I'm an experienced dev specializing in financial and data analysis applications. I've written a lot of Java, SQL, and Matlab. https://numeric-cafe.github.io
Location
Brooklyn, NY
Education
BS in Computer Science
Work
Director, Quantitative Systems at Demex Technologies
A lot of people have chimed in here already with a lot of good input, but I'm going to talk too: I've been on both the searching and hiring side of a lot of job searches and interviews, and think I have some relevant experience.
Basically, yes. A personal/portfolio website isn't strictly necessary. But it's the best way to present yourself and highlight your strengths. And many of your competitors will have one. So if you want to stand out and get a chance at the best jobs, then yes, you pretty much need one.
A few things:
a. A personal introduction and summary
b. A copy of your actual resume (this is so potential hirers can get a clean copy of it, instead of one that's been doctored by recruiters or headhunters)
c. Some examples of your work
d. Links to any live projects you have
e. Something about your hobbies and personal interests
f. A blog, if you're up for writing!
Pretty much anything that doesn't suck is fine. Use the tools you are familiar with! The website itself will be part of your portfolio, and potential hirers will pay attention to how it was built. If you're focused on design or visual work and are not a coder or web dev, it's fine to use one of the easy-make-your-own-website hosts (I personally like SquareSpace and use it myself). If you want to show off your web-building work, use WordPress or Jekyll or something like that.
a. Use something reliable, and that you know how to maintain! If your personal/portfolio website is down or broken, that's going to look Bad when a potential hirer reviews it.
i. This means you should look at your website yourself each time you're about to apply for a job, and view it in a few different browsers, just to make sure it's everywhere.
Also,
You should definitely have your own domain! Think about what name you want, and then buy one from a non-sketchy domain registrar (I like Hover) as soon as you can, even if you're not going to put up your site right away.
I'm a senior back-end developer. My personal website (which I built both for personal reasons and with a view to getting hired) is at apjanke.net. Even though I'm a hacker, it just runs on SquareSpace. (And, despite my earlier advice above, I do not have a publicly-linked copy of my resume there. At the point in my career where I'm at, I already get too many contacts from recruiters, and I don't want to encourage more. As a new graduate, you will probably not have this problem!)
And your post has made me realize that I actually need a "Projects" page on my personal website, with links to my projects and open source work. Coming soon!
I'm an experienced dev specializing in financial and data analysis applications. I've written a lot of Java, SQL, and Matlab. https://numeric-cafe.github.io
Location
Brooklyn, NY
Education
BS in Computer Science
Work
Director, Quantitative Systems at Demex Technologies
Also, GitHub Pages runs Jekyll, is reliable and free, and works with custom domains! Good thing to consider if you want to go the cheap-but-works-well route.
I'm an experienced dev specializing in financial and data analysis applications. I've written a lot of Java, SQL, and Matlab. https://numeric-cafe.github.io
Location
Brooklyn, NY
Education
BS in Computer Science
Work
Director, Quantitative Systems at Demex Technologies
I guess, also, there is some risk here: Don't publish a bad personal/portfolio site with broken projects and links and the like. That can get you straight to a (probably deserved) "No Hire".
I'm an experienced dev specializing in financial and data analysis applications. I've written a lot of Java, SQL, and Matlab. https://numeric-cafe.github.io
Location
Brooklyn, NY
Education
BS in Computer Science
Work
Director, Quantitative Systems at Demex Technologies
Also, this is about as much as I can say, but my company just got done with a round of hiring, and at least one of our new employees (including some fresh-from-school folks) definitely got hired primarily on the strength of their personal/portfolio websites.
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A lot of people have chimed in here already with a lot of good input, but I'm going to talk too: I've been on both the searching and hiring side of a lot of job searches and interviews, and think I have some relevant experience.
Also,
I'm a senior back-end developer. My personal website (which I built both for personal reasons and with a view to getting hired) is at apjanke.net. Even though I'm a hacker, it just runs on SquareSpace. (And, despite my earlier advice above, I do not have a publicly-linked copy of my resume there. At the point in my career where I'm at, I already get too many contacts from recruiters, and I don't want to encourage more. As a new graduate, you will probably not have this problem!)
And your post has made me realize that I actually need a "Projects" page on my personal website, with links to my projects and open source work. Coming soon!
Also, GitHub Pages runs Jekyll, is reliable and free, and works with custom domains! Good thing to consider if you want to go the cheap-but-works-well route.
I guess, also, there is some risk here: Don't publish a bad personal/portfolio site with broken projects and links and the like. That can get you straight to a (probably deserved) "No Hire".
Also, this is about as much as I can say, but my company just got done with a round of hiring, and at least one of our new employees (including some fresh-from-school folks) definitely got hired primarily on the strength of their personal/portfolio websites.