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Creating a personal brand: How to sell yourself as a developer

Lucas Lima do Nascimento on August 06, 2024

Everything changes so fast these days that, standing out as a developer is more important than ever. As much as your technical skills matter, in th...
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Aidan

Took away some great points especially around networking and building connections.

Not sure about the contributing to OSS, personally I work 5 days a week full-stack devin, evenings I like to spend with the wife and family and any spare time I get I usually invest into side projects/learning.

I guess I could learn by getting hands on with OSS but then I'd feel like I wasn't making the best qualtiy contributions... If only there were more hours in the day šŸ˜‚
Thanks for taking the time to write this artical! Deffo helpful šŸ’–

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Lucas Lima do Nascimento

Hey @aidanldev! Thanks a lot for the comment!

Contributing to OSS is a great cause and sincerely, don't even worry about the quality of your contributions. If it's not in accordance, the owners of the project will point it out!

BTW, so glad to hear that you actually have a healthy routine in terms of spending time with the ones you care about! Never give up on that ;D

Happy that you enjoyed it and keep pushing it! šŸš€

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Derek Murawsky

Using a gif with a team where most of them died... maybe not the best for your conclusion... :-D
Otherwise, some great points.
One thing to consider when picking out your branding and theme: readability. I find the orange font on black very tough on the eyes. I get that you're going for a style, but keeping in mind your goal with networking and your target audience is very important.

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Lucas Lima do Nascimento

LOL, the idea was just to highlight how every member has some really distinct and remarkable characteristic -- but you know how it goes, the unfortunate fate of cyberpunk heroes, maybe it wasn't the best choice indeed hahahahaha

In terms of readability, I fully agree with you -- it's a really important aspect to think about when designing, even if we're going with a particular style! This particular color choice was chosen mostly because of the style, but it was also selected to create a high contrast between the background and the typography, for accessibility reasons.

Contrast

That doesn't mean that you're wrong, though! Maybe I went too far in terms of contrast!
I'll try a few different color palettes and font combinations that could achieve the desired points in terms of accessibility, but also are not that hard on the eyes! Thanks a lot for the tip, @derekmurawsky!

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Khusiima Luke Masaba

Great way to spoil the anime :(

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derekmurawsky profile image
Derek Murawsky

It's been out for almost two years... All bets are off. I haven't even seen it and I know that's the case. šŸ˜†

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peter-fencer profile image
Peter Vivo • Edited

I miss your portfolio site, but your expression is fresh and fine!
Image description

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Lucas Lima do Nascimento • Edited

WHOOPS, it was just a hiccup from the servers! Check it again, plss!

And thanks a lot for the compliments @peter-fencer!

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Peter Vivo

same result

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llxd profile image
Lucas Lima do Nascimento

Hmmm, that's weird @peter-fencer. It seems to work correctly on my end.

If you'd be so kind, could you try this other URL instead?

Thanks!!

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peter-fencer profile image
Peter Vivo

This URL are working fine!

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collinzo2022 profile image
Efuetanu Collins

I like the fact that you emphasize on networking and selling out yourself, l have taken notes. Imposter syndrome has kept out of showcasing my skills. I appreciate and l think l would post my project more often

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Lucas Lima do Nascimento

Great comment, @collinzo2022! Don't let Imposter Syndrome hold you back (and even seek psychological help as I have to help with that) as show yourself and your creations to the world.

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Chandra Panta Chhetri

Thank you for your insights. I see you love RPG games, what are your top favorites. I myself love any pixel art games.

Leaving that aside, what are some platforms you recommend for developers to reach a wider audience? By platforms I mean those similar to Dev.to

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Lucas Lima do Nascimento

Hey @chandra_pantachhetri! Thanks for your comment ;)

Yesss, I do love RPG games hahaha, I think my top favorites certainly include: Baldur's Gate 3, Skyrim, The Witcher 3, and Diablo 3 for the more recent games, and maybe Ragnarok Online, Zelda, and Titan Quest for the more old ones!

Hmmm, for the other topic, in terms of platforms, I mostly use dev.to and LinkedIn and it's been doing well so far. There are other known platforms too, like X, Medium and daily.dev, for example, but, for me, those first two are the ones I use the most and they're working great so far!

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Neeraj M R

I have interest in open-source contribution , but donā€™t know where to start.

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Lucas Lima do Nascimento

I've created a guide for that too, @neerajram30! Feel free to check it out

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Neeraj M R

Thanks for sharing this guide Lucas.

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tan sven

Performance for frontendai vs the likes of v0.dev?

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Lucas Lima do Nascimento

Great doubt! Hey @m4rcxs and @heyjmac, do we have a straight comparison between both of them? If we don't, I think it would be awesome to create one!

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nipundinuranga

interested

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Lucas Lima do Nascimento

Glad the topic was interesting for you, @nipundinuranga !

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Jotty John

Worth reading!

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Lucas Lima do Nascimento

Glad that you liked it @jottyjohn!

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Md Shoriful Islam Ashiq

Good points

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kocreative profile image
Kat

Always love to see branding talked about over here. Some great points, I 100% agree consistency is key, no matter what field you're in. A great read!

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Lucas Lima do Nascimento

I always like to emphasize how consistency can really make a brand exist, it's truly one of the most important concepts!

Thanks a lot for the comment, @kocreative!

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Tanaka Chindakuda

Thank you frontendai, l love to hear your story, it motivated me here in Zimbabwe as a software developer specializing in ussd programming and Chatbot development thank you a lot.

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Lucas Lima do Nascimento

Thanks for the comment @tanaka_chindakuda_2b2c903! Glad to see the article motivated you! Keep pushing! šŸš€

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BowTiedOffSec

This is gold for us just getting going here, thanks for this! I am working on a WordPress portfolio/blog, and by working on...I mean struggling with lol, so the timing on this is great!

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Lucas Lima do Nascimento

Hey! Thanks a lot for the compliments, @bowtiedoffsec!

Hope that the article was useful to get you around that struggle! Keep pushing and it'll work out šŸš€

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BowTiedOffSec

Thanks for the kind words! Will do!

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meer profile image
Meer

Loved it!
Thanks for writing such a great article.

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Lucas Lima do Nascimento

So great to hear that, @meer!
You're more than welcome šŸš€

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Laura de Oliveira

I think it's an adaptable process, but I believe these main steps are unclear to everyone. Thanks for sharing your ideas!

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Lucas Lima do Nascimento

100% @l4ur4oliveira! Adaptation is a true central piece of it all! Glad you enjoyed it -- and always happy to see another šŸ‡§šŸ‡· here šŸš€

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manse99 profile image
GC

How can a beginner developer maximize some of your points. Any tips for what to showcase i.e. portfolio or recent projects? Good piece šŸ’Ŗ

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Lucas Lima do Nascimento

Great doubt, @manse99. There are a few schools of thought in terms of what you should display in your portfolio. My personal take in this is that, you should showcase all your work -- specially if it is correctly placed/not overwhelming and you should sort the content based on most recent and most relevant!

This basically means that, showcase the things you are proud of and the ones that can show your skills better!

Thanks for your comment!

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Owen Singh

Thanks choom

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Lucas Lima do Nascimento

You're welcome, choom @owensingh!

Chooms

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itsjp profile image
Jaydeep Pipaliya

can i get your portfolio link it seems interesting from GIF!

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Lucas Lima do Nascimento • Edited

OMG, super nice catch! Let me add it to the article (but here's a quick link for it!)

Thanks a lot for the feedback @itsjp

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Sambhav Rana

Sounds Cool

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Lucas Lima do Nascimento

Glad you found it cool, @sambhavnrana! Thanks for the comment šŸš€

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Nina Spio Quansah

Thank you for sharing this

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Lucas Lima do Nascimento

You're totally welcome, @nina_spioquansah_7af4db6! Glad you enjoyed it :D

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Marcos Silva

nice topic, thank you for the tips!

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Lucas Lima do Nascimento

You're more than welcome, @m4rcxs! Thanks for the comment šŸš€

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Sandesh Upadhyay

Thanks for this valuable information

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Lucas Lima do Nascimento

You're totally welcome, @sandeshupadhyay! Thanks for your comment ;)

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angel preya

hmm good idea

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kc900201 profile image
KC

A very detailed post, with each points are well explained. A bit lengthy it appreciate the effort

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Lucas Lima do Nascimento

Thanks a lot @kc900201! I usually try to avoid lengthy articles to make them more digestible, but this one was kind of hard hahahah!

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Matamando Muriya

Thank You Lucas this is so helpful

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Lucas Lima do Nascimento

Thanks a lot @mrmatamando265! Glad the content helped you! šŸš€

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Bashir Aliyu

Thank you for this powerful thought. I will stick to these suggestions as much as possible.

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Lucas Lima do Nascimento

So glad that I could be helpful @bashir_aliyu_66de09cc403d! Thanks a lot for the comment ;)

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shamimshakir • Edited

This was really helpful for me. Thanks for sharing your ideas! I have a question, though. How good is a career as a tech blog writer? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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Lucas Lima do Nascimento

Damn, awesome idea @shamimshakir! I'll add that to my list of future draft articles hahahah

But, just a peek, I'm at the beginning of a transition here, I still work daily as a developer, but I'm slightly changing to writing more as time passes. In terms of how good it is, I'm really enjoying it -- writing is an interesting way to share the feelings and opinions I have in software engineering (and it's a great way to share those things with companies worldwide, which is a great aspect of it as well!)

I'd love to talk about how I actually create my articles and the usual process of going from draft to release, but, I think this would take a rather long space for a comment, so I'll leave this to the article itself.

Thanks for the comment and the awesome idea @shamimshakir!

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Asif-shah786

SWOT, I really liked this idea .

In todays world of IT hype and thousands of developers , adding personal touch to the things can only happen by knowing SWOT.

You realised me the importance of personal branding that must be in placed for success and yeah as you said new connections always great ā€¦

Highly valuable article, Kudooss!!

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Ajmal Leonard

Hey, I really enjoyed this article.
I have been working as a full-stack developer for almost three years, concentrating on building without branding myself. This is painful because opportunities now go to people who have a lot of trust in the market, and I am trying really hard to adjust in difficult ways, which is terrible because and I realize branding is a different experience from the value you have.
I just appreciate your time writing this for us...