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Discussion on: Do I NEED a personal website/portfolio?

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Andrew Janke

Sorry if I'm talking out of turn here, or misunderstanding you, but: a minimal site is all that's required, certainly. But having a bit more than that can be a huge advantage, because it lets you take the initiative and set the terms of the conversation in early-to-mid-stage interviews. A lot of interviewers don't have their rubric firmly set, and would be happy to just have you lead the conversation by going through your portfolio and discussing your strengths and giving them some concrete projects to examin, appreciate, and critique. A GitHub profile is not adequate here because it doesn't have the necessary curation and context, beyond pinned repos. And I've found a DEV profile to be useful, but also not adequate here, because it doesn't have a place for a "portfolio" display. (But GitHub and DEV links are definitely pluses.)

I don't mean anything fancy: a basic SquareSpace or Jekyll site with links to a few live projects would be fine. I don't mean running your own custom site (unless you're going for a job as a front-end dev who's going to be doing that in their work role). But I'd suggest viewing a personal site as more like being an online resumé – in a form that's more detailed and live than a copy of your paper resumé – and not just a business card.