ORGANISED PORTFOLIO IS THE NEXT STEP FOR SUCCESSFUL EMPLOYMENT

?Our topic today is technical portfolios. What benefits can it give you? Firstly, the portfolio gives extra points to beginner programmers, and for experienced ones it’s a good way to stand out from other applicants during employment. But still, how to create and organise them? This text will give you the answer.?

What should you pay attention to?

?? Description of the project: what kind of project it is and what tasks it solves, what technologies were used in its development.

?? Number of projects and their updating. If there are few projects in the portfolio and there have been no updates for a long time, then this may give the impression that the specialist is not in demand.

?? Code readability. The written code should be perceived by the future dev team.

?? Attention to detail. It is possible to add up an idea of whether the candidate will cope with the tasks of the project based on this.

What should be included?

Entry/Junior level

– Quality over quantity

?Adding to the portfolio all your projects is a wrong strategy. The large portfolio often duplicates applicant skills from project to project, and it’s hard to focus on exact applicant qualities. Therefore, your portfolio should be concise and clearly answer the question: What technologies have you had programming experience with???

– Do extra

?Don't add projects from courses or tutorials. They are generally too basic. That is why it is worth improving them or creating your own projects based on the knowledge you have gained.

– Show your values in work

?Attaching test files would be a big plus. This will show your comprehensive and thorough approach to the creation of a product.

Middle+ level

– Be adaptive

?Edit the portfolio according to the requirements of the project you are applying for.

– Importance of personal projects

?A programmer's portfolio should include both commercial and custom projects. This will show your passion for work.

– Pay attention to the project quality

?Add pet projects that will evaluate experience, architecture, best-practice, CI / CD and infrastructure.

General tips

1. Do not post unfinished projects. Even if you don't have much experience.
2. If the current projects are under NDA, then try to anonymize them or do not include them at all.
3. Constantly update the information. It is recommended every few months to supplement the portfolio with new projects and delete old ones.
4. Comment the code. If you decide to provide the source code of your work in the portfolio, then add comments to it.
5. It is also a good idea to prepare documentation.
6. Use several platforms where you can post your work: professional communities, GitHub, freelance exchanges, personal websites, etc.
7. Give a brief description of yourself as a specialist. Describe yourself in a few catchy sentences for a more effective presentation.

?Do not miss any opportunity to present yourself to the employer as good as possible from the very beginning. You will definitely be able to create a successful portfolio with these basic rules. And it will bring you closer to the job offer. Good luck!

?Do you have a portfolio? On which principles is it based on? Share it in the comments.