I've hired a lot of people over the years.
And I can tell you this with absolute certainty: the hiring process has fundamentally changed.
Parents still think it works the way it did when they were job hunting. You polish your resume, list your education, maybe add a certification or two, and hope someone notices.
That's not how it works anymore.
Let me explain what actually matters now — and why building a portfolio is the single most important thing your teenager can do.
A portfolio is where you showcase projects you've completed.
Think of it like a science fair — but for work.
It can be a website. A PDF with screenshots. A YouTube montage. The format doesn't matter as much as what it contains.
Here's the difference:
A resume tells people what you've done. It's word-heavy. It lists jobs, education, volunteer work. You can mention projects, but you can't really show them.
A portfolio shows people what you've done. It's project-heavy. The second you include actual examples of your work, you've crossed from resume territory into portfolio territory.
And that's where hiring decisions actually happen now.
Most people don't understand how hiring actually works today.
They think you submit a resume, and hiring managers read through the stack and pick the best candidate.
That's how it used to work. But not anymore.
Today, employers want to see what you've actually done.
They want to look at your work and ask themselves: "If this person created this project, would I be proud to have it on our company website?"
If the answer is yes, you get an interview.
It's not about where you went to school. It's not about your GPA. It's not even about how many certifications you've collected.
It's about what you can do.
Before the internet, you couldn't easily show people what you'd created. You'd have to mail them a floppy disk or something equally ridiculous. So we used proxies instead — degrees, certificates, grades.
But now? You can show anyone anything in about three seconds.
That changes everything.
Having a portfolio is better than not having one. Let's start there.
But if you're showcasing terrible work, maybe it's best to skip it altogether.
Assuming your work is decent, here's what matters:
Range matters. It's impressive when someone has coding projects, writing samples, marketing campaigns, videos, content they've created. The breadth shows capability.
Polish matters. Your projects don't need to be perfect. But they should be polished once or twice. That effort shows up. People notice when you cared enough to make something look good.
Relevance matters. If you're applying for design work, your design projects matter most. If you're going into marketing, show marketing work. But honestly, a wide range of solid projects beats a narrow focus at the entry level.
What you're really demonstrating is this: "I can complete things. I can make things that look good. I care about the quality of my work."
That's what gets you in the door.
Ideally? Every time you complete a project worth showing.
If you're in high school right now, I'd say update your portfolio every three months.
Here's why: you don't want to build your entire portfolio the week before you need it.
That's miserable. And you won't have time to step back, think about it, and make it better.
Build it as you go. Add projects when you finish them. Let time pass. Come back with fresh eyes. Improve it.
Maybe you start with a PDF. Then you learn how to build a website, and the website becomes your portfolio. Maybe you learn video editing and create a montage walking someone through your work.
The format can evolve. But the habit of documenting your work? That should start now.
I see this all the time.
Parents want their kid to get a certificate. Something official. Something that proves they did the thing.
I get it. That's how things used to work.
You needed a certificate from an authority to prove you had a skill.
But you don't need that anymore.
You can just show people what you've done.
For entry-level positions — the jobs teenagers are competing for — portfolios beat certifications every single time.
Now, let me be clear: as you move higher in your field, certifications start to matter again. Doctors need licenses. Lawyers need to pass the bar. Engineers need professional certifications. Scuba instructors probably shouldn't be self-taught.
But for most entry-level work? You really don't need formal certifications.
You just need to prove you can do the work. And a portfolio does that better than any certificate ever could.
Here's what most people get wrong about portfolio building:
They think projects take months. Maybe a whole semester. Maybe a full year.
That's just not true anymore.
You can complete meaningful, impressive projects in 5 to 10 hours.
Not fake busywork. Real projects. The kind that actually showcase your skills.
Every single co-op we build at Starter School has an end result students can showcase. They complete a project. They learn real tools. They gain real skills. And when they're done, they have something to show for it.
They can write about the skills they gained (that goes on a resume).
They can show the actual project (that goes in a portfolio).
Here's what they walk away with:
✓ The completed project
✓ The skills they learned in the process
✓ The tools they used along the way
We don't hand out certificates. We help students build proof.
One of our students, Arya, took every project she completed over the summer and built her own website to showcase them.
She didn't just download the PDF portfolio we auto-generate for students. She took those assignments and created something entirely her own.
She wrote multiple blog posts about what she learned. She talked intelligently about each project — what she did, what she learned, what challenged her.
That's impressive.
Not because she's some prodigy. But because she took the work seriously enough to showcase it well.
That's what employers notice.
Start anyway.
YouTube is a jungle. You can find step-by-step tutorials for almost anything. But most of them skip steps. A lot of them are outdated. And when you're done, you have no idea if what you built is actually any good.
That's the gap we're filling.
At Starter School, students choose co-ops — projects they can work on, complete, and turn in for feedback.
They get to see if their work is good enough. They get guidance on how to make it better. And when they're done, they have something real to show.
I built this company because I saw too many teenagers with potential and no way to prove it.
Grades don't prove much. Certificates don't prove much. Test scores definitely don't prove much.
But a portfolio of real work? That proves everything.
The world has changed.
Hiring managers don't care where you went to school as much as they used to. They care what you can actually do.
Parents who grew up in the old system often don't see this yet. But teenagers? They're living in the new one.
The sooner you build a portfolio, the sooner you separate yourself from everyone still chasing certificates.
This isn't about gaming the system. It's about understanding how the system actually works now.
Portfolio beats resume. Work beats credentials. Proof beats promises.
That's the world we're living in.
And if you understand that now — while you're still in high school — you're already ahead.
