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by brudgers 4270 days ago
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.

1 comments

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.