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11-08-2008 5:15pm#1
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Hey there. I'd echo what everyone else said. It's a good site. It's well coded, it's clean, it's pleasant to look at, and it works well. However, it's a personal site, not a portfolio.
If you want to get a It lacks focus. Currently it's trying to tell people about you, books you like, what you think on your blog, and a little bit about your work. You need to focus it. I would consider creating a portfolio on the site that's seperate that you can link to. Here's some recent articles I read about creating onlne portfolio's -- I think there's a lot of good advice there. The important thing is to create a portfolio that has one sole goal - to get you a job.
http://astheria.com/design/my-last-portfolio-sucked-yours-might-too
http://astheria.com/design/portfolios-that-accomplishgoals
http://www.lifeclever.com/10-reasons-why-your-online-portfolio-sucks/
http://www.veen.com/jeff/archives/000935.html
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/03/04/creating-a-successful-online-portfolio/
So that's the first bit. The next bit is to put more work in there. You're just starting out, so you won't have as much work as someone with a few years experience. But put whatever you can in there. Put that coding job you did in, but just say what job you did. Put anything you did in your course in there. Everything may not be as good as you'd like, but you need to have more work in there than 2 pieces. Also, try take on nixers, design a free Wordpress theme, enter design competitions to bulk up you portfolio too. Remember though, you're aiming to to create a Hire Me! portfolio to gte your foot in the door. You may want to make it more like a CV with your background & skills as much as a portfolio. You know XHTML/CSS well from the looks of things. There's plenty of jobs out there as an XHTML coder/Junior Designer, where you won't do much design, but will get your foot in the door and gain experience.
If you like, feel free to post up your CV too, as that's an important part of the job hunt too. We've all been there.
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Just a note. If you're going to design business cards for someone, they pay for printing and all costs. You're giving them cheap/free design, that's all. Also, even if you've designed yourself some business cards, it's not going to help you get a job, just add them to your portfolio. it can be all digital.Ok, I'll post on adverts.ie and consider the business cards (free and just pay P&P!).
You can add some perspective tricks to give it context, if you like.
http://psdtuts.com/tutorials-effects/using-the-vanishing-point-filter-to-mock-up-a-business-card/0 -
My cv is available through the 'my work' page, however it's not very design related.
My college course in multimedia was rubbish for website design or coding-they taught tables for gods sake so i'm afraid i've no work from then. I'll edit the 'about' page and try to focus it more on my services and abilities e.g coding. Thanks for the links too.
The wordpress theme is a good idea, i'll look into it today.
Looks like i've a lot of work to do 0 -
Ahh, yes. I see it now. Took me awhile to find it. It's definitely not a designer's CV. You've been out of the industry for awhile, so you need to focus less on your work experience, and more on software skills, design skills, and what you learned in college.My cv is available through the 'my work' page, however it's not very design related.
Also, I think you should make a more traditional CV. Designer's tend to over design their CVs. A nice simple CV that can be printed is the way to go. Here's some good ones for inspiration:
http://www.wmin.ac.uk/pdf/Daniel%20Nacamuli%20CV.pdf
http://www.gdbstudio.com/curriculum/CV_GDB_eng.pdf
To be honest, I think you should ditch the current site as a portfolio. Keep it as a personal site, but make the portfolio a different sub site. Currently your site is trying to do everything. As an employer, they don't want to see someone's services, they want to see skills. A freelancer offers services, an potential emplyee offers services. I wouldn't worry if some of the stuff in college isn't perfect, or isn't web design. Mediocre work is better than no work while you're applying for jobs and trying to beef up your portfolio.My college course in multimedia was rubbish for website design or coding-they taught tables for gods sake so i'm afraid i've no work from then. I'll edit the 'about' page and try to focus it more on my services and abilities e.g coding.
Take a look at a simple site like this. Important info about the person, then work samples. Simple, clean and to the point. http://www.chillouch.com/
Often designing for yourself is the toughest part. I've gone through about 10 versions of my portfolio over the years. Eventually, I ended up creating a very simple portfolio that's seperate to my personal site. I find I actually update it now. I keep it simple and basic and let the work do the talking. My current portfolio is aimed at getting freelance work rather than a job, but it might be useful to take a peek at all the same.
Good luck with it all - hope some of those tips are useful! 0 -
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It's tough because I really want to start somewhere but no one will give me a chance because I have no live sites - so it's going to take me ages before i get a proper job, i'm unemployed at the moment.
Why not create a small site for something you are interested in/passionate about?
You will have a live site then.. nothing ventured nothing gained yadda yadda 0 -
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