Building a portfolio when your field isn't code
Not every student has GitHub. What a portfolio can look like if you write, make art, do policy, run experiments, teach, or organize — and how to host it for free.
01A portfolio is just 'proof you did the thing'
The word intimidates people. It shouldn't. A portfolio is a small, organized place a stranger can go to see evidence you're not making it up.
The medium doesn't matter. A writer's portfolio is essays. A biologist's is a lab-notebook excerpt and a report. An organizer's is photos, agendas, and a short case study. All of these are equally legitimate.
02The minimum viable portfolio
One landing page with your name, one paragraph about what you're into, and three to six projects. Each project has a title, a two-sentence description, and either a link, a PDF, or an image.
That's it. Longer isn't better. Reviewers spend under two minutes on most portfolios. Make those two minutes easy.
03Where to host it for free
Notion (public page) — fastest to set up, looks clean, no coding required.
Are.na, Cargo, or a free Wix / Carrd site — good for visual work.
A GitHub Pages site or Netlify drop — a little more setup, more control.
Even a well-organized Google Drive folder with a short README document at the top counts. Reviewers care about clarity, not fashion.
04What to include when you don't have 'real' projects yet
A careful piece of writing you did for a class, cleaned up. Notes and photos from an experiment you ran on your own. A talk or presentation you gave, with slides. A club you helped run, with a short case study of one thing you organized. A book, exhibition, or dataset you responded to in your own words.
The pattern is: pick something you did, package it honestly, and give it a title. Six of these is a real portfolio.