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ThreadAn hour a week, forever

Portfolio and writing

Build logs, characterization reports, reproduction write-ups, one-page memos, a poster, a personal site. Engineers who can write a clear page get promoted, and a resume cannot show judgment where a write-up can.

SpineAnalog / mixed-signal hardwareDecoding / signal processing / MLComputational neuroscienceClinical / regulatory / human factors
On this pageAn hour a week, forever
  1. The five documents
  2. The site
  3. Writing well, the short version
  4. Talks

A resume says “designed an eight-channel amplifier.” A build log shows the schematic, the with its bandwidth, the mistake that cost a week, and the sentence that says what you would do differently. Professors and recruiters read the second kind of thing, and almost no student produces it. The portfolio is the compound interest of this whole site: every project produces a document, and the documents accumulate into the thing that gets you hired.

The five documents

Figure 1. Five documents, and what each one proves that a resume line cannot. The middle column is the reason to write them; the right column is roughly what they cost.

The build log. Every project. The template is in the build logs section: what I set out to do, what I did, what went wrong, what I measured, what I would change, what surprised me. Photos of failures. Written the week the project ends, while the failures are fresh.

The report. Every instrument. One page, numbers with units and conditions, a plot per number. The Phase 2 page has the template.

The reproduction write-up. Every paper you reproduce. Their number, your number, the gap, and why. The Phase 3 page.

The one-page memo. For anything you want someone to decide: a proposal to a lab, a request for equipment, a recommendation to a team. State the decision needed in the first line, the reasoning in three paragraphs, the ask at the end. Engineers who can do this get put in front of people who decide things.

The poster. By junior year, at least one. Big figures, few words, a title that states the result. Practice presenting it in two minutes and in ten.

The site

Put all of it on a personal website: a page per project, a page for the reports, a page for the reproductions, and a short about page with your spine and what you want to work on. A static site generator (this site is Astro; Hugo and Jekyll are fine) and a free host. Own the domain. Link it in every email to every professor and every application. When a recruiter searches your name, this is what they should find.

Keep other people’s data off it. Recordings from friends stay in the protocol’s storage, not on the web.

Writing well, the short version

Lead with the result. One idea per sentence. Numbers with units. Say what went wrong. Cut every adjective that is doing the work a number should do. Read it aloud once. The about page describes the voice this site uses; it works for your write-ups too, and the field-notes register (first person, honest, specific) is exactly right for a build log.

Talks

The NeurotechX club meeting, the lab meeting, the undergraduate symposium. Ten minutes on what you built, with the failures included. Every talk you give makes the next one easier and puts your name in a room.

  1. Set up the personal site this month, with one build log on it.
  2. After every project, the build log within a week.
  3. After every instrument, the report.
  4. Practice the one-page memo the first time you need something from a lab.
  5. Junior year: a poster and a talk.
Recall
Why does a build log matter more than a resume line?
It shows the plot, the measured numbers, the mistake, and the judgment that followed; a resume can only assert. Professors and recruiters read write-ups for exactly this evidence.
Recall
What is the structure of a one-page memo?
The decision needed in the first line, the reasoning in three paragraphs, the specific ask at the end.