Plan a new portfolio project to fill a skill gap
Three realistic self-started project ideas that prove a missing skill, with a 2-4 week plan and the artifact to show.
The prompt
Help me plan a new portfolio project that proves a skill my portfolio is missing.
Skill gap to fill: [PASTE FROM STEP 1, or name the skill - e.g. "SQL on messy real data", "designing for mobile", "writing long-form B2B content"]
Target role: [ROLE AND LEVEL]
Time available: [e.g. "3 weeks, 8 hours a week"]
Tools and data I can access: [SOFTWARE, PUBLIC DATASETS, CONTACTS]
Interests or industries I'd like to show: [OPTIONAL]
Rules:
- Suggest projects I can actually do alone: public datasets, a self-initiated brief, a redesign of a public product, or volunteer work for a local nonprofit or small business.
- Never present a self-initiated or concept project as paid client work. Label it clearly (e.g. "self-initiated", "concept").
- If the project uses another company's product or brand, frame it as an independent exercise and don't imply they endorsed it.
- Size it to finish in my time, with something showable at the end.
Return:
1. 3 ideas in a table: Idea | What it proves | Data or materials needed | Final artifact | Risk.
2. A recommended idea with a week-by-week plan.
3. What to capture as I work (sketches, drafts, decisions, before/after) so the case study writes itself.
4. How to get one round of outside feedback before I publish it.
This is step 2 of the "Build a portfolio that gets you hired" pack. It works on its own, and can use the skill gaps from step 1.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore Career & Job Search prompts
What to fill in
- ROLE AND LEVEL
- e.g. "3 weeks, 8 hours a week"
- SOFTWARE, PUBLIC DATASETS, CONTACTS
- OPTIONAL
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the Few-Shot structure (Few-shot prompting). A few-shot prompt includes one or more worked examples of the input and the output you want, so the model can copy the pattern instead of guessing it.
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