How do you go about building portfolios?

After completing a section is it recommended to start immediately on the following portfolio projects, or is it better to skip the projects to learn more and then add newly learned principles to projects from previous sections?

I would suggest just paving forward. You, like most of us, will look back at your older projects and cringe. But most of those are very small, toy apps that are unlikely to land a job anyway. I think it’s better to just keep going forward investing your time in building bigger, more complex apps. Most of the beginning apps here are good learning tools but probably won’t impress many people. Some of the later apps will fare a little better. But I think the apps that you build after the program - fullstack apps the you build from the ground up based on your own ideas, or maybe even in collaboration - those will impress people more. Getting bogged down trying to perfect your weather app is not going to serve you well, I think.

Looking on some of the well-developed projects here I’m already beginning to cringe. Thank you for the kind, suggestion.

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Please don’t let me discourage you - it’s very normal to have crappy first projects. It’s very normal not to realize the scope of what an impressive project is. It’s normal to have a ways to go.

One of the “sins” of web dev education is the popularization of this notion that you can do a few projects and land a job. This takes a while - it’s a marathon not a sprint. Just keep building and learning and learning and building. It’s probably worthwhile to look back over old projects and think about what you would have done differently, but I think what you’re going to learn on your next project is far more useful than gold plating your old projects. Learn what you can from each project and then move on. Once you’ve completed the program and have some full-stack apps, maybe pick one and make it awesome, but then make some new ones of your own design. A hirer will understand that some of your early projects are weak, as long as your most recent projects are strong.

No discouragement here. Sometimes coding can seem overwhelming but it’s a very humbling experience to constantly learn from making mistakes as a rank novice.

After a while the mistakes feel less like mistakes and more like a “compass” pointing in the direction of necessary development required to move forward. It’s strangely rewarding, if a little brutal at times, in a way that’s an interesting challenge. It’ll take a while to learn but as with buildings all foundations need time to be laid sturdy. Thank you, for your input.

Trust me, it’s humbling at every level.

After a while the mistakes feel less like mistakes and more like a “compass” pointing in the direction of necessary development required to move forward

That’s an excellent way to think about it.