Your portfolio is your first impression to recruiters

#webdev #career #motivat

As a young developper myself, I need to find internships and get job offers, and the key to that isn't a great resume or a nice cover letter, but an attractive portfolio. Actually a nice resume matters as well, but it isn't the first thing potential recruiters will see.

Stand out from the crowd

Every day, there are more and more developpers seeking a job, and even if we are more than wanted and needed by several companies, it doesn't mean everyone will get the job they want. It sounds like an advice from an old '80s motivational movie "stand out, be yourself, be creative", and also very mainstream, but that's truly the key to impress a recruiter.

I've seen a lot of my pairs on LinkedIn posting their flat colourless resume without any presentation of their previous work. Let's see this from a recruiter point of view: how would you sort hundreds of applications for a few positions, given their resume and/or portfolio? The ones that catch the eyes will often go first, the others will go last.

Don't be afraid to make something unconventional

As I said before, we, as developpers, are more than wanted, and the process of recruitment can be different. Let me explain myself: very often the conventional steps of sending your resume along with a cover letter, then getting an interview, maybe another afterward, can be shortened into getting in touch with the recruiter, sending them your best portfolio and a few lines to tell them you are looking for a position as a [insert job title here], and you'll have on head start on any other applicants.

Nota bene: it won't work with every recruiter and job offer, it's a general advice and you should always follow your gut.

Thus, you should

add colors
CSS effects, animations (not too much otherwise you'll create the opposite effect and repel the recruiter(s))
use GIF to showcase your work (so that recruiters won't have to follow 10 links to know what your project is about)
[any idea you always wanted to try here]

Examples

let me know in the comments if you want to be added here to provide newcommers with examples

Unconventional (great)

https://superfola.github.io/ tip: try a Konami code on it, works also on mobile (replace B, A by double tapping)

Conventional (borring)

resume

I always loved to help my friends when their projects didn't work as intended, or when they didn't know how to do something, and I though that this kind of experience (i.e. how to attract people with your work) was lacking on my dev.to account.

Hope it helps!

Top comments (7)

JoelBonetR 🥇 • Nov 22 '20

Well the first thing a recruiter will see from you is your LinkedIn profile tbh so polish it a bit and then do the same with your git (github, gitlab...) profile because after HHRR people there are IT people that will seek for you too and probably ask for your git profile.
Then a portfolio is a nice tool to back both things to add extra information about you.

Best regards

Gregory Witek • Nov 22 '20

Actually a nice resume matters as well, but it isn't the first thing potential recruiters will see.

A bit different point of view (I've been hiring developers as an engineering manager for a few years) - your resume or your LinkedIn profile is the first thing I'll see.

If you apply for a job, I'll see a resume, I'll check your work experience and whether what you did in your past jobs matches what I need (it's important to write a few bullet points about what you did in your previous jobs). If it's ok then I'll check portfolio, Github profile etc.

If I look for candidates on LinkedIn, I'll see their profile first and again I'll check experience and then their website, Github or SO.

Don't get me wrong, having a good portfolio matters, sometimes it can be the thing that will put you ahead of others, and your tips here are very good.
If you want your portfolio to be seen though, your resume or LinkedIn need to look decent.