Keeping your portfolio up to date, you’d think would be pretty straight forward. After all, isn’t it just uploading images of your recent projects to your website and writing a quick description of how it was put together?
Well, one thing which still bugs me is the fact that I didn’t do that. After doing freelance for a number of years I decided to work full-time for a company and subsequently my freelance work went down the drain. A number of things were the reason for this, obviously having a full time job was one of them but most notably I didn’t feel as though I needed to do it anymore.
I neglected my freelance company Eclipse – Design & Web Development which I set up when leaving college (high school for those of your across the pond) and just enjoyed doing the day job.
What a mistake that was!
Just a bit of advice to you all – keep your portfolio up-to-date. Your portfolio is a bit like your identity and the key to do anything you want, so you wouldn’t want to lose that now would you?
When I made the decision to move jobs the one problem I faced was not having a collective place where I could show employers what I had done. So, when it came to providing a link to my website I resorted to sending links of sites I had designed – obviously not the best practice, but it worked. For the interviews themselves I ended up having to take my laptop which, to be fair, worked in my favour as it does make you look quite professional.
After all this I decided enough was enough and I proceeded with coming up with mockups for my new website. The funny thing is you think you will have time to do everything. Quite simply you don’t, especially if you’re and have a very active 1 year old daughter to play with and don’t get me started on the wife!
The Conclusion
The fact is, your online portfolio, blog or whatever you want to call it needs to be updated as soon as you finish a project. It doesn’t really matter if its a small job or something you did in your spare time. It all matters to someone at the end of the day. If you want to get ahead in this business the more experience you can show to the world the better, who knows what you may get out of it?
Ever since I put my site up I’ve had a steady influx of freelance work and job offers. This is all down to doing what I can in my spare time and its paid off in the long run. And I’ll tell you one thing – I won’t be neglecting it this time.
Feel free to leave a comment and let me know if you’ve ever been guilty of neglecting your online portfolio.
Comments