Having a portfolio is essential for getting a good remote job. But when you don’t have one, what do you do?
Well, that’s why I am here.
I’ll work you through how you can create an ‘experience’ that will somewhat stand as a placeholder in your portfolio while you build real experience.
How you create this experience heavily depends on the Digital Space you’re in. So let me quickly run down the popular digital areas that people mostly work in remotely.
Popular Digital Occupations
- Writing
- Graphics Design
- Search Engine Optimization
- Programming
- Customer Service
There are many others but from my experience running vettedremote.com, these are the occupations that have the most remote job vacancies. So let’s take them one after the other. You’re free to jump to the one that concerns you.
Writing
As a Writer, you can start building up your portfolio by creating a simple website. Currently, the most affordable domain name is .com.ng which costs about N1, 200 yearly. You can also get hosting for as low as N10,000. With WordPress, you can build your own site yourself. If that is too much for you, other options are:
- Medium.com
- LinkedIn.com
Aside from writing on platforms like the one I mentioned, you can also contribute to blogs, editorials, and journals for free.
There are many websites that are looking for contributors to pay but offering to write for them for free will appeal to them. For example, if you write on medically related subjects you can do a Google search for keywords like:
- become a contributor + health
- write for us + health
Replace ‘health’ with whatever niche you’re in.
When you successfully get your articles published, create an account on vzy.co or any similar page builder. Include the links to all the articles you have written on LinkedIn, Medium, and any other sites.
As a subject matter, express your thoughts about different concepts in your industry on a weekly basis. This could be your:
- opinion on a recent development in your industry
- an easier work method you use
- recent knowledge you’ve acquired
Graphics Design
The most popular platforms where Graphics Designers/Creatives showcase their works are:
- Dribbble.com
- Behance.net
- Instagram.com
By the way, if you’re a Graphics Designer in Nigeria you should follow the Naija Graphics Designers handle on Instagram.
If you’ve not got clients to give you jobs, there are many ideas that can inspire you on what to create but I’ll mention 2 that are most relevant in this context.
- Get inspiration from top designers in your niche.
- Take a look at the Social Media account of the company you would like to work for and create the kind of designs they have. If they create more infographics, learn how to design infographics and do many.
Make sure to post the designs across all the accounts you have chosen to showcase your work. You can compile all the work together using your custom-built website or any other page builder.
Search Engine Optimization
For a SEO, the best way to show experience is to create real websites that rank on the first pages of Search Engines. You can create a website in any subject area you’re interested in. You can have more than one, A2 Hosting allows you to host an unlimited number of websites for just $180 annually. The success of this site becomes your portfolio.
Programming
For Programmers, there are many places to grow your experience a few of them are:
If you’ve built some products, make sure they are listed on producthunt, appsumo, codecanyon, etc.
In fact, you should have tools you build for fun, there are several problems that are not solved yet. I come across problems daily that can be solved with programming but unfortunately, I am not a Programmer.
Customer Service
For customer service, I don’t know a site that you can build your portfolio on apart from your own site. Apart from that, you can do mock call videos and post them on your Social Media accounts. Create different scenarios and respond to fake customer calls in those scenarios. ChatGPT can help you a great deal with this. Ask it for scripts that include what you’ll say and what the possible client’s response would be.