Its not going to stop me applying if it isn’t, but if theres anything I specifically need to add I’d appreciate the feedback.
Currently I have 3 of my FreeCodeCamp projects displayed, and when I can finish the first version of my first individual project, it will take the place of the Exercise tracker and bump everything down a position.
I’m using a free template from HTMLup to give it some shine/polish, and linking to repl/codepen as I’m not quite ready to afford hosting.
hi, i just wanna say on my screen(1920px) the projects thumbnails looks unpleasantly big
Yes, I notice the same thing as Sylvant.
In general, I find the UI a little clunky. I get what you are trying to do, but I think that it’s trying too hard. Your transitions work fine if someone points at the “next” arrows, but if they’re scrolling, you get a weird in between state.
I don’t like that it is awkward to get around and or know how to navigate.
I would want a section for skills. You kind of have that with “Technological experience” section. (Watch the leftover lorem ipsom.) But rather than list 6 things with a little description, list 30 things with no description. You don’t need to tell them:
I am fluent in Javascript, as well as html and css. I’m also familiar with node, babel, and webpack
What is “fluent” in JS? Have separate entries for html, css, node, babel, and webpack. Those are different things. Just showing a bunch of techs will be more visually accessible. And since they probably aren’t going to read this text, it makes more sense to get rid of it since it doesn’t really matter.
Think of it like a hiring manager. They have to look at 237 portfolios before lunch. She is going to scan it for keywords. If she can’t find them or has trouble navigating at all, she just moves onto the next 236 portfolios. I would want that skills list to be one of the first things she sees - that is one of the most important things. I would want the projects to be easier to navigate - I shouldn’t have to step through screens to find the next one.
So, is it “ready” in terms of being ready for the job?
No really. You have a few projects, which are just FCC projects. Hirers have seen these same projects over and over. And they can smell tutorial projects from a mile away. The projects that I did that got the most notice were the ones that I built wholly from scratch, based on my idea. True, they may not have been terribly clever ideas, but they were well coded and showed that I could work on my own initiative. Open source or projects that you work on as a group are good too.
Don’t get me wrong - go with what you have. Yes, start applying. You are going to get a lot of rejection no matter what you do. And applying for jobs is good experience and you can see what they are looking for. Go for it, absolutely. But also have realistic expectations. Learn from your rejections and keep building your list of projects. Eventually you’ll catch up to the law of averages and get a job.
Hi @sbrevolution5 !
I agree with everything that has already been said.
Here are my additional thoughts.
“There are certainly some issues with it, the neon colors are a bit bright, and some of the react syntax isn’t the best. But I leave it here as an example of how much I can learn in a short amount of time.”
I don’t think this is a good selling point.
No one writes perfect code but you are going up against those who have taken the time to polish their projects to the best of their abilities.
I would personally fix those issues and remove that line from the description.
“I am fluent in Javascript,”
I appreciate the confidence but if you are fluent in javascript then you should be able to build something more than just class projects IMO.
I think class projects are great when you are first learning the concepts but as mentioned earlier hiring managers have seen these projects to many times before.
“I know Python quite well, and enjoy coding simple things in the language.”
Can we see a project then?
All of your projects have been for javascript. If you are going to mention Python show something you have built with Python.
“Soon to come to this portfolio is a React app designed from the ground”
I am not sure why this is a selling point.
You are competing with other perspective junior developers that have their own projects built from scratch. So I would remove that line if I were you.
“C# is the next language I am learning, although I do not have projects to show off just yet.”
This doesn’t really add anything to the portfolio.
In general, you need to have some original projects that aren’t the same class projects that thousands have done already.
Hope that helps!
@jwilkins.oboe and @kevinSmith Thanks so much for the feedback.
Regarding my non-tutorial projects, I’m getting the first of those done by tomorrow I think. While Its rather niche (it takes data for a dungeons & dragons monster and turns it into an XML file that a tracker app can use ) I think that will be a strong point, as it will be apparent I built it from the ground up (other than some boilerplate from create-react-app).
As far as transitions, I’ll take another look and may end up going with another theme. I do understand that UI needs to be first, or the manager won’t look at my portfolio.
I’ll also swap out the section with details about languages for a more simple list, thats a great idea!
Agree with what’s already been posted. However, ready to apply to…what, exactly? Front-end development positions? Back-end positions?
No offense intended, and certainly don’t mean to discourage you either, but doing a few FCC projects doesn’t exactly make you job-ready. Think of the FCC projects as exercises to get your skill & confidence up. But they won’t exactly get you job-ready.
You need to build original projects, written from the ground up. Try to collaborate with other devs as well, since no one writes code entirely by themselves these days. Host your projects on a platform that fits the purpose, not repl.it, and there are certainly free platforms you can use. For purely front-end you can use surge.sh. For purely back-end you can use Netlify or Heroku, or others.
This mentions what I’d consider most people need to know to be job-ready: How do you know when you are ready to apply to jobs? - #2 by astv99
As for your site in particular:
You’re on a good track, you just need to get further along before I’d say you’re job-ready. And while you can certainly apply to jobs now regardless, I can’t imagine you’ll actually get much in the way of results until you have a variety of completed projects done and displayed on your site that aren’t FCC projects.
The best type of project to build is one that solves a business problem. Build something like an e-commerce shopping cart system complete with user login & logout. Once you have something like that in your portfolio, you are definitely job ready.
Thanks for your feedback, I’ll take a look at your other post as well. I should probably point out that this is far from finished, as I just found out I could host via github last night. The shopping cart idea is great though! That’s likely what I 'll do next. My main problem with building an app from nothing is the idea phase.
As far as what to apply for, I’m trying to find anything, even part time, to start getting paid coding. I’ll certainly remove the stuff about being desprate for a job etc. It makes sense that if I’m applying for the job I’m interested in finding work.
You’ve helped me realize that I need more projects, so I think my next step once I finish the react app I’m working on, is to try and build something new each week without tutorials/ etc.
Is there anywhere you’d recommend that has a list of good projects for a resume? I’m certainly ready to take on the challenge of making stuff, but my main problem is what to make.
I’d recommend focusing on the one large project of an e-commerce shopping cart. Replicate something like Amazon’s. To start with, I’d recommend using something like Firebase to simplify your back-end a LOT so you can start working on the front-end first. Then once you have a functional front-end, you can replace Firebase with a custom back-end.
An e-commerce shopping cart is a large and complicated project. You should expect to take at least a few weeks, if not longer (i.e. months), to properly build one out. And don’t just stop at a point where “it works now, I’m done!”. You’re not done with a project like that until you have a complete testing framework in place (unit & integration testing on every part of it end-to-end) and there are no security issues. That’s why you should do a project like that. It’ll ensure that you’re job ready in every important aspect. Once you can build something like that on your own, I’d start looking at collaborating on other projects with other devs, or contributing to open source.
Sounds great! thanks a ton!
Hey there,
great work so far!
Some things I would change:
Technical Experience : Java, C#. I wouldn’t count watching a 1h YT tutorial as technical experience. Already created some production-ready code in these languages? If not, I wouldn’t hard sell this stuff in this section.This topic was automatically closed 182 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.