I'm a self-taught dev focused on websites and Python development.
My friends call me the "Data Genie".
When I get bored, I find tech to read about, write about and build things with.
You may be interested in this post I found today which says that if you're going for a design job, then spending time building a portfolio site at all is a poor use of time (it rarely has the wow or quality you want)
Compared with the alternatives suggested like LinkenIn and resume improvements. Or updating your github profile README or polishing your github repo docs. (I actually got my first job as a dev because of the quality of my github repos, despite a lack of any dev positions on my resume).
The author says that if you do build a site, be economical with your time and use a high-level solution over a custom one. When you a no code or ready made theme solution, you have to worry less about managing your content and cross device issues.
Someone responded in the comments saying that their site helps them with work. And the original poster replied with two CSS type bugs he noticed on his phone...
Going back to your original question, the article says the recruiter probably doesn't know and might not even care whether you build the site yourself. Use what makes sense for you to spend the least effort and get the highest quality and use your other projects to show of your web dev skills - in fact a simple one one gallery of screenshots of sites you've built would be more impressive to me than a site that tries to stands out on design alone and lists your personality and skills and history without demonstrating them.
Oh and the author strongly recommends a blog. If I were to hire someone, I would look at their blog on dev.to or medium or a custom site and just the quality of the content and their ability to communicate and teach and they demonstrate understand TDD, benefits of code review or pair programming, how to automate a deploy pipeline... I wouldn't hire them because they used fancy animations or styling. Unless maybe they were applying to be UX or UI designer. Based on the article, even a frontend designer should still probably demonstrate more about how to handle API calls and persist data in database, than how good they are at knowing CSS and HTML design skills.
This article is a great read thanks for posting the link. It does make sense in all honesty. I think now with more people looking to the coding profession and more content emphasising how to make an eye-catching portfolio or referencing amazingly designed websites it seems there can be some misplaced thoughts of needed to be amazing at everything. I started revamping my portfolio website from scratch and whilst the main page didn't take long, the responsiveness, fiddling with CSS and design was arduous. That time could be better spent on actual projects to display within the website.
I'm a self-taught dev focused on websites and Python development.
My friends call me the "Data Genie".
When I get bored, I find tech to read about, write about and build things with.
Well said. I had the same issues with a Jekyll blog of mine and a Jekyll site built around GH repos. There are bugs I discover on other devices or in certain pages. Plus maintaining packages for them.
What is really low maintenance and looks great is this Jekyll portfolio site I forked (you get one like it in new GitHub account actually now). I customized the dark background and the icons at the bottom but otherwise the site is really great and simple as is. And of course pulls in details specific to my user account.
It doesn't need my attention so it will be better I think than the others in terms of portfolio (it just lacks blog posts though)
@michaelcurrin
Thanks man! Your comment helped me rationalizing my intention to go with template. It always important to focus on what's relevant and what's not.As a JavaScript developer, it would be very arduous for me to build a portfolio from scratch with CSS, SASS. Yet I was tempting to do so bcuz I couldn't justify the use of template. Now it's clear. Thanks big time 🙂
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We're a place where coders share, stay up-to-date and grow their careers.
You may be interested in this post I found today which says that if you're going for a design job, then spending time building a portfolio site at all is a poor use of time (it rarely has the wow or quality you want)
Compared with the alternatives suggested like LinkenIn and resume improvements. Or updating your github profile README or polishing your github repo docs. (I actually got my first job as a dev because of the quality of my github repos, despite a lack of any dev positions on my resume).
dev.to/jkettmann/don-t-waste-your-...
The author says that if you do build a site, be economical with your time and use a high-level solution over a custom one. When you a no code or ready made theme solution, you have to worry less about managing your content and cross device issues.
Someone responded in the comments saying that their site helps them with work. And the original poster replied with two CSS type bugs he noticed on his phone...
Going back to your original question, the article says the recruiter probably doesn't know and might not even care whether you build the site yourself. Use what makes sense for you to spend the least effort and get the highest quality and use your other projects to show of your web dev skills - in fact a simple one one gallery of screenshots of sites you've built would be more impressive to me than a site that tries to stands out on design alone and lists your personality and skills and history without demonstrating them.
Oh and the author strongly recommends a blog. If I were to hire someone, I would look at their blog on dev.to or medium or a custom site and just the quality of the content and their ability to communicate and teach and they demonstrate understand TDD, benefits of code review or pair programming, how to automate a deploy pipeline... I wouldn't hire them because they used fancy animations or styling. Unless maybe they were applying to be UX or UI designer. Based on the article, even a frontend designer should still probably demonstrate more about how to handle API calls and persist data in database, than how good they are at knowing CSS and HTML design skills.
This article is a great read thanks for posting the link. It does make sense in all honesty. I think now with more people looking to the coding profession and more content emphasising how to make an eye-catching portfolio or referencing amazingly designed websites it seems there can be some misplaced thoughts of needed to be amazing at everything. I started revamping my portfolio website from scratch and whilst the main page didn't take long, the responsiveness, fiddling with CSS and design was arduous. That time could be better spent on actual projects to display within the website.
Well said. I had the same issues with a Jekyll blog of mine and a Jekyll site built around GH repos. There are bugs I discover on other devices or in certain pages. Plus maintaining packages for them.
What is really low maintenance and looks great is this Jekyll portfolio site I forked (you get one like it in new GitHub account actually now). I customized the dark background and the icons at the bottom but otherwise the site is really great and simple as is. And of course pulls in details specific to my user account.
It doesn't need my attention so it will be better I think than the others in terms of portfolio (it just lacks blog posts though)
michaelcurrin.github.io/
Repo: github.com/MichaelCurrin/MichaelCu...
This solution might seem lazy...
but it is really efficent and elegant
@michaelcurrin Thanks man! Your comment helped me rationalizing my intention to go with template. It always important to focus on what's relevant and what's not.As a JavaScript developer, it would be very arduous for me to build a portfolio from scratch with CSS, SASS. Yet I was tempting to do so bcuz I couldn't justify the use of template. Now it's clear. Thanks big time 🙂