How to Create an Engineering Portfolio
Summary
TLDRThis video script details the transformative power of a well-crafted portfolio in securing job interviews, especially for engineers. The speaker shares their journey from frequent rejections to landing interviews at top companies like Apple, Uber, and Facebook. They outline the importance of a portfolio in showcasing past work, the three main methods to create one (PDF, GitHub, or a personal website), and a six-step process to organize it effectively. The video also includes tips on tailoring portfolios to job applications, maintaining confidentiality with professional projects, and leveraging theoretical knowledge as a fresh engineer.
Takeaways
- 📑 A portfolio can significantly improve job interview opportunities, even leading to interviews with top companies like Apple, Uber, and Facebook.
- 🛠️ There are three main ways to create a portfolio: a PDF document, a GitHub account, or a personal website, with the PDF being the easiest to start with.
- 🔍 A portfolio serves as a showcase of past work, including images and summaries, and is crucial for demonstrating skills and experience to potential employers.
- 👷♂️ Tailoring the portfolio to the job application by selecting relevant projects increases the chances of getting an interview.
- 📈 Including the project process, technical skills, and results in the portfolio helps demonstrate a candidate's capabilities and the project's success.
- 📝 The script emphasizes the importance of telling a story with work, being clear about contributions, and showing hard technical skills in every project.
- 🔗 Having a link to the portfolio in the resume is essential for both software and hardware engineers to make it accessible to hiring managers.
- 🚫 For positions involving confidentiality, like at Tesla, it's crucial to get approval before sharing projects to avoid revealing sensitive information.
- 💼 Creating a 'master portfolio' that includes all past projects allows for easy customization when applying to different companies.
- 🎨 Personal projects can be included in a portfolio, especially when starting out, but professional projects are preferred as experience grows.
- 📐 The script provides a step-by-step guide to building a portfolio, including organizing projects, writing descriptions, and choosing relevant images.
Q & A
What is the main skill discussed in the video that helped the speaker transition from getting rejected to landing interviews at top companies?
-The main skill discussed is creating a portfolio to showcase one's work, which can significantly improve the chances of getting job interviews.
What are the three main ways to create a portfolio as mentioned in the video?
-The three main ways are creating a PDF document with images and summaries of work, using a GitHub account to share code, and building a website to display images, prototypes, and designs.
Why is a PDF portfolio recommended for those who have never created a portfolio before?
-A PDF portfolio is recommended because it is the easiest option to create and can effectively compile the best projects into one document, which can then be attached to a resume when applying for jobs.
What should be included in a portfolio to make it stand out to recruiters?
-A portfolio should include the process of the work, clear explanations of contributions and results, storytelling with the work, demonstration of hard technical skills, and tailoring to the job being applied for.
What is a 'master portfolio' and how does it help in job applications?
-A master portfolio is a comprehensive collection of all past projects. It allows the job applicant to select and tailor the portfolio to match the specific requirements of each job application, making it more relevant and appealing to potential employers.
Why is it important to tailor a portfolio when applying for jobs, even though it might seem impractical to tailor for each job?
-Tailoring a portfolio to a specific job helps demonstrate the applicant's understanding of the job requirements and how their skills and experiences align with the role, increasing the chances of being considered for an interview.
What is the recommended length for a portfolio, and why?
-A portfolio should ideally be two to three pages long, ensuring that each project is intentional and relevant to the job being applied for. This length is manageable for a hiring manager to review without being overwhelming.
How can one ensure that their portfolio is not too large when submitting it for job applications, given that there are often size limits?
-One can use tools like PDF joiner to combine the resume and portfolio, and then use a PDF compressor to reduce the file size to meet submission requirements, while maintaining readability.
What are some personal projects included in the speaker's portfolio, and why were they chosen?
-The speaker included personal projects like 'Drill Guard' and 'Happy', a toilet attachment for health analysis. These projects were chosen because they demonstrate innovation and the ability to work on diverse projects outside of professional settings.
Why is it important to get approval from companies before sharing professional projects in a portfolio?
-Getting approval is crucial to respect the company's confidentiality and intellectual property, especially if the projects involve sensitive or unreleased information.
What should be the focus of a portfolio for someone aiming for a mechanical engineering position?
-For a mechanical engineering position, the portfolio should focus on CAD work, design processes, and projects that demonstrate mechanical design and fabrication skills, rather than coding or other unrelated areas.
Outlines
📚 The Power of a Portfolio for Job Applications
This paragraph introduces the concept of a portfolio as a critical tool for job applicants, particularly in the tech industry. The speaker shares their personal experience of transforming from a frequent job rejection to securing interviews with top companies like Apple, Uber, and Facebook by creating a portfolio. The paragraph outlines different methods to create a portfolio, such as a PDF document, a GitHub account, or a personal website, and emphasizes the importance of tailoring the portfolio to the job application. It also discusses the benefits of a portfolio in standing out among other applicants and provides a six-step process to organize one's portfolio, complete with a free template.
🛠️ Building a Portfolio: Techniques and Examples
The second paragraph delves into the specifics of building a portfolio, starting with the speaker's personal portfolio as an example. It discusses the importance of showcasing the project process, technical skills, and the ability to tell a story with one's work. The speaker provides a step-by-step guide on how to document each project, including the 'what,' 'how,' and 'results' aspects, and stresses the significance of tailoring the portfolio to the job's requirements. The paragraph also touches on the idea of a 'master portfolio' and the importance of confidentiality when including professional projects, especially from companies with strict non-disclosure policies.
🖼️ Organizing and Presenting Your Portfolio
The final paragraph focuses on the organization and presentation of a portfolio. It provides guidance on how to structure the document, including the use of images, concise titles, and brief descriptions under each image to explain the project. The speaker advises on the order of projects, suggesting either a chronological or a relevance-based approach. The paragraph concludes with tips on what not to include in a portfolio, such as outdated projects, irrelevant work experience, and personal hobbies, and emphasizes the importance of showcasing theoretical knowledge as a strength, especially for younger or less experienced engineers.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Portfolio
💡PDF Document
💡GitHub Account
💡Website Portfolio
💡Recruiter's Perspective
💡Master Portfolio
💡Project Process
💡Technical Skills
💡Storytelling
💡Tailored Portfolio
Highlights
Making a portfolio significantly increases the chances of landing job interviews with top tech companies.
A portfolio showcases your work by sharing samples of past projects, and it can be in the form of a PDF, GitHub account, or website.
A PDF portfolio is recommended for beginners as it's the easiest to create.
Submitting a portfolio alongside your resume helps you stand out from other candidates.
Separate portfolios for hardware and software jobs increase relevance and impact.
A good portfolio shows the process, not just the finished work, and includes clear explanations of what you did, how you did it, and the final results.
Tell a story with your work and highlight your hard technical skills.
Creating a master portfolio with all your projects allows you to tailor submissions for specific job applications.
Professional projects should be included over personal projects, but ensure to get approval if they are confidential.
Organize your portfolio with a concise title for each section and include small company logos for a more aesthetic look.
Use images to complement brief texts under the headings 'What', 'How', and 'Results' for each project.
Ensure your portfolio is not overly wordy and avoid repeating resume content.
Save the top heading with your name, major, university, and contact information for easy reference.
Don't include irrelevant work experience, very old projects, or projects you didn't actually work on.
Young engineers should leverage their theoretical knowledge to stand out against more experienced candidates.
Transcripts
this one skill helped me go from someone
who was always getting rejected when
applying to jobs all the way to someone
who was able to land interviews with
companies like apple uber facebook and a
bunch of tech startups can you guess
what it is it's making a portfolio it's
crazy how this piece of paper right here
can make such a huge difference when it
comes to getting job interviews in this
video i'll go into more detail on what a
portfolio is why it's so important what
mine looks like and i'll share with you
the six step process on how you can
organize your portfolio with a free
template at the end a portfolio is just
a place for you to show your work by
sharing samples of what you've done in
the past there are three main ways in
how you can create a portfolio first you
can create a pdf document that shows
images of your work as well as a very
brief summary of it this is ideal for
hardware engineers where the projects
they work on are pretty tangible second
your project can be on a github account
where you basically are just sharing
your code with the hiring manager this
works best for software engineers
finally a portfolio can be a website
where you share pictures of your work
tangible prototypes or even some of your
designs also on a portfolio website if
you've built apps or you've worked on
programming projects you can share them
there as well making a website works
really well for both hardware and
software engineers if you plan on making
your portfolio on a github account or
through your own personal website just
make sure to have a link to that in your
resume however out of the three options
the easiest one is to create a pdf
document as your portfolio so if you've
never created a portfolio in the past
i'd recommend starting there it doesn't
matter what kind of engineering you're
in whether you're in mechanical or
software you should take your best
projects compile them into one document
attach it to your resume and then submit
that when you're applying for jobs doing
so will help you get way more job
interviews that's because when anyone
applies to a job they always submit a
resume but not everyone submits a
portfolio so by submitting one it helps
you stand out it also helps the person
trying to decide whether or not they
should hire you if you're worth their
time just think about it from the
recruiter's perspective if they look
through your resume and portfolio and
they see you working on projects that
are potentially similar to what you
could be working on at the company
they'll most likely want to interview
you and just have a chat with you
however do keep in mind that if you're
applying to both hardware and software
jobs you should make sure to have
separate portfolios for each so what
makes a good portfolio first you have to
show the process and not just the
finished work second you have to be
clear on what you did how you did it and
the final results third you should try
your best to tell a story with your work
fourth show your hard technical skills
with every project on your portfolio
fifth when you're applying to jobs your
portfolio should be somewhat tailored to
the job but i know you're thinking i'm
applying to hundreds of jobs there's no
way i can tailor a portfolio to every
single job i apply to that means i have
to make hundreds of portfolios so the
way to get around that is by creating a
master portfolio a master portfolio
contains all the projects that you've
worked on in the past that way when
you're applying to a company you can
just pick and choose the projects that
you want to share with them for example
let's see have project experience
working in consumer electronics aviation
technology electric vehicles and
robotics if you're applying to a company
like tesla lucid or uber then save your
electric vehicle projects for those kind
of jobs that being said these skills and
engineering are actually pretty
transferable so just because you have a
lot of aviation engineering experience
doesn't mean you can't transfer
industries and work with electric
vehicles engineering instead for example
from my experience working at tesla i
was able to transfer the skills i
learned working with electric vehicles
into where i'm working now at a robotics
startup one thing to keep in mind when
submitting a pdf portfolio is that
there's usually a size limit so what i
would do is i would first use a website
called pdf joiner to join my resume and
portfolio into one pdf the file it
produces tends to be pretty big so then
i use another website called pdf
compressor to compress that file into a
file small enough that i can upload it
when applying to jobs obviously after
compressing it the images in my
portfolio may be a little blurry but
it's still readable so it's not that bad
also in terms of how many pages your
portfolio should be there is a huge
spectrum i've seen people submit
portfolios that are just one page long
and i've seen other people submit
portfolios that are like tens of pages
so i personally prefer to make
portfolios that are like two to three
pages long where every project is
intentional and somewhat relates to the
overall job that i'm applying to the
hiring manager or recruiter probably
wouldn't want to read through a 20-page
portfolio but if it's just a two-pager
it'll take a quick glance at it
especially if it's mostly pictures now
i'll briefly share with you what my
portfolio looks like then i'll erase it
completely and redo it from scratch to
guide you through the six step process
of building a good portfolio starting
off my portfolio with the heading i have
my name major and university i also have
my contact information like email
linkedin and phone number the linkedin
url is a hyperlink so if you open this
pdf on your laptop it takes you directly
to my profile i also like to add some
color in my portfolio so it's easier on
the eyes here i chose to go with a light
baby blue starting off with the first
project in my portfolio here i show some
images and i go into a lot more detail
on the what how and the results aspect
of my projects for this particular
project which was called a centrifuge
tube reader the what aspect was that i
designed and fabricated a device that
reads the sediment and water quantity in
oil with over 95 accuracy the how aspect
was that i used she metal features in
solidworks finally the results of this
project was that the design fulfilled
its purpose with 97 accuracy versus the
80 that existed previously when readings
were done by humans also notice how here
i try to tell a story and show the
design process by showing the part alone
then showing the part in an assembly and
finally showing the part when it was
finally built moving on to the second
project in my portfolio is the tube
holder the what how and results sections
are clearly labeled i like to build my
technical skills that i think matter the
most the type of stuff that the hiring
manager for a mechanical engineering
position will find important again i
always include pictures of the cat and
in real life to show the design process
the same thing applies to my third
project that's called a solar panel test
fixture that i worked on at access labs
one thing to notice here that's
different is that in this project there
was some electrical work since i had to
use an arduino
do some wiring and soldering however i
didn't talk about it too much because
i'd like to work for mechanical
engineering roles and not electrical
roles another example of a project in my
portfolio was this thermostat packaging
that i did for ecobee so if you order a
thermostat from ecobee it comes in this
really nice packaging and the unboxing
of it is really satisfying however
ecobee also sells thermostats to
contractors who are building new houses
these contractors would usually receive
the thermostat in this really nice
packaging but honestly they didn't care
about this nice packaging all they
wanted was a thermostat in one piece so
because they didn't care about this
really nice packaging and this packaging
was also very expensive i worked on
designing and building this packaging
that would keep the thermostat safe
against drops and impacts but would also
be very cheap so that's the what of this
project the how aspect was that i did
this by using solidworks to design the
outer box and i was in contact with
manufacturers in china to fabricate the
packaging the outcome was that i was
able to reduce production costs by 62
percent and i built strong relationships
with chinese manufacturers which is
actually very important when building
hardware products like this so the past
four projects were professional projects
that i did at work and the next two
projects were ones that i did personally
either on my own or with friends when
you're first starting out most of your
projects will be personal projects but
as you get more experience through your
internships make sure to include those
professional projects instead of your
personal projects on your portfolio
however in engineering keep in mind that
some companies tend to be very secretive
to make sure that you get their approval
before you share your professional
projects that you did with them for
example in my portfolio i didn't share
any of my projects from my time working
at tesla as an engineer because they
were super secretive about everything
that i was doing they are definitely not
okay with me sharing cat or images of
car parts that haven't been released yet
moving on the first personal project i
work on is called the drill guard and
essentially you would place it on a
working drill and it collects dust as
you drill moving on the second personal
project i worked on is called happy it's
just a toilet attachment that analyzes
your pee before it's flushed away to
allow you to track your health and
detect any possible diseases in the
early stage i chose to use a whole page
to talk about this project because i'm
not restricted on what i can say with
all my professional projects i need to
be very careful when talking about them
so i don't say any confidential
information but here i can say whatever
the heck i want now that you've seen my
portfolio it's time to delete everything
download my canva template that you'll
find in the video description and
recreate my portfolio in six steps now
before starting your portfolio you need
to ask yourself some questions first
what type of positions are you aiming
for second what type of work does this
company do third what would my job
responsibilities be these questions can
help you figure out two things the types
of projects you should focus on and the
kind of skills you want to present if
you don't want to code in your new job
then don't share a lot of projects that
involve coding if you want to be doing a
lot of mechanical design then share a
lot of your cad work instead or maybe
you want to be working as a product
manager in that case you shouldn't be
sharing your cad or your code at all to
make creating your portfolio very easy
you need to make sure that you're
constantly taking pictures of all your
projects at work whether that would be
screenshots of your cad pictures of your
first or final prototype or maybe even
sketches of some of your projects if
you're really good at drawing i'll start
off by having folders on my laptop for
every single project i want to include
on my portfolio each folder will be
named after the project and within each
folder i'll make sure to include images
of everything that was involved in this
project and maybe even some cad models
then choose three images that best
describe what was going on in that
project ideally one picture in the
initial stage of the project one picture
halfway through the product development
process and one picture at the end of
the project next block off every section
in your portfolio with a concise title
try to go for a name that makes it clear
what the project you're working on is
about i also like to include small
company logos just because i think it
makes my portfolio look a little more
aesthetic moving on you should think of
your portfolio as a document filled with
images with some text that briefly
explains what's going on in these images
it definitely should not be as wordy as
your resume under each image i'll have
the what how and results subheadings
then a brief description to highlight
what i did how i did it and the final
results of the project i try my best to
make sure i don't repeat anything that
was already mentioned in my resume the
what section briefly explains what i did
on this particular project and the
overall project purpose the how section
talks about the skills i learned from
this project and what kind of software
or tools i used to work on it the
results section just shares the overall
outcome and whether or not this project
actually fulfilled its purpose if you
achieved it that's awesome try to back
it up by including numbers like reduce
production costs by 62
if you're unsuccessful in achieving the
project purpose that's totally fine just
briefly explain why and make sure to
include some kind of numbers as well
because engineers love numbers once
you've roughly included all your
projects with some images and some brief
text you should consider the order of
how you place your projects you can
either present it chronologically where
you start with your most recent project
and go all the way down to your oldest
work or you can talk about your best and
most relevant project and then work your
way down it really just comes down to
what you prefer i've personally always
done the most relevant projects first as
long as they're not like too too old
finally i'll save the top heading at the
end adding things like my name major
university and contact information i'll
also just add a link to my linkedin
profile here for easy access afterwards
i'll look through my portfolio and see
where else i can add useful links for
example for my happy project i added a
hyperlink to a video i made about the
project in case you want to learn more
you don't have to use my layout by the
way for your engineering portfolios it's
just a template so if you decide to go a
different way here are a few things that
you need to make sure not to include
first really old projects where you
don't really remember its details second
projects you didn't actually work on
obviously third projects that are bad or
boring or even projects that you hate oh
and please don't share irrelevant work
experience for example if you're
applying to an engineering job and you
worked at a fast food restaurant in the
past don't include that in your
portfolio
and also make sure not to include like
random hobbies because sadly no one
really cares now if you're a young
engineer one thing that you should focus
on and that will actually help you stand
out with being compared to more senior
experienced engineers is your
theoretical knowledge because if you're
still in school or you're just fresh out
of school you most likely remember the
theoretical stuff you learned in class
better than the senior engineers do so
use that to your advantage anyways i
hope this video brought you value if it
did check out this video where i share
with you my experience working as a
tesla engineer or check out that video
where i share with you a detailed
step-by-step process on how to get
engineering internships anyways i'll see
you the next one peace
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