I've been asked by multiple companies to show a portfolio or demonstration of my abilities. I have created a short video that demonstrates some of my basic knowledge using Camtasia & Storyline 3. Honest feedback would be very much appreciated. Please let me know if there is anything additional that I should add or remove.
Unfortunately I don't have a portfolio as all of my work is proprietary, so I've had to work on something general in my free time. I just want advise to see if this is decent enough to show a possible employer.
Putting together a robust portfolio is definitely a challenge when the projects you've worked on previously are ones you can't share. Your idea to work on some fictional projects in your free time is a good solution that many people in your situation find can work.
The video you shared gave a nice quick peek at your project, but there are some additional things you can do, both with it and your portfolio overall, to further showcase your skills to potential employers.
Share your thought process First, the video showed a few interactions, so an employer would know you can use that standard functionality in Storyline 3. But because it was snippets of the course, it wasn't easy to get a sense of the instructional design that went into your work. And that's where you can really differential yourself from other applicants.
I've often seen people's portfolios include background on the problem they were trying to solve (even if it was a fictional problem for a made-up project) and how they solved it with their project. You can add that context in text beside the example on a portfolio website. Or you could include it in the video itself with a voiceover explaining the challenge and your approach to the solution.
Share multiple examples Usually prospective employers are looking for multiple different examples in a portfolio to see the breadth of your skills. While that's challenging to put together when all of those examples have to be new ones you've done in your free time, it's worth it so that employers don't inadvertently think your skills are more narrow than they actually are.
But don't feel pressured to create extensive courses for each fictional example. Simply having some shorter proof of concepts of what you'd do often still gives employers a sense of your abilities. And if you're looking for ideas for those additional examples, our weekly E-Learning Challenges can give you some interesting design and development prompts to try out.
Share generic versions of the proprietary projects you worked on This option will depend on the exact restrictions of the projects you worked on, but sometimes you can share a generic version of a project (or just a sampling of some of it) where you remove all the identifying details. Most employers know that sometimes you're going to need to say "Here is a generic version of some screens from a course I built for a tech company" rather than sharing the company name and complete project.
3 Replies
Unfortunately I don't have a portfolio as all of my work is proprietary, so I've had to work on something general in my free time. I just want advise to see if this is decent enough to show a possible employer.
Hi Alvaro and welcome to the community!
Putting together a robust portfolio is definitely a challenge when the projects you've worked on previously are ones you can't share. Your idea to work on some fictional projects in your free time is a good solution that many people in your situation find can work.
The video you shared gave a nice quick peek at your project, but there are some additional things you can do, both with it and your portfolio overall, to further showcase your skills to potential employers.
Share your thought process
First, the video showed a few interactions, so an employer would know you can use that standard functionality in Storyline 3. But because it was snippets of the course, it wasn't easy to get a sense of the instructional design that went into your work. And that's where you can really differential yourself from other applicants.
I've often seen people's portfolios include background on the problem they were trying to solve (even if it was a fictional problem for a made-up project) and how they solved it with their project. You can add that context in text beside the example on a portfolio website. Or you could include it in the video itself with a voiceover explaining the challenge and your approach to the solution.
Share multiple examples
Usually prospective employers are looking for multiple different examples in a portfolio to see the breadth of your skills. While that's challenging to put together when all of those examples have to be new ones you've done in your free time, it's worth it so that employers don't inadvertently think your skills are more narrow than they actually are.
But don't feel pressured to create extensive courses for each fictional example. Simply having some shorter proof of concepts of what you'd do often still gives employers a sense of your abilities. And if you're looking for ideas for those additional examples, our weekly E-Learning Challenges can give you some interesting design and development prompts to try out.
Share generic versions of the proprietary projects you worked on
This option will depend on the exact restrictions of the projects you worked on, but sometimes you can share a generic version of a project (or just a sampling of some of it) where you remove all the identifying details. Most employers know that sometimes you're going to need to say "Here is a generic version of some screens from a course I built for a tech company" rather than sharing the company name and complete project.
Thank you so much for your objective feedback! I focused more on functionality and forgot to provide insight of the vision and purpose.