Need help assembling a portfolio

I'm a home hack that sticks my nose in here to learn what I can from you guys.

Recently, I've been talking to employment recruiters about getting away from the auto industry and into something I'd enjoy more. Product development would play to my strengths. One of the recruiters has taken a strong interest. She wanted to know what I had designed and built, the machines I own, and the names of references who could support my ability to build devices to suit various needs. When I mentioned the hot rod stuff I had built she took great interest and wanted the particulars, including the magazine articles covering the car.

My lack of formal education (43 years old and just starting college) means that I have to demonstrate practical application experience and hope I can land an entry level position.

Sadly, my design drawings have not been production quality. They're napkin sketches with numbers penciled in.

I do have photos of many of the devices, tools, jigs, and other stuff that I've built. Only a couple of the items are available for me to take more detailed photos.

How should I go about creating a portfolio that she can present electronically to potential employers?
What should that portfolio contain?

I've got to get my head out of the swarf filled pocket protector mode and be able to put together a presentation that shows practical value to a manufacturer. Production value. Lean manufacturing. Six Sigma. Practical application. Those things dominate the hiring fields these days.

One of my professional clients needed a new material storage system that had 30% more capacity than his existing Lista cabinets, be accessible to tall and short employees, take up no additional floor space, and keep it cost effective. After a string of vendors failed to produce an answer, I designed my own creation. I sourced the parts and the manufacturer for the frame. The cost of the custom made bins was nearly 40% less than what the Lista cabinets cost. The client not only bought it, but they ended the trial period early and ordered them for all their other hangars. Sadly, the company I worked for has closed and I do not have access to photos of the final product.

My AMG brake installation is a fine example. Only two brackets needed to be made. The rest of it was modifying existing parts to keep costs low. Aftermarket parts were not available so I had to go it alone.

The custom fuel injection manifold is the same basic thing. I took an existing manifold, determined the proper size plenum required for the engine, and built it to spec. It adapted readily available parts to eliminate as much custom manufacturing as possible.

I've built a rod bending jig capable of making multiple set length bends for a small manufacturer of specialty parts. That one was pretty cool. It has a knob on top that selects the length of rod before the bend.

I've done a bunch of other tools, hot rod parts, off road racing parts, and the list goes on. Surely, most of you far outpace me in this regard but I've done well for a hack with no professional experience. Now, I need to be able to demonstrate that ability in a brief, concise, non-technical manner.

How would you guys suggest I go about this? What format should it be in and how much stuff should it contain?

I'm great at solving problems but am horrible at selling myself.

I admire anyone at any stage of a career who is ambitious to make a significant move upward. You are, though, working with a couple of pretty serious handicaps - inadequate documentation of what you've done and a self-description of "a hack with no professional experience". It strikes me that you're asking a lot when you expect employers to take your talent on faith. Since you are starting college, perhaps it would be good to think about devoting as much of your effort to finishing college as early as possible, and with a strong showing in areas that will be of real interest to future employers in the field you're aiming for. One of the issues with job hunting now is that a prospective employer might well be concerned about how much you can commit to his business while you are beginning a college education. You didn't say how you planned to juggle that, or how you are fixed in terms of making a living.
-Marty-

feets said:

One of my professional clients needed a new material storage system that had 30% more capacity than his existing Lista cabinets, be accessible to tall and short employees, take up no additional floor space, and keep it cost effective. After a string of vendors failed to produce an answer, I designed my own creation. I sourced the parts and the manufacturer for the frame. The cost of the custom made bins was nearly 40% less than what the Lista cabinets cost. The client not only bought it, but they ended the trial period early and ordered them for all their other hangars. Sadly, the company I worked for has closed and I do not have access to photos of the final product.

Click to expand...

So you invented something that works better than a Lista cabinet, and it costs 40% less than what a Lista costs, and you can still make a profit on it. In fact your product worked so well that the aerospace market is tossing Lista cabinets to the curb in favor of your cabinet? If that is the case why are you looking for a job working for someone else?

I think you really ought to be out making and selling cabinets. If after all the effort the business fails then you will at the very least have something for your resume.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Lista market is a several $100million market worldwide between all the manufacturers.

feets said:

I'm a home hack that sticks my nose in here to learn what I can from you guys.

Click to expand...

Drop that line! You're an innovative Designer specializing in bringing cost effective products to market in a timely manner.

You need to learn CAD, I recommend draftsight from the Solid works people (Free) Eventually learn 3d cad.

Download DraftSight - Dassault Systèmes

Learn by taking your "napkin sketches" into cad. Use these for your electronic presentations.

Ed

egpace said:

Drop that line! You're an innovative Designer specializing in bringing cost effective products to market in a timely manner.

You need to learn CAD, I recommend draftsight from the Solid works people (Free) Eventually learn 3d cad.

Download DraftSight - Dassault Systèmes

Learn by taking your "napkin sketches" into cad. Use these for your electronic presentations.

Ed

Click to expand...

Okay, the hack reference was a bit tongue in cheek. Hobby machinists are often berated and looked down upon at this site. I simply took the lead in that so the bashers wouldn't have to.

I have knocked out some interesting things in the past and will keep doing the one-off jobs as long as I am able. At the same time, I realize that I am by no means a master at the trade. What normally gets me through the tough spots is my ability to think outside the box and come up with simple solutions to complex problems.

I was given a copy of AutoCAD and have started exploring it. I understand that it is not widely used like Solid Works and other software packages. I will check out DraftSight and see what I can learn from it. I feel a computer upgrade coming in the near future.


Adam, I'm sure you were mocking me through that post but I have often thought about building a similar cabinet and seeing if I could market the design. It would have to go to a material storage vendor since I do not have a massive catalog of products to go with it. The problem what doing that is not having the money to defend the design. Chances are, if a company likes the product they can run off with it and make their own.
He who has the most money wins.

Learn by taking your "napkin sketches" into cad. Use these for your electronic presentations.

Click to expand...

A great idea! You can look at my website, bdashfab.com, for an example. It's job is to help sell customers, but it might help sell an employer too.

feets said:

Adam, I'm sure you were mocking me through that post but I have often thought about building a similar cabinet and seeing if I could market the design. It would have to go to a material storage vendor since I do not have a massive catalog of products to go with it. The problem what doing that is not having the money to defend the design. Chances are, if a company likes the product they can run off with it and make their own.
He who has the most money wins.

Click to expand...

No mocking whatsoever here, if your cabinet did what you say it did that sounds pretty cool! You really should be asking for advice on how to make a go of this idea, not how to get a job working for someone else, as I know there are others on this site who have done similar with their own ideas in the past. The Aerospace industry buys millions of dollars of Lista cabinets each year, if you really figured out something better you ought to go for it!

ok, here's how i'd do it - case studies.

one page each. Use a similar format for each, with some images, point form - do not be verbose. Headings might "The Problem" describe the problem you are solving, "Discovery" how you research and identified constraints and ideas, "The solution" what you propose to do, "Execution" how you made it, and maybe a Summary.

I'd also google around for some "headings", see you can find some that are more trade jargon to the design business....but definitely i'd go the case study route. Companies what people who can self start and solve problems; CS's show that and de-emphasize the lack of a visual portfolio

I do appreciate the input.

A while back I began taking pics of the work I was doing. Some of it goes step by step. Other jobs got a bit less coverage. Now that I have a better camera I've been trying to keep better records.

One of my friends helped me pick out some of the projects that would likely appeal to the recruiter based upon the interest she showed. I dug through the pics to find photos of the finished work as well as some in-process stuff. The pics include a couple interesting setups. Comments attached to each page included the reason for the work, specific concerns, and how those concerns were addressed. Not knowing exactly which industry and the specific job she had in mind meant that it was a bit generic. Some of the other things I included were material selection and an emphasis on modifying existing products to decrease labor and production cost. After all, who has not been beat over the head with lean manufacturing in the past decade? Considerable effort was made to remain concise and not get into the fine details.

It's done and has been sent. There is no going back now.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Just a quick reality check of cost versus selling price. If you can make a storage unit for 60% of the cost of a Lista, it would need to retail for at least 150% of the Lista price to provide an adequate net profit margin for yourself and for the retailer. That would be 2.5X bare cost. 3X bare cost would be much closer to the bottom end of the typical range of selling prices, and its not unusual for large manufacturers to set their wholesale prices at a minimum of 3X bare cost of manufacture.