A Portfolio Project Checklist for a Developer's Success

If I was learning to code again and wanted to compile a reasonable portfolio that would successfully demonstrate my skills to an employer, I would put together something like this:

• First, all of the projects that you've built in all the tutorials along the way, don't ditch these. Dress them up, add a solid README, and be proud of them. They are the projects that got you in the ring and are a good talking point.
• Second, I would have a solid, semi-substantial, app built. This can be from a tutorial or from elsewhere, just make it look good and be able to explain whatever could be asked of it.
• Third, I would have a solid, semi-substantial, app built, but this time built entirely by you and thought up by you (see this video for more info). You should complete it by consulting the documentation when you get stuck, and put in every effort to adhere to best practices, clean code, SOLID (if applicable), etc. This should be your capstone. The wrestling you will have to do to finish this out will make you much better at that language and programming overall. Also, be sure it's running on a server somewhere so that it can be demo-ed by whoever.
• Fourth, I would have some solid, semi-substantial, workflow in the Cloud. Take AWS for example. Use Lambda functions, maybe API gateway, SNS, and S3 bucket to put together some sort of workflow. This can be hooked up to one of your other apps, or an original altogether (this video for ideas). I can't stress this one enough. Put something together in the cloud to demonstrate that in addition to your coding skills, you are cloud knowledgeable which in my opinion is essential to demonstrate these days.

Now what about technologies?

Front-end vs Back-end?

Freelancing?

And how do you prepare for the interview and the dreaded…coding test???

Well, you can read my tips and thoughts on all this in the full article over in the Travis Media Community.

Go give it a read.

Portfolio Checklist & Interviews

And if you want to know more about the Travis Media Community itself, then you’ll find more information here.