Finding employment while studying is quite a responsible and complicated task. The main complexity for students seeking part-time employment to support their lifestyle is frustration with the process. Where do you find a job? What is required for an entry-level? What documents should I prepare? 

Here, you will get at least one heavy weight lifted from your chest. We will guide you through creating one mandatory work for finding a job – your portfolio. You can get one more weight lifted if you need help with your college papers while working on your resume. You can contact essay writing services like customwritings to ensure your back is covered. As soon as it’s done, let’s dive into creating your first student portfolio. 

Picture by Ian Schneider on Unsplash

What do you need for a strong portfolio?

A good portfolio must showcase your skills better than you could ever do with words. For this, it is important to note that your portfolio is not a resume or CV with its own peculiarities. So, what should be in your portfolio?

The practical cases with context

Regardless of the profession, your work is always not a mere “task” you were handled but a part of the larger processes. Each assignment serves some purpose and has to deliver value to the final user. Here are a few examples that may clarify this point:

• What is the purpose of your product? Who is your customer or a user of a product? As a writer, you can simply put your texts on a PDF file or WordPress webpage and call it a portfolio. However, if the potential employer views this presentation, what would they see? A usual text similar to those written all over the internet. Why should they hire you? A good portfolio includes the context of the request and explains who the customer or the user is, their needs, and how the created product covers that problem. 
• What is special about the product you create with your skills? What value does it hold? For example, as an illustrator, you can create beautiful pictures for any given topic. But so does artificial intelligence and thousands of other illustrations. Your portfolio must highlight your perfect customer match and your style. A childish-like painting style would be suitable for publishing entertaining books, and scientific illustration would benefit the customers looking for data illustration artists. 

The diversity of your skills

A second important point for your portfolio is presenting and growing your skills and work. Your portfolio must develop proportionally to your personal growth. Do not forget to revise it occasionally, deleting the irrelevant and outdated works and filling it up with new ones. 

Consistency and organization

While your portfolio must represent all your skills and masteries, it should also have some consistency in style and formatting. For example, if you present it in the case format, make sure that each work has a short summary of the customer’s request, your negotiating process, and the final result. Choose a specific highlight of the benefits of working with you and mention it in all the aspects of your portfolio. 

How to create a portfolio with no experience? A step-by-step guide with AnimatedJobs.com

Okay, but how do you create a portfolio as a student without having an appropriate experience? Let’s get step-by-step instructions on the example of a 2D animation artist. 

Step #1. Building a basis of your skills

For the career of a 2D animation artist, you may not need a formal education. If you are pursuing a degree and looking for a job, the lack of completed education is not a problem. However, you will need some training to do your job well. You can easily do this through self-education with resources in free access or by completing courses. 

Step #2. Exploring the market

Now it is your time to open animatedjobs.com and look at what the entrance-level roles require of potential employees. It does not matter if you plan to do official employment or work as a freelance worker. At this point, you need to understand what skills must be reflected in your portfolio. For instance, one of the current job applications, remote 2D animation assistant, requires knowledge of the classic Disney animation style and the ability to work with a 24-frame-per-second format. Now, you have two hard skills to highlight in your resume. After going through about fifty to one hundred job propositions, you will have a list of basic requirements for particular job roles. 

Step #3. Composing a resume

At this point, you have a clear perspective on the value you have to propose for the employers and customers and top market requests. Now, you must fill your portfolio with great representative and alluring works. Remember that you don’t need to have previous work experience to create some samples. With the list of job requirements, you can find the fitting samples in free access and take them as inspiration to create your own version of a project. If you have never had a customer, look at the businesses and organizations around you and spot what they do wrong in your specialization and what you could do better. 

That’s it, creating a first student portfolio is not complicated. You only need to collect your courage and do the first few tasks. From that point on, it is only a question of improving and revising it occasionally with new works!