# What to put in a developer portfolio that recruiters actually read

> The sections a software developer portfolio needs, how to present projects so a reviewer gets them in a minute, and what to leave out.

Canonical: https://lazee.dev/blog/developer-portfolio-what-to-include

[All posts](https://lazee.dev/blog)

A developer portfolio is not a design exercise. The people who open it are recruiters and hiring managers with a link from your application, and most of them give it a minute or two. In that time they want to answer three questions: what do you do, what have you built, and how do they reach you. Everything on the page should help with one of those.

## The top of the page: who you are, in one screen

- **Your name and the role you want** (“Backend engineer, Go and Postgres”), not a slogan.
- **Where and how you want to work:** city, remote or hybrid, whether you would relocate.
- **Availability:** open to offers, notice period, or a start date.
- **A way to reach you** and a link to download your resume, above the fold.

## Projects: fewer, with more detail

Three or four projects you can talk about for twenty minutes beat twelve tutorial clones. For each one, include:

- **The problem, in one sentence.** “A queue for food banks to schedule pickups” tells the reader why it exists.
- **Your part.** On a team project, say what you built. “I wrote the scheduling service and the SMS reminders” is what an interviewer will ask about.
- **The stack,** as short tags.
- **A result.** Users, requests per day, time saved, a hard bug solved. Real numbers, even small ones, are more convincing than adjectives.
- **A live link and the repository.** If the demo is down, say so rather than leaving a broken link.
- **Two or three screenshots.** Many reviewers will not click through to the demo; a screenshot shows the product in a second.

## Experience, skills and education

Your work history belongs here as well, briefly: company, title, dates and the two or three results from each job you most want a reader to see. Group skills (languages, frameworks, databases, cloud, tools) instead of one long list, and skip the progress bars: “React 80%” tells a reader nothing. Education and certifications go last unless you are a recent graduate, in which case they move up.

## Nice to have: a short intro video

A one- or two-minute video of you explaining a project, or walking through your work, gives a reader something a resume cannot: how you explain things. Keep it short and record it in one take; polish matters less than clarity.

## What to leave out

- Projects you cannot explain in an interview.
- Every certificate from every online course.
- Your phone number and salary expectations on a public page.
- A blog that was last updated three years ago. Link it only if it is current.

## Your own site or a hosted profile?

A custom-built site shows frontend skill, which matters if you are applying for frontend roles, and it is a project in its own right. It also needs maintaining: an outdated portfolio, with a job you left a year ago on top, does more harm than none. A hosted profile is quicker to keep current, especially if it updates from the data you already keep for applications.

## A free portfolio on Lazee

Every Lazee account can claim a public profile at `lazee.dev/u/yourname`, built from the same [profile](https://lazee.dev/profile) the extension uses to [autofill applications](https://lazee.dev/blog/autofill-job-applications), so it stays current without extra work. It shows:

- Your headline, bio, target role, availability and notice period.
- Contact details and links (LinkedIn, GitHub, X, Telegram, your own site).
- Skills by category, work experience and education.
- Projects with live demo and repository links, stack tags and screenshots (3 per project on the free plan, 10 on Pro).
- A YouTube or Loom intro video, if you add one.
- A one-click download of your primary resume.
- A Job Preferences card (work setup, locations, roles, work authorization), which you can hide.

Your phone number, expected CTC and saved answers are never shown on it. The [privacy policy](https://lazee.dev/privacy) lists exactly what is public.

Put the link where reviewers look: the portfolio field on application forms, your resume header, your LinkedIn and GitHub profiles, and the signature of your [cold emails](https://lazee.dev/blog/cold-email-recruiter-for-a-job).

## Spend the saved time on the interview.

Profile autofill is free and unlimited. Install the extension, fill your profile once, and the next application takes a few clicks.

[Add to Chrome](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/lazeedev-ai-job-autofill/hkompooiicoamiambpjhbbmimjefgiii) [Add to Firefox](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/lazeedev/) [Browse the job board](https://lazee.dev/careers)

## More guides

- [How to tailor your resume for each job without rewriting it every time 6 min read](https://lazee.dev/blog/tailor-resume-for-each-job)
- [Entry-level tech jobs in India: where to find them and how to apply as a fresher 6 min read](https://lazee.dev/blog/entry-level-tech-jobs-india)
- [How to cold email a recruiter or founder for a job, with templates 7 min read](https://lazee.dev/blog/cold-email-recruiter-for-a-job)

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- [Tech job board](https://lazee.dev/careers)
- [Jobs API](https://lazee.dev/api)
- [Blog: guides on applying faster](https://lazee.dev/blog)
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