Portfolio hall of fame

I have coded in html, php and css but have no exp in node, ruby, these newer languages.

Wondering how much of a portfolio a person would need to snag a job.

Would love to see portfolios of the people who are featured like Maxim Orlov, Brian Grant or any of the 6000 people who have gotten their first coding jobs without any experience. Obviously their portfolios and their interview must have sold them to the hiring manager.

Has anyone seen any of these portfolios?

Not to be glib, but the amount needed ranges from knowing just html/css/javascript to knowing many languages/libraries/frameworks. With just the minimum, there are going to be very, very, very few jobs and they won’t pay well. As you work your way across the continuum the job possibilities will increase as will your pay.

This is a common question and as frustrating as it is, there really isn’t a good answer. There are too many variables and too many subjectivities. There is no answer as what the minimum you need is.

How good of a portfolio do you need? The best you can get put together. And keep improving it and adding to it to maximize your knowledge and employability. There are people who’ve gotten jobs with no portfolio. There are also guys that have fallen out of airplanes without parachutes and lived - that doesn’t make it a good idea.

Coding is a lifelong learning process. Don’t focus and what you need to get by. Just learn and code. If you keep at it, you’ll get that job eventually. But if your goal is to figure out how little you need to do, then you’re not going to do well. I’m not saying that that’s what you’re doing, but your mindset needs to be 180 from that. Learn and code every day. Absorb new ideas voraciously.

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Thanks for the response!

But I am trying to be cost effective. Ideally it would be great for a person to get a job with the minimum portfolio then build a portfolio on the job.

It just would be nice to see the portfolios of people who have gotten jobs to see what works. i know that 1000s of people have gotten coding jobs from FCC and their names are posted Just would be nice to see what they did.

Yes, that would be ideal. But I don’t know if “what can I get by with” is the best way to bet. I say, learn, learn, learn and code, code, code. That should be the focus.

Sure, build a portfolio and update it. But it’s the content that’s going to get you the job. There isn’t some magic project that’s going to do it. And the way you build good projects is to learn, learn, learn and code, code, code.

Yes it’s worth it to look at other portfolios. There are several posts in this forum along the lines of “I just got my first job”. Take a look at them.

But learn, learn, learn and code, code, code should be your goal. Sure, build a portfolio and keep it updated. Sure, apply for jobs. And if your skills and portfolio keep increasing, eventually it will intersect with market demand. And even then I hope that you’ll continue to learn, learn, learn and code, code, code.

thanks for the advice!

How long did it take you to get a webdev job after you started FCC? Could we see your portfolio that got you the job?

I still think for me the best strategy is to get a job coding at almost any level some new languages. I have done dozens of commercial websites in PHP and HTML but never have done node etc. I think a person can spin their wheels a long time just coding and practicing over and over again and need to get into a situation where they are doing something real.

I think I would hire a person on seeing one website if it was good enough.

I’m still mainly doing a few amateur jobs as a career change, but I know how the world works. I’m working on my portfolio now as I’m finishing my last FCC cert. I’ve spent the last 6 months reading blog posts by experts dealing with exactly these questions. You are not the first person to ask these questions. It’s actually one of the most common questions for beginners.

I still think for me the best strategy is to get a job coding at almost any level some new languages.

Sure, I wasn’t saying to turn down job offers or not to look for them. I was talking about where your focus should be for a long term strategy to maximize the chances of success. I think the best chance for me is marry a rich lingerie model. But that’s not a good “plan”. I’m not saying you can’t get a job. But look at it this way - if you are there to learn that means that you can’t yet 100% do. You want to be hired so someone can pay you to learn? And struggle? And experiment with their web site? It is a tight market, so it does happen sometimes, but I wouldn’t want to bet on it.

I have done dozens of commercial websites in PHP and HTML but never have done node etc.

Then you have a portfolio. Put together a site. I guess I don’t understand the original question then.

…but never have done node etc.

You don’t need node to be a web dev. There are a couple different strategies for backend, and node is one of them. But if you don’t want to do backend just yet, then you don’t need it at all. You can get by with just HTML/CSS/JS. A little PHP can’t hurt.

I think a person can spin their wheels a long time just coding and practicing over and over again and need to get into a situation where they are doing something real.

I wasn’t talking about “just coding and practicing over and over again”, I was talking about learning and coding new things. I’m not saying not to look for work at the same time. You call it “spinning their wheels”, I call it “using that time to make themselves to make themselves better coders and more attractive to employers”. The flip side of “spinning wheels” is “sitting and waiting instead of doing something productive.”

I know you’re not saying to sit and wait for a job, but it’s a matter of focus. Learn, learn, learn. Code every day. And when you finally get a job it will be a better one because of it and you’ll be better prepared.

Look at it another way. You asked, “Wondering how much of a portfolio a person would need to snag a job”. That is the wrong question. First of all, it is a bad question because a few people get jobs with no portfolios - there is no way to answer that question. But ultimately the question is wrong - it should be, “What is the best portfolio I can put together?” It doesn’t matter what someone thinks should be in your portfolio - you either have them or you don’t. The only other issue is design.

I would recommend looking at some people’s sites to get some ideas and then put together a portfolio. Then you can offer it up here for critique/suggestions. Many people do that. When I finish my portfolio site, I plan to do the same.

But I still say the focus should be on filling that portfolio with a steady stream of sites and apps you are creating. The focus shouldn’t be on “what’s the minimum I need.”

I’m also not sure what “I have done dozens of commercial websites in PHP and HTML” means. I assume there is some CSS in there as well? What about JavaScript? What about JQuery, Bootstrap, Flexbox, React, Angular, Vue, etc. What about AJAX?

It used to be that a little PHP and a little HTML could land you a job. Those jobs are now far a few between. Now frontend web dev’s are expected to know a wide range or libraries and frameworks and supporting technologies. Just start looking at job ads on Indeed, SO, etc. That will give you an idea of what you need.

FCC has a good program to get you started with the basics. That’s why it’s here.

Thanks for the ideas. Seems like you have studied this subject intensely.

What do you do now for a living? Have you ever pounded out code as a job?

Decades ago I did some C programming in hitech. Now I’m a jazz guitarist. I’ve done a few web sites over the years and wanted to learn how to do it properly for a nice day job.

A very experienced member made some guides a while back. They are well worth a look:

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I also might suggest searching though past posts. Questions like this have been asked a lot. I suspect the reason there aren’t more answers is because people have gotten tired of answering this question.

I don’t mean that as an insult. I was thinking the same thing when I started. But I soon realized that it was the wrong question based on a flawed assumption.

Best of luck,
Kevin

Please tell me more specifically what is the ‘wrong question’ and ‘flawed assumption’.

I just wish there were more participants with real corporate coding experience here that could answer some of the career oriented questions.

Seems like most here are people from other walks of life trying to become coders and are guessing at answers.

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. They’ve 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 ‘wrong question’ and ‘flawed assumption’.

The question implied by, “Wondering how much of a portfolio a person would need to snag a job.”

The question assumes that there is a lower limit somehow, like “What’s the cheapest I could by a new Tesla for if I got the base model and no extras?”

There is no baseline portfolio level of portfolio. As I tried to explain, it is a sliding scale. On the low end it “no” portfolio, which can get you a job but the odds are slim and the pay won’t 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 aren’t 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, I’m just going off the little you’ve shared) portfolio. It’s like asking, “I have a really weak resume - what suit should I wear to the interview to hide that?” Instead, I would suggest building the resume/portfolio.

Don’t take my word for it. Start doing job searches. If you can find a job that will accept what you’re offering, then jump on it. You must be looking at very different job postings than I am.

With “html, php and css”, you have a lot of competition. There are guys with a list ten times as long trying to find work. And the age where “html, php and css” 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 “html, php and css” you might get a few freelance jobs from people that don’t know better, but that won’t be much.

These threads are always tedious. I don’t want to focus it in on you, but these tend to come across as, “I’m insecure about my experience, but I want to find people that will tell me it’s enough to get a job and I’m not going to like answers that tell me otherwise and I’m going to keep asking until I get the answer I want.”

But maybe you’re 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.

I’m giving the standard advice from these threads in the past, is to build your portfolio. FCC’s 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. I’ve got to get back to finishing up the backend section. You call it “spinning wheels” - I call it working with Node, servers, http requests, Express, Mongo, Mongoose, Passport, Flash, Sessions, the Yelp API, Bootstrap, JQuery, Handlebars. The technologies I’ve 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 don’t seem to get much traction here.

But I’ve said all I want to say. Have a good life.

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To put it in another way, with regards to “a little html and css won’t cut it anymore”, I have guitar students in high school that are learning that as an elective. It’s just not competitive anymore.

My guess is you want to see their portfolio so you can compare/judge them against your own projects? So if your portfolio is better than theirs, surely somebody will hire you faster and offer you more salary?

This is an impossible to question to answer in a forum. Because ultimately, the correct answer lies with the HR person doing the interview and hiring, and each HR person, each company, depending on their location, depending on their line of business, depending on their offered salary, and their urgency and need – the answer to how much of a portfolio you need varies.

Some people got hired with minimum/non-existent work experience while some have impressive portfolio and still took several months and several hundred(s) applications just to get an interview. It all depends on location, the company’s need/requirements, etc.

The thing is, it’s easy to put screenshots of websites and link to websites and tell somebody you designed/developed that… that’s your portfolio, etc. But most employers nowadays look at your GitHub account and make their judgements mostly using that. Some people have gotten interviews and job offers based on their GitHub history and their projects posted on Github. – do you have a Github account? You should start posting your code there now and start building a history.

As for the credibility of my advice, I’m a nobody it’s up to you to take it or leave it. I’m not trying to look for a new job, I’ve been self-employed and running my own web design/development business for the last 17 years. I’ve been spoiled rotten and I don’t want to wake up early, and go work 8 hours a day. I don’t want to look for a day job. I already have a job.

But even I have a need to keep my skills up to date, though I’m not concentrating on nodejs or react. My focus is learning the new .NET Core 2.0, as all my clients are primarily Microsoft-run businesses. – I figure if they can afford Microsoft licenses and software, they’ll have the money to hire and pay me :slight_smile:

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ks, I never said knowing " a little html and css will cut it’. for some reason you are really misinterpreting what I am saying and asking.

My overall point was: " I would like to see the portfolios of people who have gotten jobs to see what is effective’.

I have read here that people got jobs just with the front end cert.

ks, I never said knowing " a little html and css will cut it’. for some reason you are really misinterpreting what I am saying and asking.

I didn’t say you said that. I was using hyperbole to talk about an idea I inferred from your statements. These are common rhetorical devices.

I think it can be inferred from you having a little experience “html, php and css” and thinking your portfolio is where you need to put your attention. There was a time where a person with “html, php and css” could get a job. Now kids learn that in HS as an elective and there is almost nothing you can do with these that can’t be done with free services like Wordpress. I’m not sure why someone would pay you to do something they could do themselves for free. I was looking at job postings last night and I saw adds for internships that wanted more experience.

Just do the program. Learn, learn, and learn. In the process you will get some great portfolio pieces and learn a lot of technologies that are must-haves in the modern coding market.

But I’m repeating myself and this is getting contentious. I’m going to have to put this thread on ignore. Please don’t be offended if I don’t respond as I won’t even see it. If you have anything else, you can message me.

Regards,
Kevin

Kev,

I think you are reading more into what I am saying than what there is there.

I have seen quite a few jobs Wordpress, doing themes and installing plugins and customizing with PHP.

Of course I believe that knowing bootstrap, node.js, react and all of those is a good idea. Seems that you think that I ‘inferred’ that knowing html, css would enough now. I never said that.

Again read my first post. I simply said I would love to see the portfolios of people who have gotten jobs.

Again, I read that people got jobs having NO previous experience and just getting the front end cert which is just CSS, HTML and JS.

My strategy is to try to get a job with the LEAST amount of practicing at home and do my practicing on the job.

Surely being a musician you must have done some ‘paid practices’. And I will not be offended if you do not respond. Please do not take offense but it seems you are not understanding what I am saying. Maybe we are playing in different keys.