So What the Heck is a Portfolio?

I made a Tik Tok post yesterday about the bare minimum you need to get a data analyst job and it got 200k views overnight and 350 comments! A huge amout of comments were

- What is a portfolio?

- How do I make a beginner portfolio?

- What are examples of portfolios?

I did actually answer all of these questions in previous Tik Toks and LinkedIn posts. But let's talk first about what is a portfolio... if you want to see an example of one check out my "Projects" tab on my website!

A data analytics portfolio is not actually too far off from an art portfolio or UX/UI portfolio. It is where you showcase your work, and your projects. How do you do that? Well, a few ways.

I decided to make my own website here on Wix (it was free!) this way I had a central location for all of my projects. However, if you look, you can see that it actually links to GitHub and Tableau Public.

In my GitHub is where I have stored all of the queries ("code") from all of the SQL projects I have done. To do this you just need to copy and paste all of your SQL queries as you go along. I would also recommend keeping track of every function you run in a project (such as MIN) and making a bulleted list of "skills used" at the top of the project.

If the github environment is a little intimidating, start out byt putting all of this into a word doc and then copy and pasting later.

Tableau public, on the other hand, is where all of my visualizations are stored. When you create Tableau projects (for free!) you can publish them to Tableau Public. Then you can include the link to your Tableau Public page right in your resume and applications, so that recruiters can see your projects.

I would also recommend posting about the projects that you do on LinkedIn- since many recruiters will see that first when they are looking at you as a candidate. The best way to get engagement on a LinkedIn post is to include a static image (you can put one of your dashboard, a related photo to the project, or even a screenshot of your queries) and then including the link to the github/tableau page in the comments. People will rarely click a link that is right in a post- especially if they have no other context for it like a dashboard image.

In a nutshell, that's what a portfolio is! If you follow me for any length of time you will notice that I say all the time, the KEY to getting a job without experience is that portfolio. Make sure to include a "Projects" section on your resume where you include the portfolio pieces you are more proud of.

Here is a link to my portfolio - I wasted time on Python! Yours should actually just be a link to your SQL projects.