Building a portfolio

Moneymaker

Hi guys,

I am an aspiring programmer, I spent the last 4 months or so learning the basics of Java, C++ and VB. Did the City and Guilds exams with FAS, passed no bother.

I've gone back to sit the OCA and OCP exams(there is also an SQL exam).

I would like to build a website of some kind to show potential employers in the future my knowledge and the sort of work I have done. What sort of things should I be putting on there?

Also, how would I rate against someone with a CS degree in the eyes of a potential employer? Would they be considered a better choice then me, despite me(potentially) holding two Oracle certifications.

I'm sorry for the vaugeish questions, I am still pretty much a newbie to coding and there is so much to learn.

Any advice/suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Digital Society

Just put up a personal blog type website with a Portfolio section. A good write up about yourself on the homepage about how you have a passion for programming and thought yourself.

Im of the belief that a Degree will get you an interview easier but passion and Experience will get you a job. I dont see why you wouldn't get interviews without a degree if you have some good work in your Portfolio. I've seen people come out of a 4 year Degree with no Portfolio so your already ahead of some.

What goes in the Portfolio depends on what you want to do. Id say several Database Driven programs using various languages and Databases with a short write up on why you used those particular languages and what you learned by using it etc etc.. Why you enjoy coding in that language etc..

That will look a lot better than someone who just throws up a link to a folder full of files with no explanation.

Also remember that the site itself is a showcase of your Web Design work so make it look really nice but clean. Not too flashy.
Look at other peoples blogs etc for inspiration.

Digital Society

Just searching boards and i found this quote from 2011 that makes some valid points

fergalr wrote: »

As an entry level developer, what functionality you built probably will not matter as much as what tools and technologies you build it in.

In other words, don't worry too much about the exact apps you build do - build whatever are most interesting and compelling to you.
But do try and build them well, using technologies and techniques that you'd want to work with, and show an employer you know; and remember that smaller projects, well finished and polished, are generally more impressive than abandoned more ambitious projects.

It sounds like you are writing a desktop app using Java.
Have you considered doing web development? The web is a pretty big platform at the moment, and a lot of jobs seem to be in webdev.


One other word of advice - and please don't take this harshly, its only a minor thing - you should consider your style of written communication. A lot of a development job involves written communication, and making the effort to write syntactically correct sentences is worth it!

PrzemoF

Get involved in an open source project. You'll be able to test your skills, get feedback about quality of your code and use the accepted patches later as a proof of your abilities.

Moneymaker

PrzemoF wrote: »

Get involved in an open source project. You'll be able to test your skills, get feedback about quality of your code and use the accepted patches later as a proof of your abilities.

How can I do that?

PrzemoF

Moneymaker wrote: »

How can I do that?

Check github, sourceforge or other sites hosting open source projects. Find something that is interesting for you. Read about the project. Learn to build/compile it. Find bug tracker for that project. Find a simple bug and try to fix it. Prepare a patch that fixes the problem and submit it. Congrats, you just joined an open source project! If you submit enough valuable patches you might get direct access to the project repository.

If you can be more specific what's interesting for you I might help you to find a project.

Big projects very often have a page like those below. Pick something there -coding, translating, documenting..

http://www.gimp.org/develop/
http://www.videolan.org/contribute.html
https://www.libreoffice.org/community/get-involved/

P.S. Learn to use git or other SCM - you'll need it soon.

awec

You don't need to set up a website IMO. If you are looking to showcase your programming talent then just create a github account and start contributing.

Creating a portfolio website is something that's usually done by designers and will have limited value for a developer.

You could set up a blog but again only do this if you know enough to be able to write interesting posts and you are going to write fairly regularly.