Joel Hooks Chats About Standout Developer Portfolios

Chats with Kent C. Dodds

Landing your first developer job isn't easy. Companies don't want to take the risk of hiring a junior, they have no idea how competent you are. A traditional resume doesn't adequately prove your abilities.

Why would they just take your word for it? In order to standout you need to show those hard-earned skills off!

You need to publicly showcase your work. That doesn't just mean spinning up a fancy blog or linking your Github full of tutorial projects you followed along with. Tutorials are excellent for personal growth but they don't prove that you're capable of applying that knowledge elsewhere. It's all about proving your skills are valuable to a business.

This doesn't mean that your site has to be boring though! Showcasing your practical skills might be the most important thing but you should still make your site your own. You are more than the sum of your skills and you are also communicating your interests and personality through your website and portfolio

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Homework

• Spend 30 minutes to assess your own portfolio. Figure out what it's communicating about you and ask yourself if aligns with what you want to communicate. Try to see if there is anything missing from it.

Resources

• Josh Comeau: Building an Effective Dev Portfolio eBook
• Max Stoiber's Site
• egghead.io's showcase of great portfolios

Guest: Joel Hooks

• Twitter: @jhooks
• GitHub: @joelhooks
• Website: joelhooks.com

Host: Kent C. Dodds

• Website: kentcdodds.com
• Twitter: @kentcdodds
• GitHub: @kentcdodds
• YouTube: Kent C. Dodds
• Epic React: epicreact.dev