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Ask HN: What kind of projects should I build for a front-end portfolio?

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Re: Ask HN: What kind of projects should I build for a front-end portfolio?

#31

Post by adrianratnapala »

lopatin wrote: post #14

I can only speak from personal experience but here's what worked for me. Build one thing that will truly impress the senior engineers at whatever companies you're applying to. In order to be impressive, it has to solve an interesting engineering problem. Try to build it yourself. Fail (probably). Now go pick up a library that does the hard thing for you. What's great about this is that you're now very familiar with t…

> ... I might just literally throw money at you.

Watch out for people who literally throw money at you.

Coins are easier to throw than banknotes.

Better than peanuts I suppose.

Re: Ask HN: What kind of projects should I build for a front-end portfolio?

#33

Post by technojunkie »

Calist0 wrote: post #24
technojunkie wrote: post #9

You should decide what type of front-end position you're interested to get into; the front-end is now so broad that it's tough to know everything. First, prove you are proficient with the following: http://learn.shayhowe.com/html-css/ http://learn.shayhowe.com/advanced-html-css/ Here's a contest today that can test your skills https://a-k-apart.com Learn javascript and show you know ES5 inside and out. If you already…

Thanks for all the suggestions! Really helpful. For Github: How could a newbie ever improve the code of someone who's experienced enough to create a library or framework?

When you fork a Github project, you'll have to examine the code to see what it's doing and how.

With HTML and CSS, it's mostly visual but you can find improvements on semantics or simplifying what's there. If you can improve performance by rewriting a javascript function into CSS, such as animations, submit a pull request with your suggestions.

With Javascript, look for bugs and improve the code that's written. Javascript easily becomes a mess and is often referred to as spaghetti code when it becomes hard to manage.

Overall, look for ways to simplify the code, even if it means more code overall although usually it means less code. Two examples:

https://philipwalton.com/articles/untangling-deeply-nested-p...

http://www.heydonworks.com/article/on-writing-less-damn-code

Re: Ask HN: What kind of projects should I build for a front-end portfolio?

#34

Post by iandanforth »

I'm hiring but I've seen a lot of disappointing FE applications. These are a few things I like to see in junior candidates.

- They have built something that looks good and works. Even if it's small, I can click around for more than a minute without breaking something. It works in chrome and firefox. It isn't super ugly, or too flashy.

- They know how the web works. They know what HTTP is, what HTTPS is, they know what TCP is. Maybe they even know a little bit about handshakes, or http2.

- They know a bit about how browsers work. They know that layout and styling are different things, they know a few API methods that are provided by the browser as opposed to a library. Maybe they even know that some of those methods are blocking and what that means.(1)

What really sells a candidate for me is that they are really interested to work for us and not just some company and that they are intellectually curious. If I can nerd out with someone on a call about anything it's a huge win.

(1) - Read this, don't worry if most of it is over your head -https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/performance/r...

Re: Ask HN: What kind of projects should I build for a front-end portfolio?

#35

Post by duncanawoods »

Calist0 wrote: post #23
lopatin wrote: post #14

I can only speak from personal experience but here's what worked for me. Build one thing that will truly impress the senior engineers at whatever companies you're applying to. In order to be impressive, it has to solve an interesting engineering problem. Try to build it yourself. Fail (probably). Now go pick up a library that does the hard thing for you. What's great about this is that you're now very familiar with t…

Thanks for the feedback! Do you know of any interesting engineering problems that I can try solving? Perhaps a project like this: https://haseeb-qureshi.github.io/n-queens-visualizer/ The blogger used it for his own portfolio. It solves the 'N/Eight Queen Problem'. I actually tried doing it myself using JS and I ran into a lot of problems.. My skills may not be that far along yet.

> Perhaps a project like this... n-queens-visualizer

Ugh, projects like this feel like a homework puzzles that will have multiple extant solutions. As an interviewer, I'd prefer to see something more authentic.

Is there nothing you want to see exist in the world? No actual problem you, your friends or family face that could be made easier with a little single page app? This could be something tiny like experiments for a better UX pattern for an app that frustrates you e.g. adding a friend in social network X or hashtag auto-completion etc. That lets you show creativity without committing to a large succeed/fail project.

Closing the loop of identifying and resolving problems indicates a good engineer. If you can't come up with a long list of problems you see in the world I would be concerned!

Re: Ask HN: What kind of projects should I build for a front-end portfolio?

#36

Post by tombrossman »

ja27 wrote: post #20

Could reach out to local non-profits and offer to update their sites.

Upvoted, I think this is by far the best suggestion. Find a local charity or non-profit and help them get online or update their site, and add an easy way for people to donate online. Re-imagining a popular site to show off your skills seems like a vapid decision, much better to do something more meaningful. The charity benefits either way, and you've made some contacts which may help you in the future.

Some organisations may be reluctant to accept because they've tried this before and the developer moved on to other things. The charity can't be left with no clue how to update the website, so make sure you have a plan to hand things over to them. It can be something as simple as styling a Tumblr page mapped to their own domain.

Re: Ask HN: What kind of projects should I build for a front-end portfolio?

#37

Post by parpostdoc »

Would you actually consider doing an outsourcing job for a reduced fee ?

Probably a react site. It has a few pages of dynamic elements (charting, real-time updates). You will be starting it from scratch.

We cant really help you with visual & appearance stuff. But we will build the server/algorithm side of things.

You can claim full credit for this & get paid (not a lot at this stage).

Re: Ask HN: What kind of projects should I build for a front-end portfolio?

#38

Post by sunnykgupta »

parpostdoc wrote: post #37

Would you actually consider doing an outsourcing job for a reduced fee ? Probably a react site. It has a few pages of dynamic elements (charting, real-time updates). You will be starting it from scratch. We cant really help you with visual & appearance stuff. But we will build the server/algorithm side of things. You can claim full credit for this & get paid (not a lot at this stage).

Is this offer open to other FE guys too? :)

Re: Ask HN: What kind of projects should I build for a front-end portfolio?

#39

Post by ecesena »

(we're also hiring)

Another option is to contribute to open source projects. Just make sure it's visible/easy to catch by looking at your github profile (or if you have a website even easier).

Options vary from dashboards for "backend" tools, even just improving the ux, visualizations (projects like airbnb/caravel), or focusing on little details such as autocomplete or similar features.

You may loose the ability to choose your preferred stack, but viceversa you can show that you're adaptable.

Re: Ask HN: What kind of projects should I build for a front-end portfolio?

#40

Post by parpostdoc »

sunnykgupta wrote: post #38
parpostdoc wrote: post #37

Would you actually consider doing an outsourcing job for a reduced fee ? Probably a react site. It has a few pages of dynamic elements (charting, real-time updates). You will be starting it from scratch. We cant really help you with visual & appearance stuff. But we will build the server/algorithm side of things. You can claim full credit for this & get paid (not a lot at this stage).

Is this offer open to other FE guys too? :)

Yes - why not. But i would like to give the OP a chance to reply ;)

parpostdoc@gmail.com

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