What to put in a junior developer portfolio

A hiring manager spends a few minutes on your portfolio. In that time they want to see that you can finish a project, explain your decisions and write code someone else can read.

Three projects are enough

Pick three that show different skills. For a front-end role, that could be a responsive marketing site, an app that talks to an API and a React project with state and routing. Leave out tutorial clones unless you changed them in a way you can explain.

Write a short case study for each

Keep each one under 300 words and cover four points:

• What the project does and who it is for.
• One problem you ran into and how you solved it.
• The stack and why you chose it.
• What you would change with more time.

Add a screenshot and links to the live site and the repository.

Clean up GitHub

Reviewers open your repositories. Pin the three portfolio projects. Give each a README with a one-line description, a screenshot, setup steps and the live link. Delete or archive half-finished experiments, or at least unpin them.

Check the basics

• The site loads fast on a phone.
• Links work and the contact form sends.
• Your email address is visible without a form.
• The about page says what kind of role you want.

Ask for a review

Send your portfolio to two people before you send it to employers. One developer who can judge the code, and one person outside tech who can tell you whether the case studies make sense. Fix what both of them point out.