3 Setting Your Goals

Every portfolio should have a goal or a purpose. What do you want the viewer to learn about you and your work? What do you need to demonstrate to convince them you have the skills listed on your CV or resume? What skills can the portfolio showcase that you can’t articulate elsewhere?

A portfolio is not a CV. It shouldn’t be a catalog of everything you have ever done. Instead it should be a collection of your best work, or the specific work you most want to showcase to your target audience. But most of all, it should communicate something about your work to the viewer. Your portfolio should have a goal. (Your overall goal for this process is probably to get a job, but you’ll need to dig deeper than that!)

You portfolio can have multiple goals, and they should all be achievable and specific. Here are some examples:

  • Demonstrate my coding skills in Python
  • Illustrate my data visualization skills with ggplot in R
  • Showcase my data science ability with respect to my domain (i.e., Biology, Hydrology, English, etc.)
  • Highlight my ability to complete projects
  • Show that I can work collaboratively with several people
  • Show that I can take a leadership role on a project
  • Demonstrate the breadth of my technical skills
  • Highlight the kinds of projects I want to work on in the future
  • Demonstrate that I can use R to clean data, write a model, and plot results
  • Showcase my ability to communicate complex research findings
  • Expand my collaboration network by demonstrating my skills

Black and white Noun Project Icon showing two people cheering a rocket launch

Here are some questions and tasks that might help you define your goals:

  • After viewing your portfolio, what impression do you want the viewer to have of you and your skills?
  • What is the purpose of your portfolio?
  • What story to you want to tell?
  • What jobs are you applying to, and what qualities or skills are important in this field?
  • What skills do you want to highlight?
  • What skills do you want to learn?
  • Review some portfolios from people in your domain. What do you think their portfolios communicate?
ACTIVITY 1
Write down 1-2 goals for your portfolio.
What do you want the viewer to learn about you?
REPORT OUT:
Share your goals in the chat.