Projects

Arguably the most important section of your Profile, your Projects will demonstrate your skills for the job. If you are changing careers, the strength of your projects will build the employer's confidence in your technical background. Showcase your strongest, most relevant projects.

Taking a look at the example Projects section below, you can immediately identify a couple of issues.

• One of the projects doesn't have an image banner. Having banners will attract the recruiter's attention.
• The project descriptions are very short and uninformative. Instead of describing the specifications of the project (ie: "A part of my Nanodegree program") or what it does, talk instead about how you built it, why you did it or why it matters, and if there are any accomplishments (eg: won a hackathon award) or if it's live (eg: a website product for a small business).

Spend time personalizing your Projects section! If a project is from your Nanodegree program, it will auto-generate once you pass it. However, we highly recommend you personalize the project description. In addition, you can add a picture, which can be a logo if you produced a product or a screenshot of your app or report findings.

In order to optimize your Projects section:

• Make sure your projects are all relevant to your desired job role.
• Write concise project descriptions and communicate the project’s purpose and important technologies used.
• Begin project descriptions with action verbs.
• Ensure that all project links are unbroken and correct.
  • While you will have the option to include a .zip file for the recruiter to download, we highly recommend you link to your GitHub, personal website, or another publishing website like RPubs. Employers prefer looking at your projects via a website, rather than downloading them.
• Display each project with an image.

We recommend you highlight your most recent projects, including your final or capstone project, but showcase your proudest work! You will only be able to display 4, so pick your best.

In order to stand out even more to employers, we recommend 1-2 of your displayed projects be personal projects, especially if one is an open source project. Having personal or open source projects shows the employer you're a great collaborator and that you're passionate enough about your desired job field to pursue independent opportunities. Check out the Career Resource Center if you're looking for open source opportunities!