Building a portfolio that gets you hired

The average recruiter spends 7 seconds on a portfolio before deciding to read further or move on. Seven seconds. You probably spent more time picking your avatar.

Here's how to make those 7 seconds count.

The header is everything

Your name, your role, one sentence about what you do. That's it. No walls of text. No "Full Stack Developer | React | Node | PostgreSQL | Docker | AWS | Kubernetes | GraphQL | MongoDB | Redis."

Be specific: "I build fast, accessible web apps with React and TypeScript" beats a list of 15 technologies every time.

Show work, not just code

Anyone can push a CRUD app to GitHub. What stands out is context:

• What problem did this solve?
• Who used it?
• What was the hardest part?
• What would you do differently?

Even a side project becomes compelling when you explain the why.

Your GitHub graph is a signal

Consistent contributions signal a developer who ships regularly. Gaps are fine, everyone has them. But a completely empty graph with "5 years experience" in the bio creates doubt.

getfolio.dev syncs your GitHub contributions automatically and displays them as part of your portfolio. You can't fake consistency, but you can make sure what you've actually built is visible.

Stack: curate, don't collect

List the tools you'd comfortably use on day one of a new job. Drop the ones you tried once in a tutorial three years ago. Quality over quantity, and yes, remove jQuery.

The bio is not a list of adjectives

"Passionate, motivated, team player who loves challenges." That describes approximately every person who has ever applied to anything. Tell me something true and specific instead.

What are you good at? What kind of work do you enjoy? What's the last interesting technical problem you solved?

Make contact obvious

If someone wants to reach you, they should be able to do it in under 5 seconds. A hidden contact form at the bottom of page 3 is not that.

Your portfolio is your first professional impression. Treat it like the product it is.