Re #Dataviz Portfolios, early career folks are mostly concerned with making and populating one, but what do non-early-career folks struggle with re: portfolios? Once you have one, what's next? Maintaining and updating? Updating aesthetics? Remaking it to go from personal to business? - ThreadSky

zanewolf.bsky.social • 24 days ago

Re #Dataviz Portfolios, early career folks are mostly concerned with making and populating one, but what do non-early-career folks struggle with re: portfolios?

Once you have one, what's next? Maintaining and updating? Updating aesthetics? Remaking it to go from personal to business?

Comments

driven-by-data.net•24 days ago

Updating once every 5 years seems to be the way to go 😅

zanewolf.bsky.social•24 days ago

Why every 5 years? And updating content, aesthetics, or both?

driven-by-data.net•24 days ago

I was mostly joking, but in my experience, people get lazy with their portfolios once they land a good job. But after a while, you realize that you haven't posted anything in five years, and you sit down for a complete portfolio makeover.

driven-by-data.net•24 days ago

As for me, I mainly update content and the tech stack for my portfolio. Like, to be able to update the website I need to update whatever framework I used for the site, then I end up switching to a different framework, migrate all the content etc. Also adding "new" features like dark mode support.

zanewolf.bsky.social•24 days ago

I've remade my portfolio three times already, twice for exactly the reason you describe - frameworks get updated & it's just as easy to sit down & recreate it from scratch as to try untangling the chaos of errors & updates. I just remade it in wix cause ain't nobody got time for that anymore, haha.

jacqueschrag.com•24 days ago

This is so real. It's a pretty accurate guess that someone is in the market for a new job if their portfolio has suddenly gotten updated. 😂

datarocksnz.bsky.social•24 days ago

For me, the main struggle is that almost 100% of my projects are locked behind NDAs, or they only work for the context they were developed for, such as dashboards for a highly specific industry, with very particular requirements... also,

datarocksnz.bsky.social•24 days ago

It would also mean spending tons (and I mean tons) of free time rebuilding the few things I could potentially show. But the accompanying description of why that was a hit with the client will put anyone to sleep.
Most of my work gets high praise from clients, but it's not something portfolio worthy

datarocksnz.bsky.social•24 days ago

When we're early on the journey, it's also easier to find time, energy, and motivation to build things just for the portfolio, like joining challenges and stuff. When you're deep into a work schedule handling clients though, that becomes way more difficult.

drsinbin.bsky.social•24 days ago

I struggle with that a lot too, the vast majority of what I do these days is in cybersecurity/incident /risk/vulnerability analysis for the C-levels at a large financial institution & a lot of it goes into decks they present to regulators... that stuff CANNOT be shared, even if I "rebuilt" it.

datarocksnz.bsky.social•24 days ago

Yes! It's true for so many sensitive industries that deal with lots of private information, like Health, Corrections, Auditing, Safety. Some of this stuff is so specific that even if you anonymise data and don't mention the client, it's pretty obvious what it is.
So I get in a portfolio limbo...

zanewolf.bsky.social•24 days ago

For careers like this, where it might be understood by the majority that portfolios are minimal to non-existent, how important are they in the hiring process? Do you feel you even need to put in the effort to create/maintain one?

datarocksnz.bsky.social•24 days ago

Yes, I still get asked for examples of work, for clients that are not by rec. It also makes it challenging to get work from different industries. I might not always want to work with clients like this. So I have to find a way to make a portfolio for the client I want, instead of the clients I have.

drsinbin.bsky.social•24 days ago

Seconding all of this. And the nature of the stuff I work on means I work pretty weird hours at times plus with *everything else* going on (especially lately) it's hard to find time and motivation for "side projects".

connordickson.bsky.social•23 days ago

The portfolio is less important to me after the first couple data jobs I held. What matters more at this point is networking and being able to verbally describe previous projects I’ve worked on for an interview.

zanewolf.bsky.social•23 days ago

Do you practice elevator pitches for specific projects? What details matter most?

connordickson.bsky.social•23 days ago

I do when I’m in a season of interviewing. I try to follow the STAR outline for describing projects. I’ll explain the Situation, Task required, Action I took, and the Result. Great question!

zanewolf.bsky.social•22 days ago

Great answer! :) How do you choose which projects to talk about or show during interviews?

rsimmon.bsky.social•24 days ago

I have a few very well-known graphics & sometimes people think that’s *all* that I do. So I have to try to balance the famous stuff with the other types of visualization I work on.

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