"So first of all, get your resume in order and polish your LinkedIn profile." - fully agree, and it is so worth it, you will use your resume for many applications, so doing it properly the first time round really pays off.
I am always on the fence about portfolios, being a frontend developer, there is a general expectation that I should have a portfolio site that looks really good and shows of my nifty skills by manipulating the UI in some weird way. It is extremely time consuming and after a year or two becomes outdated and you always end up disliking it all over again.
This bring me to my usual dilemma, presenting repositories on GitHub for your online portfolio. I have worked for the last 5 years as a developer and most companies I work for lock our projects down behind legal tape, various auth layers - especially when working on dashboards etc. - or as in my current situation, working on a self hosted version of GitLab that is not publicly accessible.
So I am forced to go out of my way to create dummy projects somewhere on GitHub in order to showcase my skills in order to improve my public online portfolio. Don't get me wrong, I completely get why this is required from companies, but it does consume large amounts of time and usually ends with me giving up on building and maintaining it. How do I overcome this? Currently I am using my resume and cover letter to show my knowledge level and should I make it that far, try to go the extra mile with code challenges.
Thanks a lot for the comment! From my experience, a GitHub portfolio or portfolio website is most important when you don't have professional experience yet and want to get your foot in the door. Once you have a couple of years of experience on the job (as you seem to have) I wouldn't bother about a portfolio website at all. A GitHub portfolio is nice to have but also not that necessary in your situation imo.
The approach you describe seems fine to me and is exactly what I do as well. Just apply with resume etc, do the coding challenges, and hopefully pass the interviews.
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"So first of all, get your resume in order and polish your LinkedIn profile." - fully agree, and it is so worth it, you will use your resume for many applications, so doing it properly the first time round really pays off.
I am always on the fence about portfolios, being a frontend developer, there is a general expectation that I should have a portfolio site that looks really good and shows of my nifty skills by manipulating the UI in some weird way. It is extremely time consuming and after a year or two becomes outdated and you always end up disliking it all over again.
This bring me to my usual dilemma, presenting repositories on GitHub for your online portfolio. I have worked for the last 5 years as a developer and most companies I work for lock our projects down behind legal tape, various auth layers - especially when working on dashboards etc. - or as in my current situation, working on a self hosted version of GitLab that is not publicly accessible.
So I am forced to go out of my way to create dummy projects somewhere on GitHub in order to showcase my skills in order to improve my public online portfolio. Don't get me wrong, I completely get why this is required from companies, but it does consume large amounts of time and usually ends with me giving up on building and maintaining it. How do I overcome this? Currently I am using my resume and cover letter to show my knowledge level and should I make it that far, try to go the extra mile with code challenges.
Thanks a lot for the comment! From my experience, a GitHub portfolio or portfolio website is most important when you don't have professional experience yet and want to get your foot in the door. Once you have a couple of years of experience on the job (as you seem to have) I wouldn't bother about a portfolio website at all. A GitHub portfolio is nice to have but also not that necessary in your situation imo.
The approach you describe seems fine to me and is exactly what I do as well. Just apply with resume etc, do the coding challenges, and hopefully pass the interviews.