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

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41–50 of 62 posts

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

#41
> I'm thinking of doing re-designs of a few popular websites (2-3 pages mobile & desktop, wireframes) that I think can be improved. And then coding them into life.

This isn't as good as an idea as it might sound. "Popular" web sites like Google, NYT, BBC employ teams of very senior & experienced industry people. If you're going to attempt to pick apart stuff like that and give your own subjective interpretation of why your version is better... you better have the technical chops to back up your opinions.

It certainly would be interesting to see something like this in an interview as a "fun" exercise, but don't try to pass off your mocked up version as technically superior unless you can genuinely defend that position. My advice would not be to put yourself in that position in the first place, you might bite off more than you can chew. Don't force questions upon yourself that you can't answer.

My advice? Build a small site/app that demonstrates you understand how modern front end tools work (bower/NPM, gulp, SASS, uglifyJS). Maybe roll your own little responsive CSS grid. Animate some SVG graphics. Show off your flexbox skills. Use some good typography.

Make the source code available on github. Have a live demo running somewhere. Be able to talk through the various layers of the application, i.e. graphics, CSS, JavaScript, HTML.

Demonstrate understanding of the technology and that you are capable & hungry to learn more. Good luck.

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

#42
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…

> But if I saw a re-creation of Slack or Gmail that is comprehensive and actually looks and feels like the real thing, and handles errors correctly, and handles off-line mode, and has the performance of the original and is open source

I think many people would throw money at an open source Slack or Google.

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

#45
Some tips from somebody that has done lots of interviews and has also interviewed others:

* Use technologies they have in their stack. There are websites that help you find out what technologies companies are using to build their product. For client side code it's not very hard to find out by yourself, look at the source, look at the libraries that get loaded, beautify their code and have a look at what gets imported. Try to find out if they use react, backbone, angular or something else ... when you have found out, use those libraries for your project. When building your project use as much of those technologies to show them that you are familiar with the technologies they use.

* Make something related to the company you want to apply to, if you want to work for a game company, don't make a blog about cooking recipes, make a game ;). Try to find the idea for a tool that does something that is related to their business. Show then that you have taken the time to look into what they do. Maybe that prototype you have created will be so impressive that they may want to transform it into a real project after hiring you.

* If they have an API, use their API to get data for your project. Don't do a project that uses dummy date. Use their API and try to create something new using their data. Use the data they use for their product but display it in a different way, to show that you thought about what can be done with that data. So copy or create a page or tool they already have but try to innovate using their API. Or even better do a mashup. Combine their API with another one to create something new that is more spectacular than just using their data. Or if you can, grab their data and enhance it, for example by sorting it using some intelligent algorithm.

* Not that important but always worked well for me ... make something fun :) Try to avoid making a tool that is boring. For example let's say you want to apply at twitch, then don't just make a page that lists the top ten streamers, but make a page where people enter the name of two streamers and then a dust cloud appears with some fighting sounds and after your code has compared the stats of both streamers, a winner gets displayed. Ok this is not super fun ;) but it's an example, I guess you get the idea. If the people that review you, have a smile on their face while testing your project, it's a good thing and will help them remember you.

* Also not so important, but it can still make the difference, try to make something beautiful. Don't just apply some basic css rules to your project. Yeah developers will tell you the most important is code quality, but I'm sure that some good code that outputs something beautiful, will always be better than just some good code. People and even developers ;) also judge with their eyes. People might be unconscious of it, but I'm sure something that looks good, helps to give the feeling that it is actually good. If you don't have the skills yourself to make your project look good, than ask a friend to help or ask somebody on the web to help you.

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

#46

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 wha…

OT: Those are some neat robots. I spent a bit of time researching warehouse robotics and the whole thing is fascinating. Do you have more info about them aside from the one on your website? I'm intrigued.

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

#47

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 wha…

Ha! I was fully mounted and strapped in on my high horse thinking, "Oh man, another 'you have to be PASSIONATE about my disrupt-random-industry startup" guy.

Then I looked at your site, and man, that looks like a fun place to work, with subject matter to really dig into. Ahhh... go ahead, screen for passion, you get a pass. :)

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

#48
Please redesign two of my web properties. I can provide two directed projects, real-world experience and both design and code experience.

As a CTO/startup founder shipping something is the first thing I look for.

Also, I wish your github was linked here. I would have spent >5m looking at it.

Contact via my profile.

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

#49

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…

Btw OP if you succeed at this guy's post, you are already a senior engineer in a lot of places, and middle-level in the rest of the more difficult places.

People with less skills than this earn 3x as much as a junior would make.

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

#50
post #48

Please redesign two of my web properties. I can provide two directed projects, real-world experience and both design and code experience. As a CTO/startup founder shipping something is the first thing I look for. Also, I wish your github was linked here. I would have spent >5m looking at it. Contact via my profile.

Down voted for providing opportunity?
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