What I Built in 48 Hours: My First UX Portfolio

I left my job of six years exactly 8 months ago. The first six months? Honestly, a blast. It was like finally getting out of a long tunnel. I went on a travel revenge spree and booked myself a trip almost every month. Seoul. A solo trip to Japan (Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagoya, Shirakawa-go, Ghibli Park!). Portugal and Paris (that 3-week trip was so full of joy, and a massive blackout in Portugal, which deserves its own story). I wrapped it all up with a beautiful trip to Ho Chi Minh City with one of my best friends.

In the middle of all that, my partner and I also found our dream home. We went through the whole journey of viewing units, chatting with IDs, and shaping our renovation brief. It’s been four months since then, and we’re finally gearing up for the next phase.

So yes, I guess you can say I’ve done quite a lot. But the workaholic in me couldn’t help but feel a nagging guilt, like I hadn’t done anything “productive” in the career department. I originally planned to compile a portfolio of the marketing and branding work I was proud of (it was six years of my youth after all), but somehow I just couldn’t bring myself to start. I felt… stuck. Defeated, even.

I sent out resumes here and there, not because I was super excited about the roles, but more because I felt I should be doing something to feel useful. That process, as you can imagine, was tiring. Maybe I’ll write a separate post about that someday. My weird “job search” journey and why I eventually decided to pivot instead of staying in the same lane.

Anyway. Fast forward to July. I was scrolling through LinkedIn (again) when it hit me...maybe this was the best time to learn something new. Realistically, when else would I have this kind of space? I remembered I had a Coursera subscription (thank you, SkillsFuture credit and SG gov), and I finally opened it after letting it sit untouched for months. I found the Google UX Design Foundations course, clicked play… and got hooked lol.

I’d worked on website revamps and landing page projects in my previous role, and something about UX just clicked for me. After finishing the foundation course, I found myself going down the rabbit hole. It felt familiar but also exciting. So I signed up for the General Assembly UX bootcamp starting in September, and I’m now doing my best to soak up everything I can before it begins, especially since I’m starting from zero.

And that brings us to this post.

So… I built my first "UX" portfolio

Okay, so I still haven’t gotten around to building that marketing portfolio (soon, I hope), but I did manage to pull this one off. Even though I had zero technical background (in my previous job, we worked with agencies for all the dev stuff)

I somehow managed to:

  • Build a fully responsive portfolio site using v0.dev, which is Vercel’s AI UI builder (bless).
  • Write and edit all the copy, including the dreaded About Me section (why is writing about yourself the hardest thing?!).
  • Buy a domain and link it up.
  • Set up GitHub for the first time and push my code to production (look at me sounding like I know what I’m doing).
  • Learn just enough Tailwind CSS to tweak spacing, styling, and layouts.
  • Design placeholder banners, fiddle with layout, and even add a blog section (hello, you’re reading it now).
  • Ask ChatGPT a lot of questions and learn way more than I thought I would in just two days.

What I learned along the way

  • Starting is the hardest part.
  • You really don’t need to know everything, just enough to give it a go.
  • Done is better than perfect (still reminding myself of this daily).
  • Writing your own story is weirdly emotional lol.
  • AI is AMAZING! I literally couldn't have done it without my bestie, ChatGPT.

What’s next

This site is my MVP, and it reflects where I am right now. I know I’ll want to rebuild it someday, maybe in Framer once I have more time and skills. But for now, I’m just proud I started.

If you’re working on your own portfolio, especially if you’re transitioning careers like me, I’d say: DO IT! You’ll learn a lot and you’ll probably surprise yourself too.

Thanks for reading (if you made it this far!). I’m documenting this mostly for future me, so she can look back and go “wow, look how far we’ve come.”