Help out fellow freeCodeCamper with his Portfolio, CV, LinkedIn. "job hunt" thing is ugh, so far

Career Advice
#1

Hello there my fellow freeCodeCampers!
How it’s going for ya?

TL/DR: Please tell me what would you change from links(CV, Portfolio, LinkedIn) below.

But to get to the case… 2 weeks in job applying, one job a day, sometimes when i feel lazy i send just CV without cover letter to a senior position (yeah, just to fill my own quota…).
But the jobs i like i do try to write unique, personal message, and their are so, tho they are usually not very professional, but that’s probably one thing i gotta conform and just write out regular CL/message and see how it is going to go like that.

So, from like 15 applications i got just one answer (“we found someone”)
In my country (Serbia), there isn’t whole a lot of jobs that doesn’t require 5 years of space exploration, it seems like 75% positions are looking for senior/someone with 4-5+ years of experience. So, “shoot at everything and eventually you gonna hit something” probably not gonna work, since not that big country = not that many reasonable junorish jobs.

So, there i am “once again asking for your… um… experienced support”.

Should I just ditch my current portfolio and make new one, regular smooth scroll, no pages feel portfolio, i feel like it is better/easier for HR to just skim thru, and just yeah, better option?
There is my current PORTFOLIO: https://ilija03.tk/
And until new portfolio i am just going to ditch Home section, i mean home is going to be About screen, since there isn’t anything there, just waste of click.

And there is my CV: https://drive.google.com/file/d/16vjkVhoFuoXXgGUEeyIato5I1Wm5CpwL/view
Would you change anything there, should i make “more colorful” one? (not with percentages and stuff) but you know, just a bit less, hm boring? Do i need new CV and what would you suggest me?

My LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilija-savic-03/ … I recently started connecting with peeps, and did few updates there. Would you do anything else with? Expect my profile picture…

I am aware that, I need one bigger project, i am working on one (https://github.com/Archaeologist03/expressing-space-api), planning to go react-native with this API, but it will take some time, until then, do i have any good/solid chance of getting jobs with stuff i linked?

At the end… How should i go about all this? Should I maybe expand (tech wise) there are quite some PHP jobs, i watched freecodecamp PHP fundamentals and those fundamental building blocks seems very much so like JS, should i maybe dive into Laravel?
I would prefer to work with JavaScript, but yeah, i get it, i need to have some experience to “prefer” stuff.
What would you, dear reader, do, in my situation?

#2

Sorry, I don’t have time to go in depth here, but I will refer to a doc I wrote up about job hunting.

#3

OK, I have a little time. Prepare yourself for heavy criticism. It’s not you, it’s me.

Portfolio

It looks like a late 80s video game and a pack of bubble gum machine had a baby. I might try to do something more tasteful. And (granted, I’m old fashioned), I find all the spinning logos, etc. I find it distracting. They know you know how to do hover events.

Can I click on any of those apps? Can I see the git repo for the code?

The About section, I find the colors nauseous. I’d want more information about you. Where do you live? What is your experience, training? This should almost be your resume. How about a link to download a pdf of your resume? Oh, IC, there it is. I’m not sure I would have figured that out. Especially as a recruiter spending 10 seconds on your site.

CV

OK, I see some of the information I was missing before on the site.

All in all, the organization I like.

I think the Summary is a little too personal. I don’t know, “… who likes to think …” sounds wishy-washy. I wouldn’t say my age. This almost sounds like a dating profile. I would use this section to say what kind of position you are looking for in a position, in terms of level and tech. If you were in an elevator with Musk/Gates/Zuckerberg and had 10 seconds to tell him what kind of position you thought would be ideal for you, what would you say? No BSing, no fluff.

I think you have too many fonts and text sizes and styling. Pick one font for titles, one for text. Have only three font sizes: one for titles, one for subtitles, and one text. There are sites that help you pair fonts. There might be a few more sizes for your name and job title, but keep it simple.

Loose the underlines on subtitles - they look cheesy.

I don’t like the triangle bullets. I’ve seen those on 1000 documents. It’s like someone said, “I’ll impress them by picking a cool bullet”. I’d rather something either truly original, or better yet, something simple. I would use the same for bullets for the right column.

And I’d loose “ES6+” - everybody does that. Experienced developers don’t say they do ES6+ - they just say JavaScript. Same with the HTML and CSS. They know Jest is unit testing. “npm” starts with a lowercase.

I do like that you kept everything on one page. If you make a printable copy, be sure to get rid of the links.

I don’t have any issues with your linkedIn - just keep building it.

Sorry if some of this comes off as harsh - I’m just typing quickly.

3 Likes
#4

First of all thank you very much for very constructive criticism, i appreciate it! :slight_smile:

Hahahahaha, then i did great job with portfolio :)… just kidd, i know, I guess I just needed someone to tell me that, i am going to start working on new portfolio, one more polished/tasteful, with scroll and all that.
And i get whole git(no links) thing. those little spinning animations of github logo are links to github and other one is for live site. But i get that HR probably wouldn’t bother to figure it out. So in new one i am just gonna write it out as text.
Same for about, now that you said that you couldn’t figure immediately where resume and mail thing were, that pretty bad, definitely going with Text in my new portfolio, and actually fallow some well designed website/portfolio and mimic choice of colors.

Btw, should i put those information from CV to my about section as well, like summary and experience?

I did some quick fixes for CV, there it is: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10_tzORS4C-YtikscwjfOOeWjkzHwWf9_/view
It doesn’t look much different though, should I remove underlines from skills as well?
Also i figured i have to tailor it for certain position, so depends on that i will be changing position name and summary i guess?
Is is generally fine? Or should i get one from some of those CV builders/templates?

No problems, it wasn’t harsh, it was just constructive criticism, and thank you very much for that, and for taking time for this.

#5

Btw, should i put those information from CV to my about section as well, like summary and experience?

I don’t think it should be exactly your resume, but some of those kinds of things, yes. Look at it from a recruiters perspective - they have hundreds of CVs and portfolio sites to look at. Any of them that are the least bit counter-intuitive, they just ignore.

At first glance, the CV looks better to me. A few thoughts…

First of all, the summary is a bunch of incomplete sentences. I would do something more personal and direct. This is you speaking directly to the recruiter.

I am a JavaScript developer with 2 years experience building web sites and application. I am looking for a junior-mid level developer position. I work primarily with the React/Node/Express stack but enjoy learning new technologies.

Maybe a little more, but that’s the idea. You have 10 seconds to tell them who you are, a brief idea of what you do, and what you are looking for.

Is there an easier to read format for your phone number, like: +381 65 502 30 24?

For all your contact data, I would consider putting it so the center line of the data lines up, right? So the labels are right justified and the data are all left justified, within there respective cells (assuming you use a table). The colons would line up, I think it would look better.

I might also include your location. If you’re currently in Serbia, I would list that list that so they know what they’re getting into. You can put “willing to relocate” under it or something. If you already are in the US and are legal to work, I would definitely include that. (Assuming you’re applying in the US.) But it’s a touchy subject.

When you list out your links in the experience section:

Code: Front-end code | Back-end code | Live: Live site

You don’t need to say to label “Code: Front-end code” (Bond, James Bond). It’s redundant. I’d just do:

Front-end code | Back-end code | Live site

They can figure it out.

I’m still not sure why the techs are underlined. To me, underlining looks cheesy. The only thing that should be underlined are actual links, but you should de-hyperlink them for your print version. I think you need several versions of your CV - pdf with hyperlinks, pdf without hyperlinks, word, and pure text. Different places will want different formats.

Those are just my thoughts anyway.

1 Like
#7

As far as design for your site, try looking around at other sites. Google “award winning web site designs.” Look at other developers’ sites. Look at portfolio sites for artists and musicians. See what works and what doesn’t.

1 Like
#8

Hi, sorry for a bit late response and thank you for another insightful answer.

I had one phone interview, i wasn’t very good at it(extremely nervous…i dont know how i am going be at on site interview if i get there…), and was told that they need someone who can work independently on this project. But he told me they might “find” me a position for some in-house project, and they will contact me next week to set up time for on site interview, not sure if technical or with HR, or both. I don’t know if that was just way to get out of interview without saying “ok, but, no. bye” but HR guy was pleasant, despite me being very nervous and all, so i am even good if that is the case, at least some experience for another one.

But he mentioned that they loved my github and he(HR) liked very much my portfolio.
So now i am really conflicted if i should re-do it or not? I get it that more normal/professional portfolio would probably please more people, but yeah…

First of all, the summary is a bunch of incomplete sentences. I would do something more personal and direct. This is you speaking directly to the recruiter.

I thought using “I” in portfolio was a no-no? As well as being too personal? I would prefer to write more personal CV, as i do with motivational letters.
And I agree with you, that very much make sense!

It is, my previous number was formatted like that, but then i saw that most of other CVs from my country had this format, so i thought maybe it is easier for recruiter to just copy number if looking at CV from phone, so i went with that?

I am only looking for jobs in Serbia for now, and on majority of CV reviews in all sort of IT groups from Serbia people were suggesting to those who asks for review of CV to just not put age, location or picture. Also i kinda don’t have space for it.

You don’t need to say to label “Code: Front-end code” (Bond, James Bond). It’s redundant. I’d just do:

Hahahahaha yeah, it definitely is, i don’t know what i was thinking… i am going to change that.
And underlines, I was thinking, to kinda draw attention to skills/tech stuff, since they just skim thru CV, and probably care most about tech you do, and projects? That was a reason for that. But i feel the same that it would look a bit better without underlines, so gonna fix that up.

As far as design for your site, try looking around at other sites. Google “award winning web site designs.” Look at other developers’ sites. Look at portfolio sites for artists and musicians. See what works and what doesn’t.

I did some research, there are some really nice looking polished sites, currently i am kinda focusing on this interview and that stuff, but after that i might start new portfolio site and research a bit more.

Thank you very much for very insightful stuff!!!

#9

I had one phone interview, i wasn’t very good at it(extremely nervous

Yup. It’s a skill like any other, and the more you do it, the easier it gets and the better you do. As I may have mentioned somewhere, practice. Get together with friends and practice interviewing each other.

I don’t know if that was just way to get out of interview without saying “ok, but, no. bye”

Probably not. These guys do a lot of interviews and I’m sure their fine with saying, “I don’t think you’re a good fit here.” He was probably sincere. You may never hear from him again, but there’s also a chance he may call you if there is some position that fits your need. A lot of jobs come from “connections”.

he(HR) liked very much my portfolio. So now i am really conflicted if i should re-do it or not? I get it that more normal/professional portfolio would probably please more people, but yeah…

Maybe I’m wrong. That’s just my take. I am somewhat conservative in my tastes. When I look at your portfolio, it looks like something designed by a kid. (And for full disclosure, I am terrible at design.) That doesn’t mean that a tasteful site must be boring. Google “award winning web site designs” or “best web site designs” and see what they do. You said the HR guy was impressed - perhaps he was dazzled by spinning logos. I suspect the developers rolled their eyes. But maybe I’m wrong. I suppose you could defend the overall design - I just found garish. But maybe I’m wrong. Ask around get some different opinions. Be sure to get some experienced developers in there.

I thought using “I” in portfolio was a no-no?

I think the description/summary is a little bit different. This is a direct appeal to the reader and I think prose is proper. If you don’t want complete sentences, then I guess some kind of bullets would be better. But keep in mind that different countries have different ideas about these kinds of things.

It is, my previous number was formatted like that, but then i saw that most of other CVs from my country had this format,

If that is the standard then do it that way. But I think it is difficult to read. I would rather make it readable, in whatever is an acceptable format.

…groups from Serbia people were suggesting to those who asks for review of CV to just not put age, location or picture.

Well, if that is the standard there, then go with that. Maybe it matters more in a larger country like the US.

And underlines, I was thinking, to kinda draw attention to skills/tech stuff, since they just skim thru CV…

Again, it’s a matter of taste. Underlining was originally (at least in typing) done to replace italics, for emphasis. There isn’t much use for it nowadays. To put it more simply, underlining was the low tech version of italics. As a former proofreader and editor, I always discouraged it as it looks outdated. I think those already stand out because of their placement.

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#10

I’ll start with:

  • Don’t ask americans for european job search advice unless you’re ready to filter out all the cultural differences. Much of the advice you’ll get will be geared toward US culture.
    When I was in Manila I got a lot of questions about improving CVs. Everything I told them to take out were actually mandatory requirements.

About your site:

  • I like the art so I’m conflicted about saying to do it awwwards.com style.

  • The cursor has an annoying offset. It’s negligible on small cursors but I use a large cursor and it’s huge. Difficult to highlight a word to check your spelling with the context menu.

  • Remove the (SCSS) from CSS3 and add “SASS (SCSS)” to your skills.

  • I understand the envelope icon but not the scroll icon had to check the status bar since there was no tool tip.

  • A custom tool tip matching the style of the custom cursor might be nice. Put it above or to the left of the cursor (large cursors expand down and to the right covering standard tooltips).

  • <culture type="US"> Don’t tell me that you’d like ( or love ) to learn python, flutter, etc. Say “I’m learning python next” like you’re a self-starter with a plan.</culture>

In your portfolio:

  • Each card has two states. Due to low color contrast I can’t make out some icons in one of the two states. The blue globe is the only one I see clearly in both states. So be mindful of the colors or maybe put an opacity layer between the image and the icons to help perception.

  • I like the cursor finger flick.

  • My expectation is to be able to click anywhere on the image and go to the hosted version of the app. For the above reasons concerning icons and tool tips it was harder than it had to be.

  • <job_market type="US">If the website, html email, or app in your portfolio is polished so it looks like something they could sell their customers you can generally skip white board programming and algorithm solving. It’ll lead them to think that they don’t have to train you and that you will be productive sooner. Course final projects in a portfolio are generally too simplistic to get you a job (but they do teach you programming concepts). So make sure an app solves a business problem. Companies aren’t hiring for javascript calculators and todo apps.</job_market>

I’d agree with learning PHP and Laravel. There are more PHP jobs than hot new framework jobs. The newer technology jobs tend to center around large tech hubs. PHP jobs are more geographically spread out.
( Did I say there are more of them )
Over all, I do like your site!

1 Like
#11

Yeah, I know that it is, and that i probably gotta suffer thru first few interviews to get a hold of it. Little a lot of getting out of comfort zone and hopefully not looking like completely full while doing is, and I’m good with it. :slight_smile:

I am going to do that, i am just trying to finish at least partly a bit bigger project than my previous ones before I ask some other people on their take on it. Tho thank you very much for pointing things you didn’t like on it, and for constructive take on it.

I meant to say on CV not portfolio.
I will ask people in Serbia about that and best practices around here. Btw I totally agree that it should have personal note, but you know… I don’t really know what hiring people expecting…

Yeah, i will go without underlines, it looks more readable and polished, sort of. I guess if someone cares to check “my skills” it isn’t that hard to spot “TECHNICAL SKILLS” even without underlines. :slight_smile:

Thank you very much for you help!!! I appreciate it.

#12

Isn’t that kinda strange thing. It is to me. But I guess you’re right, even though, most of the “general cv stuff” from FCC CV reviews i saw are pretty similar or same as I saw people getting in Serbia, like pic is not mandatory, nor age… etc.

Oh thank you very much! I might keep it at the end…

It’s been told to me that it is too big, I will resize it a bit and try to fix offset, by doing little rotation with it.

That’s very good idea! I am definitely going to do that.

Another good catch, US or not it makes a lot of sense, i will need to change that on all of them, linkedin, cv and portfolio…

Yeah, i see that, some of them are really hard to spot, especially with some one pics there, i will probably have to go with opacity overlay, since icons colors, expect clickable ones are colors of what tech they’re representing (node - green)

Definitely, I thought about that myself, it is what people expect generally.

Oh, I am definitely going for app when i am checking some code!.. Ha… that’s a extremely good tip there!

I know, I’m doing this social-ish media, a bit bigger (biggest for me, so far) project. Probably not what most companies doing here, and i should’ve went with e-com or something like that, but yeah, i was much more into doing this.

Currently I am on pause with PHP and Laravel, since i might get this React interview, i am more focused on that, also i had tough times installing damn Laravel! :slight_smile:
But I agree, especially here, probably most used language along JavaScript, ofc.

Thank you very much for taking time to for this, these tips are subtly extremely good! I saved them in my notes, some are a must do! Thank you very much!!!

#13

For next time or all who read this thread:
https://github.com/thedevdojo/larasail
To smoothly sail the digital ocean set-up.
It’s for digital ocean but maybe there’s info to be gleaned in the source for setting up laravel.