Why I built a portfolio website

There's no doubt why a portfolio website is beneficial to you, irrespective of your career level. Not only is it a great way to showcase your skillsets and previous project experiences to potential employers, but also it comes with other benefits. A portfolio is an excellent way to record, reflect, and chart your career journey. It also comes in handy when you want to build connections with people in the industry who are on a similar journey — either to learn from or to share your knowledge.

Although my career as a technical writer started close to a decade ago, I only recently thought of having a portfolio. Well, not for any of the reasons above. If it were for any of the above reasons, I would choose a portfolio website that allows me to make a portfolio. But instead, I chose to build a portfolio website using a static site generator.

Tip: Wondering what are the options for quickly getting your portfolio done with minimal effort? I found this Hubspot article on free portfolio websites.

Why a static site generator?

A developer portal project I worked on involved Gatsby and Netlify. Up until that point in my career, my experience was limited to CMS. Coming from a non-technical background, I was flustered. On top of it, I was frustrated that the project didn't think of actual writers who would have to contribute to the portal. I wanted to rework the information architecture and make the portal user-friendly for both writers working on it and readers consuming it. I analyzed the current gaps and came up with improvements. I took my proposals to developers to have them implemented. I found myself needing help when I was asked to test the changes. I decided the best thing to do was understand the tool I was working with. What better way to understand the tool than by getting your hands dirty by playing with it?

But why a portfolio?

I decided to start a project to test out the tool. But that was it. For some reason or other, I kept postponing it. Then one day, I had an epiphany that I needed to do a project that would be useful for me. Or else the project will remain small, and I will never test out different possibilities. Moreover, I will need more motivation and drive to explore further.

After considering many options, like a blog or a dummy portal, I zeroed in on my portfolio. It made perfect sense. Unlike a blog, updates to the portfolio needn't be regular. A dummy portal seemed like it needed to be more motivating personally as a project, whereas the portfolio idea gave me enough personal incentive to pursue it. This way, I can document my journey of tool tinkering and share my experiences with others.

I would like to know if any of you had other reasons to build a portfolio. Let me know!