Building my portfolio

-

     After several weeks of extensive work, I am almost done with my portfolio. This is actually my third attempt at a portfolio. The other two were tutorials I got from online. They looked nice, just not very original. And the code was more advanced than my current knowledge. I would have had difficulty explaining the code and process to recruiters. After building my projects from scratch, it felt wrong to use a copy/paste portfolio. So I started building one on my own. I had this idea that I would make my home page look like the desktop of my laptop. The execution is far from perfect, and I know the code isn't as clean as it could be. Overall though, I'm pretty proud of it what I was able to build. I have come so far as a developer in the past few months, and I am excited to see how much I improve over the next few years as my knowledge grow. Below is an image of my home page.


    

    Building my portfolio was challenging, frustrating, sometimes overwhelming, but also a very rewarding experience. I first started off Googling Junior Web Developer portfolios to get inspiration for designs and ideas as to what got developers hired. I found the opposite of inspiration though. The portfolios I found were mostly from College graduates, with years of experience and knowledge. Their list of qualifications and skills were more extensive than my own. I just have the basic understanding of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. How could whatever I built compete with theirs? So I felt sorry for myself for a couple of minutes, before I pushed forward. After all, at some point they were me. I got started later in life, but at least I started. If I keep pushing forward and learning, eventually I will be looking back at my current portfolio marveling at how far I've grown. 

    So back to my experience building my portfolio. It has a Home, About Me, Projects, and Contact page. There will also be a link to download my resume once I finish writing it. Funny story, I had started building my resume but then my significant other closed out of it, effectively deleting the entire thing. I have to find a better platform to create my resume, one that let's me save the drafts. I wasn't sure what to write in the About Me page, so I did some Googling and the advice I read was to be a little personal, share what skills I have, and talk about my passion to code and learn. I have plenty of passion and I am an avid life-long learner. The most difficult parts of building my portfolio would have to be the CSS. There is not much JavaScript involved. Just the code to link my Contact form to my email. I struggled with the CSS though. I had issues with designing my navbar and how to make the entire thing responsive. Every time I fixed one issue, a new one would pop up. Google and Youtube became my best friends. If I absolutely couldn't get one thing to work, I would just switch gears and try a different tactic. I read that a lot of developers dislike CSS, but Kevin Powell is one of my unofficial mentors and I'm hoping to eventually develop a better understanding.

    I enjoyed the overall process of my portfolio and projects and genuinely had fun with it. My significant other bought me a desk about a month ago, which was very thoughtful because we have a small apartment. After weeks, I finally got a chair a few days ago and this corner in our bedroom is now my coding haven. I listened to a podcast once that spoke about how each area of your home should be dedicated to one thing. There's a place to eat, a place to sleep, and a place to work. That you shouldn't mix them up, because then it confuses your brain. If you're working in bed, then you won't feel as energized because your mind knows this is the place that you're supposed to sleep. And I totally believe that. Since I have been able to code at my desk, I enter immediate flow once I open my laptop. Time just flies by and I don't feel as tired. I have to make myself walk away from my laptop so I that can get a decent amount of sleep and not be exhausted the next day. I'm trying to regulate my sleep patterns because I know it improves my brains function and ability to work.

    Now I just have to put the finishing touches on my portfolio and projects, finish my resume, figure out how to attach it as a cv, and then figure out how to host everything and make is accessible to recruiters. I am hoping to have that all that finished before the end of March. Then my focus will be on keeping up with my LinkedIn, applying for jobs, trying to network, and just continuing to learn and grow my knowledge. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Learning WordPress

-
Image
      It's been awhile since I last posted. I took a break from the Blog, as well as posting on LinkedIn, for the past few weeks. I had a phone interview for a job last month that I thought would pan out. It wasn't quite in the tech field like I wanted, but it was a tech company, which was a step in the right direction. Ultimately the recruiter ghosted me though, so I took some time away and to try and pivot mentally. I landed my first client though. I was tasked with building a website for their appliance repair business. The only specifications that I was given were that it should be basic and contain an appointment calendar. Since I would be building my first professional site, I thought it would be a good opportunity to start learning WordPress and how to host a site outside of GitHub. I chose WordPress because I have seen a lot of job listings referencing it, so figured it would be a useful skill to learn. I knew also that WordPress would require at least a little ba...
Read more

WordPress portfolio is live

-
        It's been a difficult couple of weeks. I feel like my day job has been mentally taxing and any free time that I have after work is spent on adult responsibilities and professional development. My brain doesn't get much of a break. I read this book The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod and it talks about how the majority of successful individuals have a morning routine that involves them waking up early and setting the day up to be productive. I've been trying to develop my own routine. I've set my alarm to wake up at least 30 minutes earlier so that I don't feel rushed. I'm also trying to incorporate a habit of reading a daily inspiration excerpt from a book, journaling in a gratitude notebook, and spending at least 10 minutes on mindfulness/self reflection. I've been making a fruit/vegetable smoothie for breakfast and working out most days. It's been difficult to keep up with the practice though. My small apartment doesn't really provide a quiet,...
Read more

My Coding Buddy

-
Image
      A little over three years ago, at my previous apartment, there was neighborhood cat that everyone fed. Each person had their own name for her, but my family and I called her Gato. Well, Gato was the definition of scraggly. She was tiny, had awful skin problems, and was missing chunks of hair, but everyone absolutely adored her. She was a street cat through and through and wouldn't let anyone convert her into a house cat, but we did our best to look after her. Within a year, she had given birth to two litters of kittens. After the second litter, I took her to get fixed and her shots. The first litter I hope was adopted throughout the neighborhood as the feral kittens all eventually disappeared. The second litter remained a mystery for a few weeks. While she was pregnant the second time, we often let her inside to look after her. My partner would rub her belly and feel the kittens kick. She even spent Christmas with us and slept under the tree. Then one day Gato poppe...
Read more