How to Write a Portfolio Bio That Gets You Hired Remotely

Your portfolio bio seems like it should be the easiest part. It's just a few sentences about yourself. How hard can that be?

Turns out, pretty hard. We've read thousands of portfolio bios, and the vast majority fall into one of two camps: either they sound like they were pulled from a corporate press release, or they're so vague they could describe literally anyone in the same profession. Both miss the point entirely.

A good bio does a specific job. It makes a hiring manager think: "This person sounds like someone I'd want on my team." That's it. Not "this person has impressive credentials" or "this person knows a lot of buzzwords." Just: "I want to work with them."

Here's how to write one that does that.

Why your bio matters more than you think

Most people treat their bio as an afterthought. They spend hours on their project descriptions, agonize over which work to feature, and then dash off a paragraph about themselves in five minutes before hitting publish.

That's backwards. Your bio is often the first piece of extended writing a hiring manager reads on your portfolio. Before they look at your projects, before they check your tech stack, they read that little paragraph to get a feel for who you are.

And in remote hiring, this matters even more than usual. When a company is evaluating someone they'll never meet in person, the bio becomes a proxy for something that would normally come across in a handshake and five minutes of small talk. Can this person communicate clearly? Do they seem self-aware? Would they be pleasant to collaborate with in Slack every day?

Your bio answers all of these questions, whether you intend it to or not.

The three most common bio mistakes

Before we get into what works, let's talk about what doesn't. These are the patterns we see over and over, and they all hurt in the same way: they make you forgettable.

The corporate-speak bio. "Seasoned professional with 8+ years of experience leveraging cutting-edge technologies to deliver scalable, user-centric solutions that drive business value." Reading that feels like chewing cardboard. Every word is technically correct, and the whole thing says absolutely nothing. Nobody talks like this in real life, and nobody wants to work with someone who writes like this either. It creates distance instead of connection.

The too-vague bio. "I'm a developer who loves building things and solving problems." Cool. So is every other developer on the planet. This kind of bio is so general that it provides zero information about what makes you specifically worth paying attention to. It's the equivalent of a dating profile that says "I like having fun." Not wrong. Just useless.

The novel-length bio. Five paragraphs covering your entire career history, your philosophy of work, your side projects, your hobbies, and your life goals. By the second paragraph, nobody is reading anymore. A bio isn't your autobiography. It's a first impression, and first impressions need to be tight.

A formula that works

We've noticed that the most effective bios tend to follow a loose three-part structure. Not as a rigid template, but as a way to make sure you're covering what matters:

Who you are and what you do. One or two sentences that establish your identity. Not your job title — your actual work. What kind of problems do you solve? In what domain? At what level?

What makes you specifically interesting. One or two sentences about your angle. Maybe it's a specialty. Maybe it's an unusual combination of skills. Maybe it's the kind of environment where you do your best work. This is the part that separates you from everyone else with the same job title.

What you're looking for. One sentence about what comes next. Are you looking for a remote role? In a specific industry? At a certain kind of company? Saying this out loud gives a hiring manager permission to picture you in the role they're trying to fill.

That's three to five sentences total. Maybe six if you're naturally verbose. Anything beyond that and you're probably overwriting.

How to mention remote experience naturally

If you've worked remotely, this is something hiring managers want to know about. But there's a difference between mentioning it naturally and making it sound forced.

What works is weaving it into your existing narrative. Instead of "I have remote work experience," try something like: "I've spent the last four years working remotely with distributed teams, and honestly, I think it's made me a better communicator than I ever was in an office."

That accomplishes two things: it establishes your remote experience, and it reframes it as a skill — specifically, the communication skill that remote companies care about most. It doesn't feel like a checkbox. It feels like a genuine observation.

If you haven't worked remotely before, you can still address it. Something like: "I'm looking for my first fully remote role after three years of hybrid work. I already do my best focused work from home, and I'm excited about joining a team that's built around async collaboration." This shows self-awareness and signals that you've thought about what remote work actually requires.

What good bios look like vs. bad ones

Let's look at some contrasting approaches to make this concrete. These aren't actual bios we've seen — they're composites based on common patterns.

A bio that doesn't work:

"Experienced full-stack developer with expertise in React, Node.js, Python, and cloud technologies. Passionate about creating innovative solutions that drive user engagement and business growth. Strong communicator with a proven track record of delivering high-quality results in fast-paced environments."

This is the developer equivalent of elevator music. It's technically fine and completely forgettable. Every phrase is a cliche. There's no personality, no specificity, and no reason to keep reading.

A bio that works:

"I'm a full-stack developer who's spent the last five years building internal tools at fintech startups — the kind of tools that operations teams actually want to use, not just the ones they're forced to. I've been working remotely since 2022 and I've gotten pretty opinionated about clear documentation and async communication. Looking for a remote role where I can keep making software that makes people's workdays less painful."

Same person, same experience. But the second version sounds like a human being. You get a sense of their domain, their values, what they care about, and what they're like to be around. A hiring manager reading this can immediately picture this person on their Slack, writing thoughtful project updates and pushing for better documentation.

Another bio that doesn't work:

"Creative designer passionate about creating beautiful, user-friendly experiences. I believe design has the power to change the world. When I'm not designing, you can find me hiking or playing guitar."

The hobbies are irrelevant. The philosophy is vague. "Beautiful, user-friendly experiences" describes every designer's portfolio.

The same designer, but better:

"I'm a product designer who specializes in B2B SaaS — specifically, the kind of complex enterprise tools that usually look like they were designed by committee in 2009. I've spent four years turning complicated workflows into interfaces that new users can figure out without a training manual. I work remotely and I'm based in UTC+1, which has made me very good at leaving detailed design annotations so engineers in other time zones never have to guess what I meant."

Specific domain. Clear value proposition. Remote context woven in naturally. And a personality that comes through without trying too hard.

Practical tips for writing yours

Write it last. After you've finished your project descriptions and headline, your bio is easier to write because you already know what story your portfolio is telling.

Read it out loud. If any sentence sounds like something you'd never actually say to another person, rewrite it. The out-loud test catches corporate-speak faster than anything else.

Cut the buzzwords. "Leverage," "utilize," "synergy," "drive value," "cutting-edge," "passionate" — these words are so overused that they've lost all meaning. Use plain language instead.

Be specific about numbers and contexts. "Built APIs" is vague. "Built payment APIs that processed $3M monthly across four currencies" is memorable.

Don't try to be someone you're not. If you're naturally serious, write a serious bio. If you're naturally casual, write a casual one. Forced personality is worse than no personality. The goal is to sound like yourself at your clearest and most confident.

Update it regularly. Your bio from two years ago probably doesn't reflect who you are now. Revisit it every few months and make sure it still fits.

The goal is connection

At the end of the day, your bio is trying to create a moment of connection. A hiring manager reads it and thinks, "Yeah, I get this person. I'd like to talk to them." That feeling is worth more than any credential or keyword.

Write your bio like you're talking to someone you respect. Be clear about what you do. Be honest about what you're good at. Be direct about what you want. That's all it takes.

If you're building your portfolio on RemoteWorks, the bio section is designed to sit prominently on your page — so it's worth getting right. Take twenty minutes, write something that sounds like you, and don't overthink it. You can always come back and sharpen it later. The important thing is that when a hiring manager reads it, they hear a real person on the other end.