The Application Black Hole
Toward the end of undergrad, I started applying for jobs with the confidence of someone who had no idea what they were doing.
I applied to literally hundreds of positions. For each one, I customized my resume by tweaking bullet points, adjusting keywords, and tailoring the objective statement to match the job description. I spent hours on each application, convinced that effort would translate to results.
It didn’t.
I signed up for every job board I could find. I set up alerts for new postings. I joined LinkedIn and connected with anyone who might be useful. I cold-contacted recruiters. I asked professors for introductions. I attended career fairs and collected business cards.
The result was deafening silence. Out of hundreds of applications, I got maybe a handful of interviews. Most applications vanished into the void without even an automated rejection.
As I mentioned in my post about planning failures, my academic record wasn’t stellar. But I’d done real research, built real skills, and solved real problems. None of that seemed to matter. My resume was just another document in a digital pile of thousands, and nothing about it made anyone stop and pay attention.
I had failed at the most basic career task: getting someone to talk to me.
The Problem With Resumes
Here’s what I eventually realized: resumes are terrible at conveying what makes you valuable.
A resume is a list of claims. “Developed a method to splice hollow core optical fiber.” “Built machine learning models for image classification.” “Analyzed satellite communication data.”
These statements might be true, and they might represent genuinely impressive work. But to a hiring manager scanning 200 resumes, they’re just words. Everyone’s resume has impressive-sounding bullet points. There’s no way to distinguish real accomplishment from exaggeration, deep expertise from surface familiarity.
What I wanted was to show them. I wanted them to literally see the camera images from the fiber splicer. I wanted them to understand the elegance of the solution I’d developed. I wanted them to feel the satisfaction I felt when something finally worked after weeks of failed attempts.
A resume can’t do any of that. It’s a one- or two-page summary designed to be skimmed in 30 seconds. It’s optimized for filtering people out, not for understanding what they can actually do.
So I built something that could.
The $12 Solution
The connection between my resume and my actual work was a website.
I started small. I bought a domain with my name for about $12/year. I set up a simple site with the basics any recruiter would want:
- A professional photo
- Contact information
- A downloadable PDF of my resume
- Links to my LinkedIn, Google Scholar, and any other professional profiles
This alone was more than most candidates had. But the real value came from what I added next: a portfolio page.
Building the Portfolio
The portfolio page is where I could finally show instead of just tell.
I went back through my research experience and identified distinct projects I’d worked on. For each one, I created a standalone summary — not a publication, not a technical report, but something designed to be understood by someone who had never heard of my field.
The Structure That Works
After a lot of iteration, I landed on a format that consistently engaged readers:
1. The Hook (1-2 sentences) Start with why anyone should care. What problem were you solving? Why does it matter?
“Hollow-core optical fibers can transmit data faster than traditional fibers, but they’re nearly impossible to splice using conventional methods. I developed a technique that made it possible.”
2. The Challenge (2-3 sentences) Briefly explain what made this hard. This establishes that you didn’t just follow instructions, you solved a real problem.
“Traditional fusion splicing melts the glass to join two fibers. But hollow-core fibers collapse when heated, destroying the air channels that give them their unique properties. Every existing method failed.”
3. The Approach (3-4 sentences + visuals) Explain what you did in plain language. This is where images become crucial. A photo of your experimental setup, a graph showing your results, or a diagram of your method make abstract work concrete.
“I developed a modified splicing protocol that uses precisely controlled lower temperatures and shorter heating times. Here’s what the splice looks like under the microscope: [IMAGE]. The air channels remain intact, and the splice loss is under 0.5 dB.”
4. The Results (2-3 sentences) Quantify the outcome. Numbers make accomplishments real.
“This technique reduced splice loss by 60% compared to previous attempts and has since been adopted by three other research groups. The work resulted in a peer-reviewed publication and contributed to my lab’s successful grant renewal.”
5. Skills Demonstrated (bullet list) End with a brief list of transferable skills this project demonstrated. This helps recruiters connect your specific work to their general needs.
“Skills: Optical system design, experimental troubleshooting, data analysis, technical writing, independent research”
Visual Examples
The images are not optional. They’re the entire point.
For technical work, include:
- Photos of equipment you used or built
- Screenshots of software you developed
- Graphs showing key results
- Diagrams explaining your methodology
- Before/after comparisons
For non-technical work, include:
- Screenshots of deliverables
- Charts showing impact metrics
- Photos from events you organized
- Examples of materials you created
Every image should have a caption explaining what the viewer is looking at. Assume your readers have zero context.
What If Your Work Is Confidential?
This is a real constraint for many people. Here’s how to handle it:
Generalize: Instead of “Built a classification model for [Company]’s fraud detection system,” write “Built a classification model for financial fraud detection in transaction data.”
Focus on methods, not specifics: You can describe the techniques you used without revealing proprietary details.
Use personal projects: If your professional work is entirely off-limits, build portfolio pieces from side projects, open-source contributions, or recreations of similar problems with public data.
Get permission: Sometimes you can share work if you ask. I’ve had employers approve sanitized versions of projects for portfolio use.
The Website Structure
Here’s how I organized the full site:
Homepage: Brief introduction (2-3 sentences about who I am), professional photo, and clear navigation to other sections.
Resume: Downloadable PDF plus an embedded/viewable version. Keep this updated.
Portfolio: The showcase. Each project gets its own page or section with the structure described above.
Publications/Patents: If you have academic work, list it here with links to papers where available.
Contact: Email address and links to professional profiles. Make it easy for people to reach you.
Technical Implementation
You don’t need to be a web developer. Options from simplest to most complex:
Google Sites (free): Dead simple, looks basic but professional enough. Good starting point.
Squarespace / Wix ($12-16/month): Templates handle design for you. Drag-and-drop editing. This is what most people should use.
WordPress ($4-25/month depending on hosting): More flexible, steeper learning curve. Good if you want a blog integrated with your portfolio.
Custom built (varies): Only if you’re a developer and want to showcase that skill specifically.
The platform matters less than the content. A basic site with great portfolio pieces beats a beautiful site with nothing to show.
How This Changes the Job Search
Once my website existed, everything about job searching changed.
The Resume Upgrade
I added my website URL to the header of my resume, right below my name and contact info. Now my resume wasn’t just a list of claims, it was a gateway to evidence.
A hiring manager who was intrigued by “Developed hollow-core fiber splicing technique” could click through and see the splice, understand the challenge, and grasp why it mattered. My resume became a teaser trailer and my website was the full movie.
The Recruiter Call Transformation
When recruiters reached out for initial screening calls, the dynamic was different.
Previously, I’d spend the whole call trying to explain my technical work to someone who didn’t have the background to evaluate it. Now, I could say “Did you have a chance to look at my portfolio?” and if they had, we could have a real conversation about specific projects.
Even if they hadn’t looked, I could point them to the website, “It’s easy to remember, just Aaron J Pung dot com!” Once they were on my webpage, I could walk them through the site during the call, allowing them to explore the site and click on links they found interesting. The visuals to make my experience tangible. The images gave them something concrete to pass along to the hiring manager: “This candidate built this thing — here’s a direct link to what it looks like.”
More than one recruiter has told me, “This is wonderful! I’ll pass this along to the hiring manager right away!”
I gained an additional advantage by connecting my WordPress site to Jetpack. This automatically records traffic to my website, and gives me insights on which pages people are visiting the most. When I apply for jobs, I know when people are looking at my resume.
The Interview Advantage
In interviews, I’d reference my portfolio directly. “You can see on my site, this is the actual data I was working with.” It demonstrated preparation, gave interviewers an easy way to explore my background, and differentiated me from candidates who only had words to offer.
The Passive Opportunity Pipeline
But here’s the unexpected benefit: the website works while I sleep.
My name is relatively unique. When someone Googles “Aaron Pung,” my website comes up. Recruiters searching for candidates with specific skills find my site and reach out. Former colleagues looking to refer someone remember my portfolio exists.
I went from desperately applying to hundreds of jobs to having recruiters message me regularly. Not because I became more qualified, but because I became more visible.
The Maintenance Mindset
Like I discussed in my side hustle post, consulting work creates portfolio material. Every significant project is a potential new entry.
I treat my website like a professional tool that requires regular maintenance:
After completing any significant project: Write up a portfolio entry while it’s fresh. Even if you don’t publish it immediately, capture the details before you forget them. Rough notes are enough, but organizing them with images in a slide deck is better.
Every 6 months: Review the whole site. Update the resume. Add new projects. Remove or update anything outdated.
Before any job search: Intensive refresh. Make sure everything is current and polished.
When your role changes: Update your professional summary and highlight the most relevant projects for your new direction.
The upfront investment is significant. Expect to spend a weekend or two building the initial site and writing your first portfolio pieces. But the ongoing maintenance is minimal: maybe a few hours every few months.
Quick Start Guide
If you’re convinced and want to start today, here’s the minimum viable product:
Week 1: Foundation
- Buy a domain with your name (Namecheap, Google Domains, etc.)
- Set up a basic site (Google Sites if you want free, Squarespace if you want polished)
- Add: photo, one-paragraph bio, resume PDF, contact info, LinkedIn link
Week 2-3: First Portfolio Piece
- Pick your most impressive/interesting project
- Gather any images, data visualizations, or materials related to it
- Write it up using the Hook → Challenge → Approach → Results → Skills structure
- Get feedback from a friend outside your field—if they understand it, you’ve succeeded
Week 4: Expand
- Add 2-3 more portfolio pieces
- Refine the homepage and navigation
- Add your website URL to your resume header, LinkedIn, and email signature
Ongoing
- Mention your site in professional conversations
- Add new projects as you complete them
- Review and update quarterly
The Compound Effect
Three years after building my site, the results have compounded in ways I didn’t anticipate.
My portfolio has grown from 3 projects to over a dozen, spanning multiple industries and skill areas. Each new entry reinforces my credibility and gives recruiters more entry points to find me.
The site has become a hub connecting all my professional presence. My consulting work, publications, patents, and projects all live in one place that I control.
I’ve had interview conversations where the hiring manager had already reviewed my portfolio in detail before we spoke. They weren’t asking “tell me about yourself”, they were asking specific questions about specific projects. That’s a completely different interview.
And recruiters do reach out regularly now. Not because I’m constantly self-promoting, but because the website is out there, quietly making my case to anyone who searches for the skills I have.
The $12 domain and a few weekends of work have probably generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in career value at this point. It’s the highest-ROI investment I’ve ever made.
Start Today
You have work you’re proud of. You’ve solved problems, built things, figured stuff out. Right now, all of that is trapped in your memory and reduced to bullet points on a resume that looks like everyone else’s.
A website lets you show what you can actually do. It gives recruiters a reason to stop scrolling. It turns your resume from a list of claims into an invitation to see proof.
You don’t need to be a designer. You don’t need to be a developer. You don’t need to wait until your portfolio is “ready.”
Buy the domain. Start with one project. Make it real.
The job search game is rigged against people who only have resumes. Build something better.
Become visible.
Next: How to be more productive, despite a demaning job
Previously: How to build a successful side hustle, despite past failures
