Self-thaught developer need advice to start my portfolio

Hi all! I’m starting to create some works to showcase in my first portfolio, and I feel a bit lost on what to include.

I’m on programming for some long time, I have 37 years old, I’ve started to learn on 1998 I think, but as a hobbie, I never looked for an IT job before, I had a family bussiness so I didn’t really had the need of a job on that time, but recently lost that bussiness and now I’m on the finding of a new job, I hope on what I like to do.

So I created a linkedin account but I don’t have too much to show, for example I don’t have any “official” education (didn’t finish high school), and have a lot of knowledge on different programming languages but uncertified. My only certifications until now are for English and the RWD certification from FCC. I can get a few more soon, actually I have done all Javascript lessons, still needing create the projects.

Beside that I need To create a showcase for my work but what I should add to my portfolio? I mean what kind of things? Full websites? components like buttons forms, etc? I’m a bit lost on this. I have more knowledges than what I’ve learned on FCC but I’m not sure how to display all that things:

I’ve learned some PHP on the old time on the phpBB forums (I was a member of the support staff on the official spanish forums), Translated a docen of phpBB mods that today are abandoned. Also aqcuired some experience on Joomla administration, and wordpress theme development. But mostly of these works were for personal use. Mostly were gaming forums/blogs but all these sites aren’t online anymore so I don’t have any proof of my work since 1998 to today.

I’m thinking on creating some website templates for random local bussiness and then make the versions for wordpress, but after that I’m not sure what else to create to add in my portfolio at least to start to send some applications on jobs.

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Hi @raven666 !

I think that that main purpose of a portfolio is to show that you can code and are up for the challenge of a junior dev job.

I would include some projects you built outside of a class.
These can be live sites that you deployed.

I would comb through the Career Advice section of people that post their portfolios and recently got jobs.
I would also search through profiles of recently hired junior devs on linkedin and take a look at their github profiles and portfolios.

I would highly suggest going through Danny Thompson’s youtube series on how to build a good linkedin profile.
He talks with actual hiring managers on what they are looking for.

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Thanks for your advice! I couldn’t see too much on linkedin mostly profiles are “hidden” for non recruiters but I’m digging on portfolios on the career forum and taking a lot of notes from Danny Thompson’s youtube list.

Thanks!

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