I am in my last semester of university and am hoping to get a job or internship that leads to a job by May 2021 (when I graduate). I have been sending out the website I attached below, and a polished resume that I tailored towards strictly web development. What I need advice on is:
Do the projects on my portfolio stand out as “job ready”, if not what projects could I add?
Should I tweak the design of the website or add more “bells and whistles” or is it fine for a junior developer position as is?
Also any general advice on interview prep (whiteboard interviews, algorithms to study, etc). My major is not computer science so I am hoping to get a job by going the “self-taught” route, so any feedback is greatly appreciated.
That didn’t happen when I clicked on the pictures but I would still fix that.
I do think that you have to work on your project description. Because right now they don’t really get me excited to click on them.
You have to remember that you only have a limited amount of time to capture someone’s attention before they move onto the next person.
I would also consider moving some of your projects around. I think the fraternity site should be first in my opinion because it is a full stack application.
I also think you should have a link to the pdf copy of your resume.
But, I would also try to maybe add one more full stack project on there if you can.
Alumni center and career services
Since you are in college take advantage of these resources. Even though you are not in the cs department, you can still benefit from network events with people in the industry.
there is one big problem with your site:
You are selling from developer to developer.
But you actually want to sell from developer to HR/recruiter.
You are wasting the first seconds of the recruiter’s attention by showing off your language/libraries/technologies. E.g. you want others to believe that you are production ready in C++, Java, JavaScript, React, Python, Postgres, MySQL. But your Github is mostly HTML and JS.
Add a bit more of yourself and your personality to your about section. For example, you say you’ve been coding since you fell in love with it 5 years ago, tell that story! Why do you love taking the ideas in your head and turning them into work things? Let people get to know you a bit and write an about section that nobody else could write because it contains details unique to you.
This one is going to take some work but will really help your portfolio site stand out. Create a dedicated page for each project going over the following with screenshots of the site:
Brief overview of the project
What the problem being solved was
What the solution implemented was
One specific challenge you had to overcome
What you learned
You want to walk people through why you built that thing and communicate what you learned from it.
Your portfolio site will likely be looked at by HR/recruiters, but other developers also often have a say in the process, so it’s a good idea to link to a live version of your site, link to GitHub, and provide this dedicated description.
Focus on your best projects for this. The goal of your portfolio site is to put your best foot forward and show your best work, not everything you’ve ever done.
Focus on showcasing projects that solved real problems.
Much of what I would’ve said has already been posted. In addition:
Ordering is key on your website. Start with actual work you’ve done. Then the projects. Your Languages/Libraries and Technologies don’t really add anything - only other developers will really know what the icons are, especially when they’re not links. Either make the icons links, or get rid of them.
You have 4 general-purpose programming languages in your listed Languages there. I highly doubt you know all 4 equally well; get rid of the ones that you don’t know moderately well and wouldn’t be able to answer a random interview question about.
“5 years ago” is a highly relative time reference and is always going to change. Put down a year that won’t change instead.
The design of the website could stand to be improved as the aesthetics aren’t very good. I’d suggest paring it down to something simpler, or you can copy a better design from somewhere else.
You’re clearly thinking about other developers too much with the approach and writing on your website. Think more about the perspective of HR/recruiters. HR doesn’t care about technologies, or the fact that something is responsive. When you’re writing about work you’ve done, address the business problem(s) that you solved. Not how you did something technically.
