When your computer-aided design training is through and you begin your new career, having a great portfolio can make it a lot easier for you to demonstrate your ability to potential employers. It’s not enough to just grab any samples of your work, though, or to throw every project you’ve ever made into the mix. Instead, it’s best to take care in choosing interesting samples that are great demonstrations of your ability.
Want to learn how to make the perfect portfolio, the one that will help you land the CAD career of your dreams? Here are a few steps to follow.
After CAD Courses, Make a Diverse Portfolio to Show off Your Range of Capability
One of the great things about attending a good CAD program is that you’ll be able to use your skills to create a variety of different models and designs. CAD professionals can prepare plans and drawings for buildings, machinery, manufactured products, and many other interesting kinds of structures and objects. Have your portfolio reflect that!
Including a variety of different kinds of projects in your portfolio will demonstrate that you developed wide-ranging skill in your online CAD courses and that you are well-suited to many different kinds of work as a CAD professional. This can encourage employers to see you as an impressive candidate who will be able to handle any tasks sent your way.
Include Explanations With Each Portfolio Item, So Employers Know What They Are
For two seemingly similar models, your design and modeling process might be very different. There could be different budgetary concerns, different environmental stressors that needed to be planned for, or any of a number of other factors affecting their shape, size, and construction. Unfortunately, an employer likely will not be able to tell any of that just by looking at a picture or model.
Take the time to write out descriptions of portfolio items to help impress employers
To promote understanding of your portfolio, consider including a brief explanation along with every piece you include. Make notes that can help people understand what every piece is, what it was meant to accomplish, and why you designed or modeled it the way that you did. This is a great way to make your work stand out as being professional, and can help you make a great impression after your CAD online training.
After CAD Courses, Make Your Portfolio Accessible Through Multiple Platforms
Having a perfect portfolio doesn’t mean just having great samples that employers can look at. It also means making it as easy as possible for different people to see your portfolio, as this increases the odds that they will look at it.
Different people have different preferences for the kinds of services they use, or for the kinds of sites they will visit while hiring. For this reason, one of the best ways to make it easy for people to see your portfolio is to display it in many different locations. Here are a few good ideas for places to share and store your portfolio:
- On a LinkedIn profile page
- On a personal website
- On a cloud storage/sharing service (Google Drive, Dropbox, and others.)
To increase your odds of being noticed, use multiple online and cloud services for your portfolio
By making use of some of the most common sites and services for sharing portfolios, you can do a better job of matching the preferences of different employers, and of getting your work noticed. Just don’t forget to keep printouts, and digital files on a USB drive, as well. Some employers may not want to view your portfolio on the web.
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