You don’t really have to choose between a portfolio site and LinkedIn. They do different jobs.
LinkedIn gets you discovered. A portfolio helps you get chosen.
LinkedIn is better at getting you seen
LinkedIn’s biggest advantage is its network. Recruiters actively search it, and the platform is built around connecting people with roles and organisations — including roles that haven’t been advertised yet.
For researchers, this is especially valuable. Your next opportunity might come from a hiring manager at a startup, an alumnus from your department, or someone who comes across your work through a post.
But there’s a limit. LinkedIn gives you a profile. It doesn’t give you room to explain the work behind it.
A portfolio is better at showing what you can actually do
A portfolio starts from a different question: what evidence can I show you?
Consider the difference between a CV bullet:
Built a machine learning model for low-resource language data.
And a portfolio project that explains the problem, the dataset, the methodology, what failed, what worked, and the result — with links to code, papers, or a demo.
That difference gives someone something much more valuable than a list of claims: context.
Which one wins depends on where you are in the process
Before someone knows you exist: LinkedIn wins. You can search for companies, connect with people in your field, and appear in recruiter searches. A great portfolio doesn’t help if nobody ever sees it.
Once someone is interested: your portfolio wins. A recruiter who clicks through to your portfolio has taken an extra step. Now you have space to answer the questions your CV can’t: What have you actually worked on? How do you think? What can you build?
Don’t make your portfolio a second LinkedIn
This is where a lot of portfolios go wrong — they become a prettier résumé.
Your LinkedIn already has education, experience, and skills. Your portfolio should add something. For researchers, that usually means projects.
Instead of:
MSc in Data Science. Python, PyTorch, NLP.
Show:
Low-resource language glossing — Built and evaluated a neural model for glossing in a low-resource language setting. Compared approaches, analysed failure cases, and documented the results.
The first tells someone what you’ve done. The second gives them a reason to care.
The best strategy is to use both
Use LinkedIn to widen the top of your funnel. Use your portfolio to deepen the impression once someone clicks through.
Your LinkedIn might get you noticed. Your CV might get you through the first screen. Your portfolio gives the hiring manager somewhere to go when they want to know more — especially when your experience doesn’t fit neatly into a job title.
This is where Takeoff fits
Takeoff isn’t trying to replace LinkedIn. You need a place for the work that doesn’t fit inside one.
Your LinkedIn says what you’ve done. Your CV says where you’ve been. Your Takeoff portfolio shows what you can do.
Use LinkedIn to get discovered. Use your portfolio to give people a reason to remember you.
Build yours with Takeoff.