Creatives, listen up! Showcasing your best work via popular online communities can bag you the dream job you have been waiting for.

Putting up a decent portfolio website that gives an overview of your work is a must, but you can't afford to leave it at that. You also have to ensure that your work reaches the right people in your field.

It's time to make your work more visible and increase your chances of landing top jobs. Begin by joining powerful digital communities frequented by recruiters and industry influencers. We have listed five such communities here. See where your work fits in well and upload your portfolio today.

Behance

Behance, an Adobe venture, is the place for creative professionals of all stripes. It is home to a wide variety of creative work in fields as diverse as automotive design and calligraphy. Behance works like any other social platform you're used to. You sign up, create an attractive profile, share interesting stuff, and build up a sturdy network.

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Head to the Behance job board to search for opportunities in your field based on your preferences.

Still looking for a service to host your portfolio? Behance can help you there, too. With its ProSite tool you can turn your Behance portfolio into a full-fledged website with its own URL. Building the website yourself is easy because the tool comes with a built-in WYSIWYG editor. To use ProSite, all you need is an Adobe ID. If you have a Creative Cloud membership, the service is free for you!

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The tiny More Behance link at the bottom left on the home page reveals a few interesting things:

  • Twice a year, Behance facilitates portfolio review events in various cities across the world.
  • It features success stories of people whose Behance portfolio brought them amazing opportunities.
  • Through its sister site, 99U, Behance shares tips to enhance your creative career.

Want to manage or show off your Behance portfolio on the go? There are a handful of apps to help you do that.

Dribbble

Dribbble is an unusual network for designers to "show and tell" what they're working on. Players (members) share shots (partial snapshots) of their works in progress to reveal their ideas and get feedback.

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Since Dribbble is invite-only, you'll need to be drafted (invited) by a member. Keep an eye out for invitations on sites like Twitter. Once you're in, add a bio, list your skill set, and throw in a link to your website. Next, upload shots from your ongoing projects and let the networking begin. A Hire Me button on your profile allows people to send you work inquiries.

You don't need an invite if you just want to take a look around, keep up with the work of your favorite designers, or hire them for a project. You can sign up for free and upgrade if you need the premium features.

Dribbble has its share of critics, but that hasn't harmed its standing as a vibrant network of talented and passionate designers.

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Coroflot

Coroflot comes across as a low-profile sibling of Behance and Dribbble. It is a powerful platform, though, and puts your work before thousands of companies.

Signing up and uploading your work to Coroflot is straightforward. You can also track how many people are visiting your profile and following your work.

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Coroflot's one-size-fits-all approach to user profiles underwent a redesign in 2013. Now, the site gives you the flexibility to personalize your profile and make it a cohesive part of your online presence.

Visit the Coroflot job board to find opportunities in locations and creative areas of your choice. Do set up job alerts as well. Get Coroflot's Design Salary Guide to see how much other professionals in your field are earning. Use that information to negotiate a better salary at your next job.

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Psst. I'll let you in on a little secret. Thanks to my Coroflot profile, I once landed an interesting role as a UI designer for a fast-growing startup.

Carbonmade

Unlike the three platforms listed above, Carbonmade does not have much of a "social" approach. But with around 900,000 beautiful portfolios (and counting!) it's quite popular in the creative arena and is worth being a part of. You might even get lucky and find your portfolio featured in The Talent Pool section.

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Carbonmade is my favorite on this list. It has a clean, easy-to-navigate UI and a flexible, yet restrained, feature set. The interface is so colorful and fun, I had to stop myself from adding screenshots of every other screen here.

You can choose from a handful of pleasing themes, fiddle with the design, and add a bio as well as a contact form. Want a simple blog to go with your portfolio? Not a problem. The site editor makes it easy to add one. Upgrade to one of the three paid plans available to get more projects, add a custom url, remove Carbonmade branding, etc.

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If you're not looking to take on a job or a project right away, turn off the availability indicator from the Contact section in the sidebar.

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Krop

Krop leads with the job listings on its home page. It highlights the latest jobs on its radar and the companies that use Krop to find the right talent. I even spotted big names like Disney, Viacom, and About.com in the Featured Employers section.

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You can use Krop to build your portfolio website. The free plan is quite basic, allowing you to put up only a resume and a couple of images. With the PRO account, you get unlimited access to all features.

If you already have a portfolio website hosted elsewhere, I'd suggest you skip Krop's portfolio service and use its job board only. You don't need to sign up to apply for jobs listed on Krop. You can even get job alerts by sharing your email address.

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Show Off Your Best Work

Write a blog or a guest post, share a freebie on a popular website, do pro bono work – there is a lot you can do to show off your work and increase your odds of getting nice gigs. The least you must do is to put up a portfolio website and join a network for creatives.

Are you part of any online community like the ones listed above? Has it helped with your job search? What advice would you give to someone who's new to the whole scene? Share your experiences in the comments.

Image Credits: Business resume via Shutterstock