Practical MLOps

Appendix E. Building a Technical Portfolio for MLOps

By Noah Gift

Something I recommend to everybody is to become a “Triple Threat.” In basketball, a triple threat position means someone who can score, rebound, or pass. The defender has to guard against all three options. You can also be a triple threat from a career perspective, meaning you can get past the hiring gatekeepers because you have three threats: a technical portfolio, a relevant certification, and either work experience or a relevant degree.

I advise on Cloud Certifications in Appendix B, but here we’re going to dive into your technology portfolio. Building a portfolio project builds up your resume, which will have a link to high-quality source code and a demo video, versus another resume that does not. Who would you call in for an interview? I would call in the candidate who already showed me what they could do before we met.

In building a project, pick something you think will “move the needle” in the next two years. Consider the following ideas:

• GitHub project with source code and a README.md explaining the project. The README.md should be of professional quality and use a business writing style.

• 100% repeatable notebooks or source code.

• Original work (not a copy of a Kaggle project).

• Authentic passion.

• Five-minute final demo video showing how it works.

• The demo needs to be very technical and show precisely how to accomplish a task, i.e., you need to teach someone step by step. (Think about a cooking ...