DEV Community

Cover image for 10 Minimal Portfolio Examples for Web Developers Who Aren’t Good at Design

10 Minimal Portfolio Examples for Web Developers Who Aren’t Good at Design

Alex Booker on June 29, 2022

Not all web developers are good at design, and that is OK! In the real world, you will often work with a designer on your team to convert their des...
Collapse
 
jonrandy profile image
Jon Randy 🎖️

With that said, to get a web developer job, you’ll need your portfolio to stand out and look good

This is a total myth. You really do not need a portfolio at all. An interesting and active GitHub/GitLab/whatever account is a far better way to gauge someone as a developer. All of the best developers I've hired have not had portfolios. It's also interesting to note that of the candidates I've interviewed who did have a portfolio (by far the minority) - it actually counted against them in more than one case.

Collapse
 
horrorofpartybeach profile image
Emma

I agree it's not always necessary to have a portfolio, I've still not built one and it's never been a problem in interviews. I've thought of it as a 'nice to have' though, so I'm curious to know how it counted against some of the candidates you interviewed?

Collapse
 
jonrandy profile image
Jon Randy 🎖️ • Edited

Over-engineering, JS errors, failing to work on some browsers, excessive bloat, inappropriate choice of technology... etc.

Thread Thread
 
horrorofpartybeach profile image
Emma

Ah I see, yea that makes sense. I've come across a few portfolio sites where it felt more like an opportunity to try out new tech or ideas, rather than what's appropriate for the portfolio.

Collapse
 
bookercodes profile image
Alex Booker

You make a good point! I will try and find a different way to phrase it.

I believe a well-executed portfolio can help you showcase your projects, tell your story, make you more memorable, create talking points in an interview, and stand out.

Equally, if your portfolio is too scrappy, that can count against you.

As much as a Hiring Manager might try to remove their bias from the situation, it's hard not to hold a candidate's portfolio to the high standard they're going to expect when you contribute to their website.

This was actually the motivation behind this post.

Oftentimes, we're too ambitious with our portfolios and ship something incomplete or otherwise less than ideal. That can bias a Hiring Manager and fundamentally get in the way of what really matters as a web developer, which is your experience, projects, and value proposition.

Collapse
 
andrewbaisden profile image
Andrew Baisden

Yeah, I would have to agree even though I like having a portfolio website I see more value in the projects somebody has on their GitHub. A portfolio is like a portal to your work much like a Linktree.

Collapse
 
pyrsmk profile image
Aurélien Delogu

I completely agree with you.

I saw once someone arguing that a candidate should have a very active StackOverflow account (aside of its git repos) to being eligible for a job position.

A bit extreme IMO, ahah

Collapse
 
maddy profile image
Maddy

I agree with this, and I'm not sure where this emphasis on having a portfolio comes from. Not even a blog is actually needed to land a job in tech (and I say this as an active tech-blogger, need to be honest here 😁).

Collapse
 
aburd profile image
Aaron B

Maybe chill a little bit.

Collapse
 
ravavyr profile image
Ravavyr

I'll add to that, that the best developers we've hired all had pet projects and love doing this stuff for fun or at least as a hobby.

Collapse
 
jonrandy profile image
Jon Randy 🎖️

Yup, this is also often true. Evidence of which can usually be seen in their repos

Collapse
 
nataliedeweerd profile image
𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐞 𝐝𝐞 𝐖𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐝

Hey Jon. Interested to hear why it counted against them?

Collapse
 
jonrandy profile image
Jon Randy 🎖️

I answered that one already

Collapse
 
adam_cyclones profile image
Adam Crockett 🌀

10 years, 2 GREAT jobs, 0 portfolio

The answer is 12 😏

Collapse
 
spaboi profile image
SPABOI • Edited

Definitely. You web portfolio literally describes your whole coding knowledge in one project. So it’s really important to make it stand out, unique and amazing. I agree with you completely 👍

Collapse
 
mike_andreuzza profile image
Michael Andreuzza • Edited

Talking about minimal,...

Check out mine:

Collapse
 
atulcodex profile image
🚩 Atul Prajapati 🇮🇳

Looks awesome 💝

Collapse
 
bookercodes profile image
Alex Booker

They look great, right?

Collapse
 
ashraful profile image
Mohamad Ashraful Islam

Hello, How about mine? I am not the designer yet. I took from someone else's
ashraful.dev

Collapse
 
bookercodes profile image
Alex Booker

I think it looks wonderful, especially the dark mode!

Collapse
 
ashraful profile image
Mohamad Ashraful Islam • Edited

You will get the source here (github.com/iashraful/ashraful.dev). It's built on Nuxt(Vue SSR Framework)

Collapse
 
ephraimduncan profile image
Ephraim Duncan

Anyone to review mine for me?

astrosaurus.me

Collapse
 
thomasmorice profile image
Thomas Morice

I wish I could be listed in one of those someday. It took me quite some time but it was a lot of fun: thomasmorice.com

Collapse
 
khokon profile image
Khokon M.

If they aren't good at design, then I can't spell the D of design :)

Collapse
 
qiqetes profile image
Enric Llopis Fabra

I would like to add mine ellopis.dev

Collapse
 
thomasmorice profile image
Thomas Morice

Thank you so much! Really appreciate your feedback :)

Collapse
 
gulshanaggarwal profile image
Gulshan Aggarwal

Nice, resources! A good one for people like me who are not so good at designing part.

Collapse
 
obaino82 profile image
Obaino82

Nice one

Collapse
 
andrewbaisden profile image
Andrew Baisden

These are quite inspirational to look at.

Collapse
 
lukeecart profile image
Luke Cartwright

These are amazing!

Collapse
 
maheshmuttinti profile image
Mahesh Muttinti

What about mine? maheshmuttintidev.in

Collapse
 
aburd profile image
Aaron B

It's a good start, but a little light on content though! Also, the colors are a little too bright for me. But it might be personal preference. I like the everything else though!

Collapse
 
jonasstjerne profile image
Jonas Stjerne

Love these!

Created my own with some unique elements. Got inspiration from a lot of awesome portfolios jonasstjerne.com