Hey friend, how’s it going? 🌻
I’ve looked over 20 1:1 calls in the last few months. Most of them are built the same way: a long list of article links, sometimes without any proof attached to them. And that’s it: no context, no explanation, no impact that you could rely on.
Here are three things that make a portfolio stand out in the AI era, and three you can delete/ignore.
Let’s go👇
📌 TL;DR
A one-minute Loom you recorded yourself beats a two-page cover letter.
One vibe-coded tool someone can actually open beats twenty article links.
Proof has to show AI visibility now, not a blue-link screenshot.
Certificates and your full education history are mostly filler. Cut them.
Every short freelance stint doesn’t need its own entry. Collapse them into one.
#1 Record a Loom for every role
For every role you apply to, record a short Loom video that does what a cover letter used to do, but keep it under a minute. I know that sounds too short. It isn’t, once you’ve actually decided what to say.
Keep the script simple: what you’ve done, why this role specifically, what you’d bring, what you want to learn, why you’d fit the team.
The part that makes it work is showing you actually researched the company. A founder’s post you read, a new product they launched recently, or any real detail that shows your curiosity. That’s the difference between saying you researched the company and proving it.
Also, don’t script this with AI. Because the entire value here is that it sounds like you, a real person who spent a few minutes talking bout themselves. That’s the one thing an AI-written cover letter can’t fake, so don’t hand it away.
💡Pro Tip: Don’t send the same portfolio to everyone. Make a version per role. Notion is the fastest way to publish, as a link or a page. The Loom should sit on top of whichever version you send.
#2 Build one small tool and let people use it
“Good with AI” on a resume means nothing now.
The way you actually prove it is by building something small and letting people open it. For example: a competitor-analysis agent, a content-refresh agent, a topic finder, a brief creator. It doesn’t have to be something exceptional. It has to be real that’s your brainchild.
Also, don’t just link it. Walk through it: what problem you were solving, how you built it, what it saves you in a normal week. That last part matters most, because it shows you build tools to get actual work done.
And this is a real hiring signal now. “Vibe marketer” has gone from a joke to an actual job title in about a year. If you can show you build your own tools, you’re answering a question a lot of teams have started asking out loud.
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#3 Show proof that fits how search works now
This is the one where many content marketers accidentally hurt themselves.
They include a #1-ranking screenshot or an AI Overview grab as proof, thinking it’s the strongest part of the portfolio. The problem is what it signals. To anyone paying attention, a blue-link ranking screenshot reads as someone who hasn’t updated how they think about search. You’re trying to show strength and showing the opposite.
Here’s what I’d show instead, in the order I’d reach for it.
If you have access to an AI visibility tool (Ahrefs Brand Radar, Otterly, Semrush, Profound), take a screenshot showing where your content is actually cited or mentioned in AI answers. That’s the version of “ranking” that means something now.
No tool? Take a free trial and capture one clean pass. One good screenshot is enough.
Neither? Open an incognito window, run the real bottom-of-funnel prompts a buyer would type, and show how your content surfaces in the answer itself.
And if you can show a before-and-after, do that above all else. AI visibility before your work, AI visibility after. That comparison says more than any single number.
What I’d take off from my portfolio right away…
If I were you:
Certificates and courses. They’re not what gets you hired. If you keep one, keep a current one (e.g., AirOps certification), not the same old HubSpot content marketing course from years ago.
Your full education history. Latest degree is enough IMO
A separate job entry for every short freelance stint. Roll them into one: “Freelance content marketer, [year] to present,” with the companies, a linked portfolio, and the kind of content underneath.
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Onwards and upwards,
Sreyashi
Wait should the CV be on Notion?