With that said, to get a web developer job, you’ll need your portfolio to stand out and look good
This is a total myth. You really do not need a portfolio at all. An interesting and active GitHub/GitLab/whatever account is a far better way to gauge someone as a developer. All of the best developers I've hired have not had portfolios. It's also interesting to note that of the candidates I've interviewed who did have a portfolio (by far the minority) - it actually counted against them in more than one case.
I agree with this, and I'm not sure where this emphasis on having a portfolio comes from. Not even a blog is actually needed to land a job in tech (and I say this as an active tech-blogger, need to be honest here 😁).
You make a good point! I will try and find a different way to phrase it.
I believe a well-executed portfolio can help you showcase your projects, tell your story, make you more memorable, create talking points in an interview, and stand out.
Equally, if your portfolio is too scrappy, that can count against you.
As much as a Hiring Manager might try to remove their bias from the situation, it's hard not to hold a candidate's portfolio to the high standard they're going to expect when you contribute to their website.
This was actually the motivation behind this post.
Oftentimes, we're too ambitious with our portfolios and ship something incomplete or otherwise less than ideal. That can bias a Hiring Manager and fundamentally get in the way of what really matters as a web developer, which is your experience, projects, and value proposition.
Yeah, I would have to agree even though I like having a portfolio website I see more value in the projects somebody has on their GitHub. A portfolio is like a portal to your work much like a Linktree.
Web Dev full-stack [LAMP] since 2005, but much heavier on the JS stuff these days.
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I saw once someone arguing that a candidate should have a very active StackOverflow account (aside of its git repos) to being eligible for a job position.
A Freshmen’s year old who is a nerd about coding, tech, computers, and software etc. Love to code, program and help out people and collaborate. Just a dev hanging out while playing a game of life.
Definitely. You web portfolio literally describes your whole coding knowledge in one project. So it’s really important to make it stand out, unique and amazing. I agree with you completely 👍
I agree it's not always necessary to have a portfolio, I've still not built one and it's never been a problem in interviews. I've thought of it as a 'nice to have' though, so I'm curious to know how it counted against some of the candidates you interviewed?
Ah I see, yea that makes sense. I've come across a few portfolio sites where it felt more like an opportunity to try out new tech or ideas, rather than what's appropriate for the portfolio.
How’s it going, I'm a Adam, a Full-Stack Engineer, actively searching for work. I'm all about JavaScript. And Frontend but don't let that fool you - I've also got some serious Backend skills.
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This is a total myth. You really do not need a portfolio at all. An interesting and active GitHub/GitLab/whatever account is a far better way to gauge someone as a developer. All of the best developers I've hired have not had portfolios. It's also interesting to note that of the candidates I've interviewed who did have a portfolio (by far the minority) - it actually counted against them in more than one case.
I agree with this, and I'm not sure where this emphasis on having a portfolio comes from. Not even a blog is actually needed to land a job in tech (and I say this as an active tech-blogger, need to be honest here 😁).
You make a good point! I will try and find a different way to phrase it.
I believe a well-executed portfolio can help you showcase your projects, tell your story, make you more memorable, create talking points in an interview, and stand out.
Equally, if your portfolio is too scrappy, that can count against you.
As much as a Hiring Manager might try to remove their bias from the situation, it's hard not to hold a candidate's portfolio to the high standard they're going to expect when you contribute to their website.
This was actually the motivation behind this post.
Oftentimes, we're too ambitious with our portfolios and ship something incomplete or otherwise less than ideal. That can bias a Hiring Manager and fundamentally get in the way of what really matters as a web developer, which is your experience, projects, and value proposition.
Yeah, I would have to agree even though I like having a portfolio website I see more value in the projects somebody has on their GitHub. A portfolio is like a portal to your work much like a Linktree.
I'll add to that, that the best developers we've hired all had pet projects and love doing this stuff for fun or at least as a hobby.
Yup, this is also often true. Evidence of which can usually be seen in their repos
I completely agree with you.
I saw once someone arguing that a candidate should have a very active StackOverflow account (aside of its git repos) to being eligible for a job position.
A bit extreme IMO, ahah
Definitely. You web portfolio literally describes your whole coding knowledge in one project. So it’s really important to make it stand out, unique and amazing. I agree with you completely 👍
I agree it's not always necessary to have a portfolio, I've still not built one and it's never been a problem in interviews. I've thought of it as a 'nice to have' though, so I'm curious to know how it counted against some of the candidates you interviewed?
Over-engineering, JS errors, failing to work on some browsers, excessive bloat, inappropriate choice of technology... etc.
Ah I see, yea that makes sense. I've come across a few portfolio sites where it felt more like an opportunity to try out new tech or ideas, rather than what's appropriate for the portfolio.
Hey Jon. Interested to hear why it counted against them?
I answered that one already
10 years, 2 GREAT jobs, 0 portfolio
The answer is 12 😏
Maybe chill a little bit.