[prithsr]

Though it hasn't done anything for me as of late, in my senior year of undergrad I bought a domain name from a random person online ($70). I had no actual experience or understanding of web development, and thought this would be a good excuse to learn (in hindsight, I should have purchased a domain name for significantly less money, but having something set-up already felt like a 'win'; this was a ~big investment at the time).

I learnt about WordPress, HTML, basic CSS, and consistently wrote blog posts focused on tech in general (nothing technical - more along the lines of new gadgets, apps, useful software). Flash forward to being about to graduate and looking for jobs back home, I was asked to submit some work as proof of knowledge (this position wasn't necessarily geared to "entry-level", but at least I had something to demonstrate my limited experience). In my interviews, I was asked about this blog a lot - how it started, what I've done, my knowledge of SEO concepts and so on, and I strongly believe it's the main reason I was hired.