Hello All! I’m kind of new here, well, post on the forum at least. Please forgive me if this is in the wrong place.
I’ve been in the tech world since 2002, most desktop support, some server/network support, etc. In 2019 I decided I wanted to get into the web development field.
I graduated last year with a Bachelors in Information Technology - Software engineering with a 3.9 GPA. During those 2 years I had a few development/design classes. I’ve complete several projects through other places besides freeCodeCamp, I’ve applied to many, many entry level remote jobs (small rural town) with many, many “thanks, but no thanks” emails.
I would appreciate some honest feedback from you pros on here. Just so I know I’m on the right path. I know I have a lot of learning to do. I apologize for venting! It is just frustrating at the moment.
Hello @jbharris I just looked your Projects, you really did a good job. I most like the Parallax Demo. maybe because I love colorfull things I also like HTML Email. that looks great.
I’m going to assume you want some critical feedback here, so I’m going to be a little more direct and thorough than normal. Please don’t take this as a personal attack (and I hope it doesn’t come off as one). Also, I’m not sure if you are using this portfolio for prospective employers, but I’m going to assume that you are.
As far as the “feel” of the page goes, I think it might be too informal. “Just a Dude” is fine among your friends but I’m not sure you want to present yourself to potential employers like that. Your three sentence blurb sounds more like you are asking employers for help rather than letting them know how you can help them.
There are several technical issues on your portfolio that I think stand out enough that they might be preventing you from getting job opportunities.
You aren’t using proper semantic HTML. For example, all of the images you can mouse click on are links and should be coded as links (<a>). Right now you just have a generic click handler on each image. That works fine if you use a mouse or a touch screen but doesn’t work at all for people who depend on a keyboard. But I don’t think this is exclusively an accessibility issue. Not using proper HTML for basic functionality like a link can give the appearance that you don’t understand proper HTML in general.
For the hover effect on the images, first I would question why you need JS to do this when CSS is made for this stuff. But even if you could justify using JS here, I would question why you needed to define eight separate “out” functions that do the exact same thing. And I’m probably thinking that the “test” functions can be combined into one and any variable properties can either be passed into the function, or pulled from the element (such as with data attributes). I think the way you have this code structured now gives the appearance that you have a very rudimentary understanding of how functions and callbacks work and how JS interfaces with the DOM.
There is a responsiveness issue with the text that appears on hover. If you narrow the browser to just before it shifts to a two column layout and start hovering over the images you’ll notice that most of the text that pops up is cut-off (it flows underneath the adjacent image). Normally I wouldn’t consider this to be a huge issue, but because this is the centerpiece of your portfolio, I think this has the potential to be very noticeable and thus leave a bad impression about your layout skills.
I don’t have time to go into any depth on your projects, but since first impressions are the most important, I think these issues with your portfolio need to be addressed. I did take a quick peek at your projects and to be honest, they all seem pretty basic, so nothing really stands out. I would reduce the number of projects and then with the remaining ones I would put time into customizing them with more advanced features and styling. And I would consider adding an “application” to your projects list. A web page that does something other than just give you static information.
Again, please don’t take this personally, I’m sure you are a wonderful human being. You mentioned that you aren’t having any luck getting your foot in the door with employers and I’m just trying to provide some reasons why that may be based on your portfolio. I think with your education and experience that you have the potential to demonstrate a lot more than what you have here. Good luck!
This is exactly what I’m looking for! Raw, honest feedback. I’m extremely green at this so no offense taken at all. Thanks for the tips. Back to the drawing board!
I also like HTML Email. that looks great. 