Ask HN: What goes into a personal website?

I have been attempting to build my personal website for a few weeks now, but every time I try to get a start, I have no idea what is eye catching or what should be left out. As a soon-to-be college grad, I think it is important for my site to catch the eye of recruiters and give more information than my resume can, and impress those who are looking at it. Any advice?

Its not Github or LinkedIn, make it personal. You certainly want to show off, but you want to do it in a way that represents you. Really into design? Focus on that and show off your portfolio creatively. Like the backend? Include a few essays talking about your favorite DB or server side language. Spend your free time on projects? Show em off- blog posts, links. Spend it doing something else? Talk about that sick run you shredded in Aspen or the art style you pioneered by getting an Alpaca to roll around on the canvas.

Because it's your personal site, you don't want to make it too formal. Definitely include your accomplishments, but have fun with it. Mine is currently under construction, but you are welcome to check it out for ideas...roiatalla.com

A few thoughts:

Rather than targeting your site at recruiters, target it at the people with significant influence in the hiring decisions. A resume/CV depending on local custom is probably enough for the first look by recruiters, and the more savvy recruiters will want to see the same sort of information as people making hiring decisions.

That said, Github or a StackExchange profiles exist at least in part to allow people to showcase meaningful work without going through the process of designing a portfolio. They let people show what they have done and can do and how they think.

This means that throwing some academic projects onto Github [without violating academic integrity] or BitBucket repository can be meaningful. It's also a way to show that you understand at least a little about distributed version control with git.

Likewise, asking and answering questions on StackExchange's programming related sites can demonstrate knowledge and express a general interest in computing.

That's not to say that building a website isn't worthwhile as a portfolio item. But it may be better to just build a website that does something that you care about coding rather than one which is done out of a sense of "I should". For many people, selling by showing what problems they can solve is a better approach than trying to persuade people in the abstract.

Good Luck.

Completely agree with you on this one. Only build the site if you're willing to maintain it long term as well, not just as a means to an end (get a job). Get involved in the community and watch your career grow.