In need of some motivation

Career Advice
1

I started doing FreeCodeCamp a year ago. I took some classes a couple years ago in college, but I consider a year ago to be the beginning of my journey. Since then, it’s been ruthless attacking this goal that I have to be a web developer. I’ve failed so many times in the last year as a freelancer… so many incomplete projects … I tried to make my own Web Dev business / association with two other developers that bombed. I also want to reiterate that I failed on a lot of projects as well… in hindsight it was because I accepted so many projects at one time because I am really, really headstrong and thought that I could do it all. I could not. I would have accepted one project and succeeded at that.

I’ve failed with Wordpress. I literally hate Wordpress. But found that I love working with Angular. I love it !

In the last year I’ve done pretty well at two hackathons where I won a prize on two different occasions for my designs… tutored some kids on app design. I have an internship with a startup soon but there is literally no guarantee… i worked with a startup last year, and failed.

Every interview I do… there’s another candidate that is better. I came really close last week to getting one having the absolute best coding challenge of all the candidates(visually - its in my portfolio but idk)… but goofed up on the technical interview because I was nervous and admittedly did not to brush up on a few core concepts with particularly vanilla JavaScript.

A lot of times I get shut down by particularly recruiters because I do not have a Bachelor’s.

My Portfolio could be better…
https://portfolio-2018.stackblitz.io

Right now the only thing I am focused on is building up that portfolio. I have a Google All Access clone that I am coding in Angular that I will add to that soon. Looks good to me but I cannot get things to work functionally.

Are there any projects you guys suggest to add to a portfolio? Do you think the FCC projects are sufficient?

This may be a big ole’ pity party. But I think i just kinda need that for a bit

2

Well, don’t give up man. If you’ve won two hackathons, then that’s proof that you have coding talent – you bested the other participants. I think you should emphasize that in your resume.

Also that you’ve been part of a startup that failed. There’s no shame in that. Instead, emphasize what you learned from that failed startup… what stack/framework/etc you guys used. Startups live and die.

And companies can invent some BS X,Y, Z reason why candidate didn’t get hired. Whether it’s true or not. You just move on… until you find the company that wants you. It’s a numbers game. Some folks here have applied to hundreds of companies. You just need (1) YES. Find that YES.

Okay, now to be frank with you…

If you’re selling yourself as a UI/UX/FE developer, you’ll need to step up your game on your portfolio site.

That Work page is just painful to me. https://portfolio-2018.stackblitz.io/work
It’s not good UI/UX. I think you already know why… right?

Some of your portfolio project even goes to a 404 page.

It’s the tiny DETAILS that matter when doing UI/UX and web design. And sometimes, the last 10% is what could take 90% of the effort to make it look 100% perfect.

I think LESS is more, if those fewer portfolio projects are PERFECT!

Instead of adding more, I would go with fine-tooth comb on each of your current portfolio project and just really make it perfect. REALLY PERFECT. Every pixel, every text, proportion, choice of colors, layout, looking perfect on every browser width and on mobile screen.

I think you have the technical chops – but what I see are the lack of attention to small details, and maybe lack of patience? Tell me if I’m wrong. I think these are your weaknesses (from what I can see based on your portfolio) and I think you can improve a lot more in this area. You just need to put the effort into it.

Good luck!

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lack of attention to detail and lack of patience… XD Yeah that’s me. You are completely right about that.

With this new Portfolio (lord knows how many I’ve made), I was really really really REALLY trying to go for the minimalist type of look. In some ways I am not done with it entirely… but like you said, I really need to pay attention to the smaller things. I really needed to hear that because I think really, really big. You are correct in the fact that I could just easily perfect the stuff I already have… meanwhile I am spending most of my time studying RxJS, studying this, studying that. I am not even done entirely with all the projects on this (some of which I dont even have on the portfolio ). I think I really needed someone to point out my lack of patience…

Thank you a lot for your words ! The kind ones, and the critical ones.

4

In addition to what owel said:

Try learning some backend so you can start creating web apps. Even if you really want to stick with Front End, knowing some backend will really show employers your interest and understanding in web development. The FCC projects would be excellent on your portfolio.

As far as job searching, your best bet is to find Meetups in your area and go to them. Introduce yourself to developers, befriend them, and try to get some of them to mentor you. One of them is bound to know someone who is hiring and could give you a referral.

5

I don’t know if you’ll find this motivating or not, but when I wrote this post after my own job hunt it was partially to show campers that the frustration, disappointments, and bullshit are not unique to them or their situation.

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