The Candidate
That’s you! This is how an employer sees you before they have decided it’s worth their time to remember your name. Until then, you are the Candidate. Equipped with just a resume you are, at most, on equal footing with the other candidates. But you don’t want to be equal. You need to outshine the other candidates. You need to make them feel like letting you slip would be a loss to their company! Do it with a portfolio loaded with awesome demos!
So, how do we do get there?
By now you should have an idea of the technology stack you want to work with. Let’s say you picked Frontend Development and after looking at job listings on Indeed, you’ve mastered HTML, CSS, JavaScript, React & Redux. Next step is to map out some practical projects to show.
Think of the type of company and the type of applications they build. There’s nothing more impressive than showing up to an interview and having in your back pocket, already built, the very thing they are trying to build. If it’s gaming you should have games and if it’s financial tech you should have some applications with a financial focus, and if it’s advertising you should be creating interactive advertising experiences.
Come up with five to ten separate projects that can each be built in under a month. Don’t kill yourself. These don’t have to be packed with functionality but you should focus on showcasing your ability to use the technology in interesting ways. Try to solve a real practical problem with your application. If you can’t think of anything to build, you can recycle an existing app idea but build it in a different way to accomplish a different or better goal.
Using Data Resources
Data is what gives any piece of software tangible value. Looking up open APIs can be a great way to drum up application ideas. Check out this site ProgrammableWeb for their API Directory. You should be able to use these no matter what type of engineering job you’re going for. Everything from desktop applications, websites, mobile apps and especially data science.
If we visit the site, a very simple and common type of API to get started with is a weather API. There’s a very popular one from The Weather Channel. But you can find many framework tutorials that involve building a simple weather app.
The way I play with APIs is to start making calls to them to see what response I get back. However, many services like this API, have an approval process now before you can begin hitting their API. But we can look at the docs and see that they provide a sample response. If you’re focused on data see if you can write an ETL . If you’re into Data Science see what information you can bring to light by analyzing historical data. Are you focused on the server? How could you write a microservice wrapper that cleans up the 3rd party response? And if you’re front-end or mobile developer, how could you display this information in fun an interesting ways?
There are other ways to come up with portfolio ideas but this is just my technique. I look at some information out there and see what I can make of it. If you already have some creative ideas go with it! But having real world data inside your application is always impressive. Once you have five to ten solid demos you’re ready to hit the job market!
Here is a helpful posts with some project ideas. I’m going to go through these myself!
Want to be a top developer? You should build things. Here’s another list to get you started.
Portfolio Website
Having a portfolio website is obvious enough for front-end web developers but what if you’re not? It’s still a good idea to put together a simple website to showcase your work. If front-end is not your strong suit, it’s ok if the site is built in WordPress. Just make sure it communicates effectively your skills.
Site Structure
I don’t like filling my portfolio with a lot of fluff. If you feel the desire to talk about yourself please don’t have that on the homepage. Get right into your demos as quickly as possible.
This is my personal developer portfolio. It’s not the best but it’s simple and gets right to it what employers want to see. There’s a link to download my Resume, link to my LinkedIn Profile and a contact button to email me. I personally need to add my GitHub account with sample projects there.
I definitely need to update this but the Cobbler’s Kids have no Shoes.
Project Details
When the user clicks into each demo, include screen shots, short description with a link to launch the demo. You can also offer a read more or details tab to talk deeper about each project and the technology you used. I need to do that myself.
Demo Links
To keep your projects alive a long as possible, it’s a good idea to self host each demo. Don’t link to the live site. Also cache the data from any 3rd party APIs in a fallback JSON file. That way if they change their terms or schema your demo doesn’t fail. It’s pretty discouraging if it does.
Do you have a portfolio you’re putting together? Feel free to share it in the comments and I don’t mind giving constructive feedback.