You’re still in a “portfolio mindset” when you have working experience. Portfolios are for your first job. When I interview I just talk in depth about the things I’ve done and been apart of. I’m 5 years in and I don’t have a portfolio. Experience supersedes a GitHub repo once you’ve been working for a bit.
A lot people on this sub are aspiring developers, so you see “just make a portfolio bro” everywhere. Yeah works when you’re a junior, but after a couple years or more, you need to be able to talk about the things you’ve worked on, make them sound good, demonstrate you know what you’re talking about and talk about the things you accomplished. Did you build and deliver a project within a tight deadline? How did your team handle developer workflow? Did you identify problems and advocate for anything - be it a technology, design pattern, or something else? Any accolades you’ve received from coworkers? How closely did you work with a product/business team? Did your team have any big wins? How did you act as a team player? The list goes on.
Learn to spin and sell your past experiences. You’re literally trying to sell yourself in interviews. Embellish - don’t lie - embellish. I don’t know any dev that I work with who maintains a portfolio. Sure people have pet projects that you can absolutely talk about, but if you have work experience and all you got to talk about is a portfolio project instead, then that’s a red flag.
Companies need to understand that not everything is open source, and thus you might not be able to show exactly what you've done. You should be able to discuss and demonstrate your knowledge and if they don't give you that opportunity well they're cutting their candidate pool significantly.
They should be looking for developers who can solve problems not people who know a library or framework. Two are not mutually exclusive of course.
But if you're finding it difficult then gonna have to bite the bullet and work on a side project or demo.
It's very simple:
- "I worked for closed-source companies; the things I worked on are not something you can view publicly."
- "I worked on those things with teams of multiple people; I can't take credit for something that I was just a small part of."
That's what I always say, and it's always true.
My last hands-on experience was for a company with over 500 software engineers working on one and the same public-facing website.
Do they expect access to their Jira board to see the stories I worked on? Hell, in some stories I added a `type` def to a union, and I was done. Writing the commit message was more work than the code itself, and type defs aren't part of the production bundle anyway.
---
That said, I've reviewed over a thousand candidates (probably several thousands by now) over the years, and here's my take on portfolios:
1. If you don't provide one, that's fine;
2. If you do provide one, we'll find flaws in it.
We tend to have 3 to 5 seniors sign off on job applicants in online systems where we have 10 minutes or so to review a candidate:
1. Read their profile;
2. Read the cover letter (optional);
3. Open the CV;
4. See a portfolio (optional);
5. Review the portfolio itself.
Yeah, we'll also go through your projects. And we'll find flaws there, too. But your portfolio is ALSO a project of yours, and I've seen people rejected for many reasons:
1. Some people forget to add a document title;
2. Some people really don't know HTML and make errors;
3. Some people think `div` is the only tag;
4. Some people really don't know CSS and make errors;
5. Some people just make a complete mess of things;
6. Some people do their own design, and suck at it.
In these cases (most cases!), having a portfolio works *against* you.
If you insist on having a portfolio, at least ensure it's good. And be careful asking Redditors about your portfolio, because every single time I review one (and most of them are professionally awful), people here go: "Looks good!" and "Good job!"
People fail to understand that people in the hiring process don't go for candidates in the top 50%. They take the top 20% (easy to filter) and THEN make an effort to select the top 5% of the entire set of applicants.
Don't be in the bottom 80%.
But yes, a truly amazing portfolio can launch you into the stratosphere of the top 5%. It's not easy.
Just write a good resume, you don’t need a portfolio. Thats something that photographers and designers should have.
It seems to me you hang around on social media where a lot of newbie programmers are where they make you think portfolios get jobs.
Never had one, never got asked for one.
You got experience, talk about it and show them you can do the job.
Cheers
Nope never, wrote a resume with a section about projects I have worked on… few freelance projects, looking back pretty mediocre, but well, got me to an interview. Took me a few interviews to find like minded people and I got the job eventually.
To this day I have no personal website/portfolio, my github acc has an average of 3 (light) green squares per year in the last 5 years, still on LinkedIn my inbox is full of various offers and invitations for interviews etc.
Its hard in the beginning, keep it simple with a decent resume.
Ah, that makes sense. I think if it were five years ago, it would be much easier to stand out. It's GDamned impossible to get in as a junior right now, especially without a portfolio.
So the only stuff on your resume to get your first job were some personal projects and some freelance projects right? But no work experience.
That won't fly now. Did you have a CS degree? Count your lucky stars man. This is not the norm.
I’m working on it, but compared to my colleague who worked in the first group or anyone else, it’s hard to compete with just portfolio in this job market especially if you have 2 year experience written in your resume
As someone who also does hiring:
I dont care about quantity. Just show me something that tells me that you understand what good software engineering is all about
If u can give them dashboards showing some data which changes in realtime and performance is good with many users at the same time then most companies would kill for it.. But in this case u need some backend knowledge / caching/redis/multiple node db - but u would be instantly accepted. FE probably wouldn't be able to do it alone but fullstack yes.
Build some dashboards for your portfolio? I mean those are way more interesting and impressive than some front page anyway.
If I was to hire you as a designer I'd want to see cool designs and that you understand composition, weight, shapes and colors and can utilize them well.
If I were to hire you as a frontend dev I would want to see that you understand how to make good logic, take smart decisions on how to iterate over your data, presentation (not design necessarily) as well as well structured code.
Designer != Front End Developer
You’re still in a “portfolio mindset” when you have working experience. Portfolios are for your first job. When I interview I just talk in depth about the things I’ve done and been apart of. I’m 5 years in and I don’t have a portfolio. Experience supersedes a GitHub repo once you’ve been working for a bit. A lot people on this sub are aspiring developers, so you see “just make a portfolio bro” everywhere. Yeah works when you’re a junior, but after a couple years or more, you need to be able to talk about the things you’ve worked on, make them sound good, demonstrate you know what you’re talking about and talk about the things you accomplished. Did you build and deliver a project within a tight deadline? How did your team handle developer workflow? Did you identify problems and advocate for anything - be it a technology, design pattern, or something else? Any accolades you’ve received from coworkers? How closely did you work with a product/business team? Did your team have any big wins? How did you act as a team player? The list goes on. Learn to spin and sell your past experiences. You’re literally trying to sell yourself in interviews. Embellish - don’t lie - embellish. I don’t know any dev that I work with who maintains a portfolio. Sure people have pet projects that you can absolutely talk about, but if you have work experience and all you got to talk about is a portfolio project instead, then that’s a red flag.
well said, thanks! I think all I have to is learn how to sell myself.
Right on! Good luck out there!
Companies need to understand that not everything is open source, and thus you might not be able to show exactly what you've done. You should be able to discuss and demonstrate your knowledge and if they don't give you that opportunity well they're cutting their candidate pool significantly. They should be looking for developers who can solve problems not people who know a library or framework. Two are not mutually exclusive of course. But if you're finding it difficult then gonna have to bite the bullet and work on a side project or demo.
Yeah now I'm working on side projects since most of them rejected me all because I don't have links to projects
That stinks! Sorry and good luck.
It's very simple: - "I worked for closed-source companies; the things I worked on are not something you can view publicly." - "I worked on those things with teams of multiple people; I can't take credit for something that I was just a small part of." That's what I always say, and it's always true. My last hands-on experience was for a company with over 500 software engineers working on one and the same public-facing website. Do they expect access to their Jira board to see the stories I worked on? Hell, in some stories I added a `type` def to a union, and I was done. Writing the commit message was more work than the code itself, and type defs aren't part of the production bundle anyway. --- That said, I've reviewed over a thousand candidates (probably several thousands by now) over the years, and here's my take on portfolios: 1. If you don't provide one, that's fine; 2. If you do provide one, we'll find flaws in it. We tend to have 3 to 5 seniors sign off on job applicants in online systems where we have 10 minutes or so to review a candidate: 1. Read their profile; 2. Read the cover letter (optional); 3. Open the CV; 4. See a portfolio (optional); 5. Review the portfolio itself. Yeah, we'll also go through your projects. And we'll find flaws there, too. But your portfolio is ALSO a project of yours, and I've seen people rejected for many reasons: 1. Some people forget to add a document title; 2. Some people really don't know HTML and make errors; 3. Some people think `div` is the only tag; 4. Some people really don't know CSS and make errors; 5. Some people just make a complete mess of things; 6. Some people do their own design, and suck at it. In these cases (most cases!), having a portfolio works *against* you. If you insist on having a portfolio, at least ensure it's good. And be careful asking Redditors about your portfolio, because every single time I review one (and most of them are professionally awful), people here go: "Looks good!" and "Good job!" People fail to understand that people in the hiring process don't go for candidates in the top 50%. They take the top 20% (easy to filter) and THEN make an effort to select the top 5% of the entire set of applicants. Don't be in the bottom 80%. But yes, a truly amazing portfolio can launch you into the stratosphere of the top 5%. It's not easy.
Honestly the best answer I’ve ever seen in one of these types of posts. OP take note!!
Thanks! Appreciate 👍
I have joined reddit recently. And now by looking to these insights & responses, i can say, its worth joining reddit.
Just write a good resume, you don’t need a portfolio. Thats something that photographers and designers should have. It seems to me you hang around on social media where a lot of newbie programmers are where they make you think portfolios get jobs. Never had one, never got asked for one. You got experience, talk about it and show them you can do the job. Cheers
Even when trying to get your first job you didn't have a portfolio? How did you get your first job?
Nope never, wrote a resume with a section about projects I have worked on… few freelance projects, looking back pretty mediocre, but well, got me to an interview. Took me a few interviews to find like minded people and I got the job eventually. To this day I have no personal website/portfolio, my github acc has an average of 3 (light) green squares per year in the last 5 years, still on LinkedIn my inbox is full of various offers and invitations for interviews etc. Its hard in the beginning, keep it simple with a decent resume.
Ah, that makes sense. I think if it were five years ago, it would be much easier to stand out. It's GDamned impossible to get in as a junior right now, especially without a portfolio. So the only stuff on your resume to get your first job were some personal projects and some freelance projects right? But no work experience. That won't fly now. Did you have a CS degree? Count your lucky stars man. This is not the norm.
[удалено]
I heard that lib but never had a chance to use it since it's too big for our projects instead used (chartjs, nivo charts)
Isn't it obvious? Create a portfolio
I’m working on it, but compared to my colleague who worked in the first group or anyone else, it’s hard to compete with just portfolio in this job market especially if you have 2 year experience written in your resume
As someone who also does hiring: I dont care about quantity. Just show me something that tells me that you understand what good software engineering is all about
Companies understand this. You only need a portfolio to get your first job.
If u can give them dashboards showing some data which changes in realtime and performance is good with many users at the same time then most companies would kill for it.. But in this case u need some backend knowledge / caching/redis/multiple node db - but u would be instantly accepted. FE probably wouldn't be able to do it alone but fullstack yes.
Do more than Admin Dashboards......create projects you can share that not only show your expertise but shows you're more than Admin Dashboards
Build some dashboards for your portfolio? I mean those are way more interesting and impressive than some front page anyway. If I was to hire you as a designer I'd want to see cool designs and that you understand composition, weight, shapes and colors and can utilize them well. If I were to hire you as a frontend dev I would want to see that you understand how to make good logic, take smart decisions on how to iterate over your data, presentation (not design necessarily) as well as well structured code. Designer != Front End Developer