clearly demonstrates to potential employers how you think, your hands-on skills, and your readiness to step into work with confidence, even if you have no-to-low work experience.
What I like to remind people is a professional portfolio isn’t about where you’ve worked. It’s about what you can actually do as a result of training, learning, and practice. Strong projects, clear explanations, and evidence of learning, when presented in the right way, can speak just as loudly as past job titles.
I’ve put this guide together as a step-by-step blueprint so you know exactly what to include, how to present it, and how to make employers take notice of your portfolio.
If you’re already thinking ahead to what happens once you land that offer and how to hit the ground running, our starting a new job guide is a helpful read alongside this one.
Written by
Sophi Barnes is an experienced Careers Services Consultant with a strong background in career coaching and deep expertise in the tech and project management job markets. She's passionate about supporting people through career transitions and into roles where they can thrive.
What's on this page?
Jump to:
- What Employers Actually Want to See in a Portfolio
- Step 1: Get Clear on the Role You’re Aiming For
- Step 2: Choose the Right Projects
- Step 3: Show Your Thinking, Not Just the Finished Work
- Step 4: Choose the Right Format for a Digital Portfolio
- Step 5: Tailor, Test, and Continuously Improve Your Portfolio
- Final Thoughts
- How to Build a Portfolio FAQs
What Employers Actually Want to See in a Portfolio
One of the biggest myths I hear is that a portfolio only counts if it’s full of paid client work. That simply isn’t true, especially at entry level.
Most hiring managers know you won’t have years of commercial experience yet. What they’re looking for instead is evidence of how you think and how you apply what you’ve learned.
A good portfolio helps employers assess three key things:
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Problem-solving: how you approach a task, and how you navigate challenges with logic, not just the final result
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Practical skills: whether you can use the tools and apply the techniques that the role actually requires
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Communication: how clearly you can explain your decisions and your process in industry-aligned language
In the tech job market, competition is real, particularly for junior roles. That’s why relevance matters far more than volume. A small number of well-chosen projects that match the role will always land better than a long list of half-finished work. Even early on, a focused portfolio shows you’re serious and ready to contribute.
Step 1: Get Clear on the Role You’re Aiming For
Before you start building anything, get clear on the role you actually want. This step sounds obvious, but skipping it is one of the fastest ways to end up with an unfocused portfolio.
A portfolio for a Cyber Security Analyst should look very different from one for a Data Analyst or a Software Developer. Each role values different tools, ways of thinking, and types of output. If you try to cover everything, you often end up showing very little.
My advice: I always suggest starting with job descriptions. Look at a handful of roles you’d realistically apply for and note the skills, software, and outcomes that keep coming up. That gives you a clear idea of what your portfolio and its featured projects should focus on.
Taking this approach saves time and energy. Instead of building projects that don’t quite land, you focus on work that directly matches what employers are asking for.
Fact: UK Employers Are Prioritising Skills Over CVs
Recent UK hiring research shows that 77% of employers now use skills testing as part of their recruitment process, with many saying it gives a better picture of a candidate’s ability than a CV alone.
This shift explains why portfolios matter so much, especially for entry-level roles. When employers are actively testing problem-solving and practical skills, a well-built portfolio gives them evidence before the interview even begins.
Step 2: Choose the Right Projects
This is usually the sticking point. “I haven’t worked in the industry yet, so what do I have to show?” The honest answer is: probably more than you think.
Employers don’t expect career changers or entry-level candidates to have a long list of commercial projects they've completed. What they do expect is evidence that you can apply your skills in a practical way. That’s where the right kind of projects come in.
Strong portfolio projects often include:
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Course projects that show how you’ve used industry tools
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Self-initiated challenges where you’ve solved a real problem
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Simulated briefs based on realistic workplace scenarios
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Group work that demonstrates collaboration and communication
Remember, what matters most is how well each project reflects the role you’re aiming for.
Step 3: Show Your Thinking, Not Just the Finished Work
One of the biggest differences between an average portfolio and a strong one is how much thinking sits behind the work. Employers aren’t just looking at the end result. They want to understand how you got there.
In hiring conversations, we often hear managers say the same thing: anyone can follow instructions, but not everyone can explain their decisions. Your portfolio is your chance to do exactly that.
For each project, it helps to clearly outline:
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The problem you were trying to solve
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The tools and technologies you used
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The key decisions you made along the way
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What you’d do differently if you had more time
This doesn’t need to be long or overly technical. Clear, honest explanations are enough.
Showing your process helps employers see how you approach real work, how you learn, and how you think under pressure. That context is often what separates two similar candidates and makes one stand out.
Fact: UK Tech Skills Gaps Make Practical Evidence More Valuable
Despite strong demand, around 30% of UK employers still struggle to fill digital and tech roles, particularly in areas like Cybersecurity and automation.
Skills shortages mean employers are more open to candidates who can clearly demonstrate capability, even without long job histories. This is where portfolios built around realistic projects and training-backed work help candidates stand out.
Step 4: Choose the Right Format for a Digital Portfolio
There’s no single “correct” format for a portfolio, and that can feel overwhelming at first. The good news is that most employers care far more about clarity than where your work lives.
- A personal website gives you full control and works well if you want everything in one place, but it does take more setup.
- GitHub is ideal for technical roles, especially if code quality and version control matter.
- Notion can be a simple, flexible option for organising projects and explanations without heavy design work.
- A PDF still has a place too, particularly for structured project summaries or when an application asks for a single file.
Each option has trade-offs, so focus on what makes your work easiest to review.
Step 5: Tailor, Test, and Continuously Improve Your Portfolio
A great portfolio is never truly “finished.” Once your portfolio is live, the next step is to tailor it for the roles you’re applying for and improve it based on real-world feedback.
- Tailor: Start by customising your portfolio slightly for different job types or industries. This might mean reordering projects, swapping out case studies, or adjusting headlines to better match specific job descriptions and keywords. Create and/or save a few different versions of the portfolio (how you do this will depend on the format you've chosen, PDF, website, etc.)
- Test: Next, test your portfolio from a user perspective. Is it easy to navigate? Can someone understand what you do within 10 seconds? Ask peers, mentors, or people already working in your target role to review it and give honest feedback. Pay close attention to where they get confused, what they find impressive, and what they feel is missing. (Again, the kind of feedback will depend on the format you've chosen, e.g. the navigation of a website vs the layout of a PDF)
- Analyse and optimise: Use analytics where possible to track engagement—such as which pages people spend the most time on or where they drop off. This data can help you refine layouts, copy, and project selection. Most website-building platforms or official portfolio builders will offer this kind of analytics data.
- Keep up to date: your portfolio regularly. Add new projects, remove weaker ones, and refresh descriptions as your skills grow. Treat your portfolio like a living product: iterate often, align it with your goals, and let it evolve alongside your career.
Final Thoughts
If there’s one thing I’d leave you with, it’s this: confidence doesn’t come from waiting until you feel ready. It comes from doing the work, putting yourself out there, and learning as you go. A portfolio isn’t something you finish once and forget about. It grows as you do.
If you’re unsure where to start or want a second opinion on what you’ve built so far, we’re here to help. You can book a free consultation with one of our career experts and talk through your goals, your portfolio, and your next steps with someone who understands the tech job market.
