I just wish there were more participants with real corporate coding experience here that could answer some of the career oriented questions.
They are here. Theyâve answered some of those questions. I linked you to a great resource. There are answers in many, many past posts.
Seems like most here are people from other walks of life trying to become coders and are guessing at answers.
I would call it researched and learned from others.
Please tell me more specifically what is the âwrong questionâ and âflawed assumptionâ.
The question implied by, âWondering how much of a portfolio a person would need to snag a job.â
The question assumes that there is a lower limit somehow, like âWhatâs the cheapest I could by a new Tesla for if I got the base model and no extras?â
There is no baseline portfolio level of portfolio. As I tried to explain, it is a sliding scale. On the low end it ânoâ portfolio, which can get you a job but the odds are slim and the pay wonât be good. On the other end is an amazing portfolio showing years of experience in multiple languages/frameworks/libraries and technologies. That portfolio is still not certain of a job but has a much, much greater probability and for much better pay.
I have coded in html, php and css but have no exp in node, ruby, these newer languages.
There arenât many people getting jobs with those skills. JavaScript is conspicuously missing, as are many JS libraries and frameworks that are just assumed that you will know.
I think the flawed assumption is that your energy should be in sprucing up a weak (no offence, Iâm just going off the little youâve shared) portfolio. Itâs like asking, âI have a really weak resume - what suit should I wear to the interview to hide that?â Instead, I would suggest building the resume/portfolio.
Donât take my word for it. Start doing job searches. If you can find a job that will accept what youâre offering, then jump on it. You must be looking at very different job postings than I am.
With âhtml, php and cssâ, you have a lot of competition. There are guys with a list ten times as long trying to find work. And the age where âhtml, php and cssâ was enough to get a web dev job is long gone. Most people can do that themselves. Or if they need something that simple, they can easily build something on Wordpress. With âhtml, php and cssâ you might get a few freelance jobs from people that donât know better, but that wonât be much.
These threads are always tedious. I donât want to focus it in on you, but these tend to come across as, âIâm insecure about my experience, but I want to find people that will tell me itâs enough to get a job and Iâm not going to like answers that tell me otherwise and Iâm going to keep asking until I get the answer I want.â
But maybe youâre right. Maybe there is some magical, hidden treasure trove of great jobs out there for people with a minimal level of skills that have been made practically obsolete by automatic web page generators. Maybe they open up to you if you have the perfectly formatted portfolio.
Iâm giving the standard advice from these threads in the past, is to build your portfolio. FCCâs coursework will leave you with a couple dozen projects and an experience with many libraries and technologies. That seems like a better idea than worrying about how to make your portfolio seem better - make it better.
Let us know if you find a job. Iâve got to get back to finishing up the backend section. You call it âspinning wheelsâ - I call it working with Node, servers, http requests, Express, Mongo, Mongoose, Passport, Flash, Sessions, the Yelp API, Bootstrap, JQuery, Handlebars. The technologies Iâve gotten to work with over the course of this program are too many to list. This strategy works better for me.
If you want, put together a portfolio site and post it for people to see. People have done that in the past. It will get you much better feedback. Vague questions donât seem to get much traction here.
But Iâve said all I want to say. Have a good life.