# What is a portfolio project?

> A portfolio project is work you show employers as evidence of your skills. What counts, what makes one strong, and how many a developer or designer needs.

**Portfolio project**: A portfolio project is a piece of work you present to employers or clients as evidence of your skills, with enough context to show what you built and how.

A portfolio project is a piece of work you show employers or clients as evidence of what you can do, presented with enough context to judge it.

## The short definition

A **portfolio project** is anything you built, designed or substantially contributed to, chosen to show a hiring manager or client what you can do. It is not the same as "a project": the work becomes a portfolio project when you present it with context, meaning what problem it solves, what your part was, and how it turned out.

Code with no explanation is a repository. The same code with a summary, screenshots, your role and a working demo is a portfolio project.

## What counts

More than people think:

- side projects and products you run, paid or free
- client or freelance work you are allowed to show
- class projects, capstones and bootcamp finals
- hackathon builds, labeled as such
- open source contributions, including pull requests to other people's projects
- internal tools from a job, described in words and recreated screenshots when the real thing is private

Tutorial follow-alongs count too once you have extended them and can explain what you added. See [makerhandle for students](https://makerhandle.com/for/students).

## What makes one strong

- **It fits the job.** A data role wants data work; a mobile role wants an app.
- **Your role is clear.** Solo, lead, or one of four, and which part you built.
- **It runs, or you can see it.** A live demo, an app store link, or screenshots and a short video.
- **It has a story.** The problem, the decisions, the trade-offs, the result. That story is the [case study](https://makerhandle.com/glossary/case-study).

Three to five strong portfolio projects usually beat a long list of thin ones. The full checklist is in [what to put in your developer portfolio](https://makerhandle.com/blog/what-to-put-in-developer-portfolio).

## On makerhandle

Each project on a makerhandle page is a card on your main page and its own page at makerhandle.com/yourname/project, with an optional write-up, gallery, stack, role, timeline, highlights and links to the source code and a live demo. Five projects are free. See [makerhandle for developers](https://makerhandle.com/for/developers).

## Questions

### How many portfolio projects do I need?

Three to five strong, relevant ones is a common recommendation for a first job. Quality and fit matter more than the count.

### Do class projects count as portfolio projects?

Yes, if you can explain the decisions you made. Label them as class projects.

### Does a portfolio project have to be original?

It should go beyond a tutorial. Extending a course project with your own features and writing about them is fine.

### Does it need to be live?

A live demo helps most. If that is not possible, show screenshots, a short video and the source code.

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Source: https://makerhandle.com/glossary/portfolio-project
makerhandle: makerhandle is a link in bio for makers and founders: every project with its status and revenue verified from Stripe, Paddle and more.