How to build a portfolio (even if your work isn’t visual)

Picture a portfolio and you’re probably picturing mockups of sleek UIs, code snippets on GitHub or a gallery of app screenshots. But what about system administrators, DevOps engineers or IT support specialists?

You’ve migrated servers, automated deployments and resolved critical incidents — so how do you show it off?

No app interfaces or design assets to showcase? You might think a portfolio isn’t for you. But here’s the truth: anyone in tech can — and should — have a portfolio when they’re job searching, pivoting into a new stack or targeting that next promotion.

Your portfolio doesn’t need to be long, flashy or require a web developer’s skillset. It just needs to tell a clear story: what you did, why it mattered and where you’re headed next.

Ready to get started? Here’s your step-by-step guide to building a portfolio when you’re in IT or tech.

‍

Why bother with a portfolio?

Even the strongest CV can feel like a Cliff’s Notes version of your work. A portfolio gives you space to:

• Show your results, not just tell them
  Bring your resume to life with context, examples and measurable outcomes

• Support you in technical interviews
  When someone asks, “Walk me through a challenging outage you handled,” you’ll have diagrams, timelines and summaries ready

• Differentiate you from other candidates
  Few system admins or network engineers take the time to build a portfolio — that’s your competitive edge

• Reflect on your own growth
  Pulling your projects together helps you appreciate successes you might’ve overlooked

‍

‍

What goes into a portfolio for tech roles?

Here are a few ideas. Pick the items that match your specialty and feel natural for you to share:

‍

One-pagers of major projects

A concise, one-page overview of a tech initiative you led or supported, including:

• Project overview

• Your specific role

• Timeline

• Tools, platforms or languages used

• Outcome (metrics, feedback or results)

Example (DevOps): Implemented automated CI/CD pipelines with Jenkins and Docker across four microservices in 60 days — reduced deployment time by 70% and cut rollback incidents by 50%.

Example (Sysadmin): Migrated 150 on-prem servers to AWS EC2 with Terraform modules in under 90 days — improved average uptime from 99.5% to 99.99% and lowered hosting costs by 20%.

‍

Success stories or mini case studies

Think of these as “micro blog posts” about your work. Write a short narrative, in first-person or third, around:

• The challenge or incident

• What you did (steps, tools, collaboration)

• The impact or results

• Bonus: lessons learned or what you’d tweak next time

Example (IT support): Faced with a spike in 500+ helpdesk tickets after a software rollout, I introduced an automated triage bot using PowerShell and Slack. Ticket resolution time dropped from 8 hours to under 2 hours.

‍

Dashboards, reports or screenshots

You don’t need to build a custom analytics tool to show your work. If you’ve crafted dashboards or reports in Splunk, Datadog or Power BI, share a snippet or screen grab (redacted as needed) and explain:

• Your role in setting it up

• How it helped your team or stakeholders

Example (Network engineer): A screenshot of a Datadog dashboard monitoring packet loss and latency across our VPN gateways — I designed alerts that prevented major outages during peak traffic.

‍

Runbooks, templates or process documents

Incident response playbooks, runbooks or scripting templates are portfolio gold. Even a section of a document or a cleaned-up script counts.

Example (DevOps): Developed a Kubernetes Helm chart and accompanying README that’s now used by three teams to standardize deployments.

Certifications, courses & learning highlights

Go beyond listing AWS or Cisco certificates on your resume. Add:

• A screenshot of the certificate (AWS Certified Solutions Architect, CKA, etc.)

• Why you pursued it

• How you applied that knowledge in your work

Example: Completed “AWS Security Best Practices” on Coursera to strengthen our cloud posture. Since then, I’ve implemented IAM role reviews and enforced MFA for all admin accounts.

‍

How to pull it all together

While you don’t need a custom web app or a designer to create your portfolio, you do need to pick a format that’s easy to update and share. Recruiters and hiring managers do click through when they see real examples of your work.

Here are a few ways to format your portfolio:

‍

Option 1: PDF portfolio

Design a clean, scrollable PDF in PowerPoint or Canva with:

• A brief intro or bio

• Sections for each project or category

• Clear headings and light visuals

‍

Option 2: Google Drive folder

• Folder name: “[Your Name] – Portfolio”

• Add subfolders for Projects, Dashboards, Scripts, Certifications, etc.

• Share a view-only link in your resume, cover letter or email signature

‍

Option 3: LinkedIn Featured section

Often overlooked but can be very effective when done well. Use the “Featured” section on your profile to add:

• Google Docs with case studies

• PDFs of project one-pagers

• Links to GitHub gists or public dashboards

‍

Option 4: One-page website

‍Free builders like GitHub Pages or Wix work great:

• Include sections for About Me, Projects & Case Studies, Tools & Scripts

‍

Option 5: Canva public share link

If you already use Canva for docs or presentations, turn one into a living portfolio:

• Pick a simple template (We recommend presentation or document layout)

• Add slides for each project

• Click “Share” > “Public View Link” > “Create”

• Drop that link into your resume or LinkedIn profile.

Pro tip: No matter which format you choose, you can include a link to your portfolio directly on your resume — just hyperlink a phrase like “View Portfolio” near your name or under your contact info.

‍

A few final tips

• Redact sensitive info: Mask IPs or use dummy data to protect confidentiality

• Start small: Pick 2–4 of your strongest projects or case studies

Still not sure what to include?  

If you’re feeling stuck, pick one prompt and write a one-page response. You might be surprised how much material you already have:

• A script or tool I wrote that saved X hours per week

• A cloud migration I led and why it mattered

• An incident I resolved under pressure

• A dashboard or alert I built that prevented downtime

• A learning moment that transformed how I approach deployments

‍

Portfolios are for everyone

Portfolios aren’t just for developers or designers. They’re your chance to tell the full story of your problem-solving skills — clear, honest and a little bit bold. Whether you’re in system administration, DevOps, IT support or network engineering, you have work worth sharing.

The best part? Once you build one, it becomes a living tool for job hunts, performance reviews or simply owning your career growth. Just remember to keep it updated as you rack up those wins.

So go ahead — gather those scripts, dashboards and migration notes. Your future self (and hiring managers) will thank you.

Follow Altis on LinkedIn for more tech career tips and tricks!

‍