What makes a good Portfolio or Show reel?

 A portfolio is an extension of your resume and will allow you to showcase your talent and skills in the one place. This will allow any potential clients or employers to see what you are capable of without surfing through every individual website or app you have created or worked on as part of a team.

Creating your first portfolio is a daunting task especially if you haven't worked in the industry or for a client. It is important however to add any websites you may have done as part of your coursework no matter how basic they are. These basic task websites are more appealing to employers as this will help them see that you can do the basics and do them well. As long as they meet a certain standard. Your portfolio should be updated regularly and update your websites as you upskill to show off your most recent and advanced work. 

Good Content

Be careful not to have every piece of work you have ever done to your portfolio. This is not an issue when starting a portfolio but as you advance and create more pages be conscious about what content you are adding to your portfolio. Have some notes to go with your work explaining some techniques you may have used and what problems you overcame for the client or yourself. You also do not need to have your entire life story on your bio. A brief introduction with some information about who you are and what you enjoy doing should be more than enough. Having experience in writing CV's I have found the more simple written ones to be more successful at getting my foot in the door.

Have a variety of work on your portfolio. don't just have it full of one page sites that use a different CSS every time. Use high quality images and test how your portfolio looks on different operating systems, it might look good on your PC and terrible on a mobile. Stay up to date with current trends and try not to include anything that is more than three years old. Trends move quickly in  the web development world. 

Interactive

JavaScript is one of the backbones of web development so don't be afraid to add some animation to your portfolio to make it interesting and visually appealing. An example of this is Rafael Caferati portfolio that I found when searching through some examples. The animations and transitions on their page are really smooth and visually appealing. 

Online Presence

Having a portfolio will increase your online presence and this is more important than ever. Think of it as an online resume and a first impression for any potential client or employer. When an employer googles your name your website/portfolio will be the first thing that comes up. It is a great first impression for an employer/client to see that you have taken the time to build a website to showcase your skills and experience. A website allows you to be a bit more personal and allows you to stand out from just another resume. 

Keep it simple enough that your clients will understand what you can do for them. They might not understand developer jargon, if they did they would most likely be doing the work themselves. 

Here Brad at Traversy Media gives some portfolio tips.

Summary of the video

In the video Brad talks about his experience with portfolio websites both his own and others that he has offered advice on. He gives ten tips on making a good portfolio.

1. Presentable Design/UI: Keeping the design up to date with modern trends, The portfolio website is the website they use to navigate your other work so this is the most important.
2. Good hosting & Domain: Use a custom domain name, they can be bought for a low cost and shows you care about your work. Use an SSL certificate ( I would argue this unless a client is paying you through your website I don't see the need for one). Don't use free-hosting, use a hosting service that will run your pages smoothly and load them quickly.
3. Keep it Simple: Have the most important aspect of your work that you want to convey and put it into the shortest amount of text possible. Employers time is valuable and they don't want to be spending too much of it reading through lots of information to get to the points.
4. Don't Exaggerate Skills: Be honest with what you know, Don't add a language you have taken a tutorial in make sure you are confident in what you say is your skills to save yourself the embarrassment of being put on the spot.
5. Live Example/Demos: Using GitHub or something similar have a link in the project section that show the user end and developer end(code) of the project this allows an employer to see the code behind your work and how it works in real time.
6. Be Selective of Projects: Have between three to six high quality projects on display rather than ten smaller and less quality ones. Quality over quantity.
7. Customize Course Projects: If you have created a project using a Udemy course ( or something similar) then customize it to your own design and content. Thousands of people will be using the same projects and employers will know of these projects. It looks better in your own word and design.
8. Easy Contact: Have your contact information on display or a link to a contact page so that an employer or client does not have to go searching for your contact information. 
9. Web Presence & Brand: Having a web presence shows employers that you are passionate and believe in your work and chosen field. A LinkedIn account dedicated to showcasing your skills and achievements, a YouTube channel with tutorials of problems you may have solved or tutorials you have created or a professional Twitter page dedicated to your work and brand are all extremely god ways of getting your name out there.
10. Be Yourself: Don't try to be someone you are not just be honest and show that you are passionate , driven and willing to learn. Show that you are a hard worker and a team player. Put some personal information on your portfolio about hobbies and interests or family life. this makes you more personable but keep it short and not too long.

Sources

Brad Traversy - Traversy Media 

Rafael Caferati - caferati.me