What hiring managers actually care about (after screening 1000+ portfolios)

I’ve reviewed a lot of portfolios over the years, both when hiring and when helping people prepare, and there’s a pretty consistent pattern to what works well and what doesn't

Most people who want to work in the field initially think they need projects based on huge datasets, super complex ML modelling, or now in today's world, cutting-edge GenAI.

Don't get me wrong, complexity can be good, but in reality, for those early in their career, or looking to land their first role, it's likely to be a hinderance more than anything.

What gets attention (or at least, what you should aim to build) is much simpler, what I'd boil down to clarity, impact, and communication.

When I’m looking at a project in a portfolio for a candidate, I’m not asking myself "is this technically impressive?" first and foremost, I'm honestly thinking about the project holistically. What I mean by that is that I’m wanting to see things like:

• What problem are they solving, and why does it matter?
• How did they go about solving it, and what decisions did they make (and justify) along the way
• What was the outcome or result, and what would a company in the real world do with that information

The strongest candidates make this really easy to follow, they don’t jump straight into code or complexity. They start with context. They explain the approach in plain English. They show the results clearly. And most importantly, they connect everything back to a decision or outcome. I'd guess at around 95% of projects missing that last part.

I teach people wanting to move into the field, and I make them use my CRAIG system, whcih goes a bit like this:

Context: what is the core reason for the project, and what is it looking to achieve

Role: what part did you play (not always applicable in a personal project)

Actions: what did you actually do - the code etc

Impact: What was the result or outcome (and what does this mean in practice)

Growth: what would you do next, what else would you want to test, what would you do if you had more time etc

You don’t have to label it like that, but if your projects follow that kind of flow they become much more compelling. Hiring managers & recruiters are busy. If you make it easy for them to see your value and your "problem solving system" trust me that you’re already ahead of most candidates.

Focus less on trying to impress with complexity, and spend more tim showing that you can take a problem, work through it clearly from start to finish, and drive a meaningful outcome.

Hope that helps!