How to Build a Portfolio When You're Autistic

Nov 29

By: Vanessa Blanchard

This is the 4rd post in the freelancing series, where we help autistic folks start and maintain a freelancing career. We were able to create it thanks to the support of Spectroomz hub members, and therefore it’s available only to members.

Some of the most common workplace accommodation requests autistic people make are related to applying and interviewing. There are many other common requests, but across the board, autists report finding the traditional hiring process seemingly designed to exclude us. A lot of this exclusion is related to social biases that mischaracterize our ways of communicating and therefore force us to mask in order to get by. But portfolios are a common job-seeking tool that lets us get around those social biases and make a bold first impression. I think that when you’re autistic, learning how to build a portfolio should be a top priority because of how much it helps us during the application stage.

Portfolios can serve as word-of-mouth type promotion for your freelancing business, which is helpful for autistic folks who don’t have networks in place to help them get started. Even the need to build a portfolio can help you find your first clients.

So this article is going to give you portfolio building tips that consider an autistic person’s way of working. You’ll find tips in this article about how portfolios can help you start with little to no experience, how they can help you switch careers, and how to start after a gap in employment. We’ll also give tips on dealing with overwhelm, executive dysfunction, and finding work while burned out.

How to Build a Portfolio

Let’s start with some of the basics. I’ll define a portfolio and help you get an idea of what to include and how to organize your information.

What is a portfolio?

Portfolios are a collection of completed work that showcases a person’s hard and soft skills. The key here is the first impression. By collecting your work and sending it to potential clients, you can make a positive impression before you’ve met the person. Without talking to you, they’ll be able to get a good idea of who you are and how you work.

And you’d be surprised at how much a portfolio will communicate for you. Chances are that you’ll make a bigger impression than you intended, even if you carefully choose what you were trying to communicate. I think this benefits autistic people more because it lets us make a more complete introduction that’s free from social biases, which makes first impressions of us inherently more accurate.

How you build your portfolio will depend on the type of work you do. Check out this article for examples of portfolios from different fields.

What to Include

There are many general tips to help with putting together a successful freelance portfolio. Learning what information to include is key to knowing how to build a portfolio that fits with your industry.

In general, you’ll want to include most of the following information:

A personal statement that summarizes your knowledge base, career goals, and accomplishments thus far. This should be a small paragraph of 2-3 sentences.

Industry appropriate samples of your work (links, images, tables, videos, writing samples, etc).
Case studies are a great way to showcase an entire project and discuss your role within that project. This approach allows you to show how you operate across the span of a project, from concept to completion and all the teamwork in between. Check out this article to learn how to create a case study. You can also use this article to see an analysis of several case study examples.
Contact information that allows potential clients to contact you. This should include links to social media and/or your professional website if you have one.
Testimonials from former clients or collaborators.
Credentials, certifications, degrees, awards, etc that show potential clients your qualifications. Putting information like this in your portfolio makes it easier to sell yourself accurately. A lot of autistic people report that they struggle to properly represent their qualifications during interviews.

Build a portfolio that tells a story about you. Pick out a set of hard and soft skills that you wish to emphasize and decide what work best exemplifies those skills.

How do organize your portfolio

Again, this will depend on what is standard for the line of work you’re seeking. It’s possible to create a literal physical binder as a portfolio. And in some cases -- like offering services to local businesses -- this might be a good approach. However, the most effective approach is to build your portfolio online. Having a freelance portfolio online means it’s easier to share and there’s a potential for organic traffic that finds you. It’s also more friendly to autistic freelancers because most of us will do our networking and self-promotion online.

Here are a few approaches you can use, depending on your needs:

Build a website - Websites are a versatile option that can adapt to a variety of needs. Many hosting platforms -- like WordPress and Wix, Squarespace (or other alternatives) -- offer free and paid options and easy to use, customizable templates that make set-up a breeze. You can set up a simple, single page site that serves as your portfolio. However, templates include blogging, gallery, and ecommerce options, so you can run your business and organize your portfolio in the same place. A major benefit to this approach is the shareable link that makes promoting yourself a breeze.
Use social media - Another cost effective way to build a portfolio is through social media platforms. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, etc can all be used to showcase a wide range of your work. As with websites, this approach gives you an easy way to share your profile to promote yourself. A benefit of social media is that it allows you to network and build a following. Many autistic folks report that social media is their prime way of interacting with the world at large, so this is an especially useful tool for us.
Look for platforms specific to your industry: There are many online platforms that specialize in a specific type of freelance work. Examples include Substack for writers, Flickr for photographers, Etsy for creatives, Dribbble for designers, etc.

Okay, now that we know how to build a portfolio, let's discuss how to maintain a portfolio.

How to Maintain a Portfolio

My biggest piece of advice to autistic freelancers is to plan for things like experiencing overwhelm, burn out, perfectionism, and executive dysfunction. A big part of freelancing is having the freedom to cultivate a career, which means that things like your portfolios will always be a work in progress.

Update your information regularly

I’ve said this a bunch, but I highly recommend having a place where you collect all of your work experience. I use Linkedin to collect all the information for my resume and I keep a big list of links to all of my published work (that I have permission to use for self-promotion). It’s not super flashy, but even a haphazard list of links is better than nothing at all. Because at least this way I only have to pull up my list and add a link or two as more work is published. Plus, there’s a ready list of writing samples at my fingertips, so I don’t need to hunt down all of my samples every time I need to apply for work or submit a pitch.

Set it up so that maintaining your portfolio is as simple as making small updates as you go. Things aren’t nearly as overwhelming or complicated when it’s time to look for new work. Let me give you a personal example to help explain.

Plan for obstacles in the process

I’m usually at least a little burnt out when it’s time to look for new work, but I don’t always have the luxury of waiting until I feel better to start looking. To prepare for this, I’ve developed an understanding of my more disruptive patterns:

Procrastination and shutdown because of perfectionism and overwhelm
Brain fog, depression, and executive dysfunction because of burnout

Knowing this, I try to build a system around supporting those issues. Having a primary collection of information and updating that when I feel good is a big part of what helps me function during uncertainty and transition.

But it’s not just transitions that this helps with. For example, I’d like to build myself a professional website to serve as a portfolio at some point. However, my ADHD and executive dysfunction are putting up significant blocks. I still need to refine my process enough to support completing this task. But when it’s time, having all the pieces gathered together will ensure my success.

Include your best work

Just because you collect everything together into one main portfolio, doesn’t mean that you should always send the whole collection to potential clients. Often all that is required are a few samples. So, pick out 2-3 of your best examples to send to potential clients. That way you keep your application short and sweet. These top spots can and should change based on the client and the project’s needs.

Rotate what you include in these top spots to include new work as you accomplish it. But don’t hesitate to use an older example if it’s going to tell a better story about your work (especially if it better fits what you’re applying for). That being said, the majority of your samples should be new-ish, unless you’re coming off from a gap.

How to Build a Portfolio with No Experience or Gaps in Work

One of the coolest things about building a portfolio is that the need itself can potentially jumpstart your career. Often, early clients will be willing to take a risk on you if they know they’re helping an eager person put together a portfolio. But even in cases like this, it’s helpful to have some kind of sample to show people. So here are a few tips that might help:

Use your hobbies and/or deep interests as a way to demonstrate your skills. For example, include a project you made while teaching yourself a new program (i.e. Photoshop). You can get a lot of work just showing people that you can learn and work unsupervised.
Volunteer to gain quick experience. Because volunteer work isn’t paid, there are lower stakes and it’s easier to get approved to do the work. It’s also a bit easier to maintain the rights to use your work for portfolios. While volunteering is always noble, make sure you don’t give away your career-related work for free for too long.
Use classwork, school projects, past volunteering, extracurricular activities and any personal or career development you’ve engaged in. Remember, you need your portfolio to tell a story about you. You can construct that story using any accomplishment you’ve had that demonstrates your skills.
Be honest about gaps in your career and about lacking experience if you switch careers. Use old work that demonstrates skills that transfer to this new work. Focus on soft skills, as they are always in high demand. Keep in mind that soft skills represent more than how well we communicate. They’re also how we problem solve, get organized, and learn new things. Soft skills are learned in all walks of life. For example, if you took time off from work for an illness, you might have discovered that you’re very good at organizing a schedule and managing appointment making.
Here’s another example: Say you want to start working in IT. In order to apply, you’ll need to demonstrate troubleshooting skills. So include an example of a time when you had to systematically break a problem down or learned how something complex operated.

Create a small collection of original work that will get you started. Just write a couple articles about something that interests you and publish them yourself. Or create a sample of illustrations that shows off your artistic strengths. If you haven’t worked, or are new to an industry, this approach can often be enough to get those first clients. Again, 2-3 solid examples of your skills and ability to follow-through will speak volumes about you, even if no one has paid you yet.
Collaborate with others to create something you can use. Collaborating helps freelancers accomplish multiple goals. Not only can you create samples for your portfolio, you can network with others in or around your industry and cross promote each other for more exposure. If you’re like me and your ADHD benefits from having body doubles, this is an especially useful option.

Build a Story About Yourself

Like I said before, your portfolio will speak volumes about you. Way more than you’ll realize as you’re putting it together. Learn how to build a portfolio that will showcase your strengths and skills. Show how you overcome obstacles to see something through. Demonstrate problem solving and growth specific to your industry (i.e. research skills, troubleshooting skills, project management skills, etc).

Take the time to identify the story you want to tell about yourself. By carefully considering the skills you demonstrate with your work, you’ll be able to make a strong, much more accurate first impression. You can really make your portfolio work for you if you’re strategic. You can even build accommodations into your workflow -- without having to call them accommodations -- by creating a portfolio that says, “This is what I produce under these conditions.” Good luck!

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