A good job portfolio shows two to four pieces of work that prove the skills in the job advert, whatever the role. A teacher shows lesson plans and anonymised student work, a marketer shows campaigns and results, an analyst shows dashboards, an accountant shows models with fake numbers. Each piece explains the problem, your part and the result.
Portfolios are usually discussed as a designer's tool, which leaves most job seekers unsure what theirs should contain. The answer changes by role, but the structure does not: a few pieces of work, each with the problem, what you did and what changed, plus evidence a reviewer can see. Below are portfolio examples for fourteen roles, what to include in each and what to keep out. All sample lines are fictional; replace them with your own facts.
Portfolio examples by job at a glance
| Role | What to show | Good evidence | Keep out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing | Campaigns, landing pages, email results, content calendars | Screenshots of ads or emails, a results summary, the brief | Open and click rates you measured; never invent conversion numbers |
| Social media manager | Content plans, post series, community responses, growth over a period | A month's content calendar, post screenshots, analytics extract | Blur personal comments and handles of private users |
| Teacher | Lesson plans, student work samples, assessment design, classroom displays | A lesson plan, an anonymised before-and-after of student work, a unit outline | No student faces or names without school permission |
| Writer or content writer | Published articles, rewrites, style guides | Links to published pieces, a before-and-after edit | Ask before showing unpublished client drafts |
| Graphic or UX designer | Case studies with process: research, sketches, iterations, final work | Process images, prototype links, usability findings | Explain your part on team projects |
| Software developer | Projects with code, a live demo and the decisions behind them | Repository link, live demo, architecture note | Remove secrets and employer code |
| Data analyst | Dashboards, analyses that changed a decision, cleaned datasets | Dashboard screenshots, a short write-up, a notebook link | Use public or synthetic data where the original is confidential |
| Project manager | Plans, risk logs, delivered projects and what changed | A timeline, a status report template, a retrospective summary | Strip budgets and client names unless public |
| Sales | Pipeline you built, a process you improved, client wins you can describe | A redacted pitch deck, a CRM process note, quota attainment you can verify | Only figures your employer would let you share |
| Customer service | Hard cases resolved, help articles written, process fixes | Help articles you wrote, anonymised ticket examples, a satisfaction trend | No customer names, emails or order numbers |
| Accountant or finance | Process improvements, reconciliations, models | A sample model with fake numbers, a process map, a reporting template | Never show real client financials |
| HR or recruiter | Hiring processes, onboarding plans, policies you drafted | An onboarding checklist, a job advert you wrote, a process map | No candidate or employee personal data |
| Administrative assistant | Systems you organised: calendars, filing, travel, templates | Template examples, a before-and-after of a filing system, a procedure document | Remove names and internal contact details |
| Student or graduate | Coursework, dissertation, society roles, volunteering, internships | Project write-ups, a presentation, a poster, a short video | Label coursework as coursework |
The fourth column matters as much as the second. A portfolio is public by default, so anything with a client, student, patient or customer in it needs permission or anonymising before it goes online. When in doubt, describe the work and show a redacted or recreated version.
Marketing and social media portfolio examples
Marketing reviewers want to see that you can connect a piece of work to a goal. Show the brief, the work and the result, even when the result was modest. A social media portfolio benefits from a short series rather than single posts, because consistency over a month is part of the job.
Marketing project — fictional example
Project: Re-launching a monthly newsletter for a local bookshop
Problem: Open rates had dropped and the list had not been cleaned in two years
My part: Removed inactive contacts, rewrote subject lines, introduced one featured book per issue
Result: Open rate rose from 18% to 27% over three issues (measured in the email tool)
Evidence: Two newsletter screenshots and the subject-line test results
Teacher portfolio examples
A teacher portfolio shows how you plan, teach and assess. Include a lesson plan with your reasoning, an example of differentiated material, anonymised student work with your feedback, and evidence of professional development. Photos of displays and activities work well if no students are identifiable. Teachers in Saudi Arabia building an achievement file can follow the teacher portfolio guide for Saudi Arabia, and the teacher resume examples show how to point to the portfolio from a resume.
Writing, design and development portfolio examples
These roles have the most visible work, so the risk is showing too much. Pick pieces that match the job and explain your decisions. Designers should show process, not only final screens; developers should link a repository and a live demo and explain one decision they would defend in an interview. Architects can follow the architecture portfolio guide, and developers can borrow structures from these open-source portfolio repos.
Data, finance and analyst portfolio examples
Analytical work is easy to show without breaking confidentiality: rebuild the analysis on public or synthetic data and say so. A dashboard screenshot with one paragraph on the decision it informed is stronger than a long methodology section. For finance roles, a model with clearly fake numbers demonstrates structure and judgement without exposing a client.
Data analyst project — fictional example
Project: Finding why delivery complaints spiked in one region
Problem: Complaints doubled in one region over two months and nobody knew why
My part: Joined complaint data with delivery times, found most late deliveries came from one depot
Result: The depot's schedule was changed; complaints fell back to the usual level the next month
Evidence: A recreated dashboard with synthetic data and a one-page summary
Project management, sales and operations portfolio examples
These roles produce documents rather than visuals, which is fine. Show a plan, a status report template, a retrospective or a process you redesigned, with the before-and-after described in a sentence. Sales portfolios work best when they focus on process: how you built a pipeline or shortened a sales cycle, with only the figures you are allowed to share.
Customer service, HR and admin portfolio examples
These are the roles where people most often assume a portfolio is pointless, and where a small one can stand out. Help articles you wrote, a ticket you resolved (anonymised), an onboarding checklist, a filing system you reorganised or a template the team still uses are all concrete evidence. Pair the portfolio with a role-specific resume such as the customer service CV or accountant CV examples.
Student and graduate portfolio examples
Coursework, a dissertation, a society role, a volunteering project or an internship are all valid. Label each one honestly, describe your part in group work and show the output: a report extract, a poster, a prototype or a recorded presentation. The portfolio without work experience guide has more ideas, and skills with examples helps you match each project to a skill on your resume.
What every job portfolio needs, whatever the role
If you have a resume already, you can turn it into a first portfolio draft in ArcPixel's portfolio builder: Fill with AI moves your experience, skills and projects into a design, and you add the evidence. Building and previewing are free; publishing needs a paid plan (see pricing). The step-by-step guide on how to make a portfolio for a job covers the full process.
- What is a good example of a portfolio for a job?
- Two to four pieces of work matched to the job advert, each with the problem, your part, the result and evidence such as screenshots or documents. The format matters less than the explanation.
- What should a non-designer put in a portfolio?
- Documents and outcomes from your field: lesson plans, campaign results, reports, process improvements, help articles or templates, with anything confidential removed or recreated.
- Can I show work from my current employer?
- Only what is public or what your employer allows. Otherwise describe the work and show a recreated version with fake data.
- Should my portfolio be a website or a PDF?
- A website for most applications, with a PDF version for applications that ask for an attachment.
- How many examples should I include?
- Two to four for most roles. Add more only if each shows a different skill.
