Convey Your Specialization & Your Personal Story

VR is a new and expanding field, with a layered production process. For the current job market, it important to create a portfolio that illustrates your specific area of specialization, whether it be games, hardware prototypes, UI, or development.

It's essential that you feature your projects and work examples on your website, which we'll call your project section. Select projects that convey this area of specialization. In your written descriptions, be sure to elaborate on how you specifically achieved this goals, noting any relevant tools and technical skills.

In addition to specialization, your portfolio is a place to convey your personal story as a VR designer. Whether this is your first job path, or you are transitioning to VR in a career change, make sure this narrative is clear to outside audiences.

It's recommended to include an “About Section” in your portfolio that provides details about your career path and goals. Additionally, your portfolio should include projects that are primarily related to your VR job prospects. This will help signal to future employers a fit between your skills and your goals.

How to Represent Your Work: Jan's Jubilee

There are several important things to keep in mind as you construct your portfolio. Let's take a look at one of the projects in Austin's portfolio that demonstrates each of these concepts: Jan's Jubilee.

In Austin's own words, "Jan's Jubilee is a virtual reality memory viewing application created for my grandmother's 75th Diamond Jubilee birthday." He walks you through why he decided to make this app, his technical process, and what happened when the completed app was placed into his audience's hands (in this case, 250 of his grandmother's closest friends).

Visit the "Jan's Jubilee" page, and see if you can pick out how Austin incorporates each of the elements below! Pay special attention to how Austin uses the power of storytelling to communicate his skill as a developer and experience. While your projects may not all be as personal as this one, your reader should always get a better sense of what you can bring to the table as a developer.

Process-Oriented

Because VR projects include a multi-layered production processes, final-product images will not adequately convey information about your skills. For this reason, design your VR portfolio so that it illustrates your creation process.

For example, imagine you are a recruiter and you are looking for a new VR designer to join your team. Not only are your wondering “What work has he/she done in the past?” you would also wonder, “What is his/her process like? Does their work style match well with my team? How do they approach a complex problem? What level of passion and curiosity do they have about this field?”

If you keep these questions in mind, it is clear that being a well qualified VR professional is not just about what you can do. It is also about how you do it. Next, we’ll detail specific ways to illustrate the process of creating VR projects.

Visuals: Screenshots, Videos, 360 photos, and more!

A great way to convey your design process is by including images or videos of your projects at the various production phases. There are a number of different types of image-based assets you can use in your portfolio. These include: screenshots, pictures of people, traditional videos, 360 photos, 360 videos, and mixed reality videos. For details on each format, check out this blog post by Udacity’s Course Designer Austin.

Written Descriptions

In addition to images, you should also provide written descriptions to illustrate your design process. These descriptions should include: information about your design goals, how you overcame challenges, and the specific tools and technology you utilized. Overall, be reflective about any challenges, achievements, insights, or questions that you have as a result of your design process. This not only conveys your unique problem solving process, but it can help to convey your enthusiasm for working in the world of VR!

Evidence of Testing or Human Interaction

VR is an inherently interactive medium. Consequently, in addition to including and images text about the design process, it is important illustrate how your products interacts with users. There are a few different ways to show that users have tested your product. You can use videos, pair images of users, with images of what the see, or simply use quotes from user’s about their experience. Overall, this conveys that you have taken your projection to completion.

Quality Over Quantity

Since many of Udacity’s students are starting out their careers in VR, Udacity recommends taking a quality over quantity approach. Rather than include a handful of low-quality projects, it is in your best interest to instead include 2-3 projects that you are proud of.

You can add depth to your portfolio by expanding on the process of each of these projects - through written descriptions and images of the various phases of the development. Overall, this approach will help you craft a higher quality portfolio. It will illustrate how you work through problems, which can signal what you are capable of learning in the future.

Final Tip

Make sure to share your profile on LinkedIn! Continue onto the next lesson to strengthen your online presence using LinkedIn, the world's largest networking community.