I am currently building my first project for my portfolio. It’s a full-stack e-commerce app. I chose this project to challenge myself and so far I have learnt a lot. The app has a backend inventory system to enable the owner of the store to manage inventory like adding product lists, creating purchase orders and verifying the store. I worry that it seems e-commerce projects are cliche and yet I am hoping to use this project to showcase my skillset to land my first dev job.
Any advice and tips on how to make it stand out from the crowd considering the job market is cutthroat at the moment?
In my experience, the content of your personal project is not nearly as important as the passion and level of professionalism that you bring to it. I’m thinking of the most impressive personal project conversation I’ve had in an interview and I can’t remember for the life of me what it was. What I remember is the candidate talking about how she learned about a vulnerability in one of her dependencies and how she chose a replacement. I remembered her excitedly asking “Can I show it to you?” and then pulling up both the live version and her code to show me the parts he worked hardest on.
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If you feel like it’s too cliche then build it anyway for the experience and as a portfolio piece, and then replace it with something better once you have a more original idea.
Employers expect a lot these days. As you gain more experience through your projects and grow your portfolio you’ll end up with more interesting things to catch their attention.