Ask HN: How can I build a portfolio being unemployed?

6 points by slinger 8 years ago | 4 comments

Hi HN! I've 9 years of working experience as a full stack developer and this month I decided to take a step back to study zand try to get a remote job. The problem is that I can't showcase most of the jobs that I did and I didn't contribute to open source. How can I start to build a portfolio being unemployed, perfectionist (most of the time stuck at analysis paralysis) and not very good at english?

iotatoken 8 years ago |

1) If you are not employed then your website is effectively just a CV. If you do not have work to put on there tailor it to show your skills. You can add work as you come along.

2) contribute to open source stuff, find some freelance clients, write a blog about relevant topics and share your ideas and thoughts on design/development etc...

Have a look around at other portfolios of freelance web developers and see what they are doing :)

slinger 8 years ago | |

Thanks

sharemywin 8 years ago |

pick one project.

so you have an answer to what your doing now.

find one technically challenging part of it. do that. so you have something to ramble on about for a second or two about the project.

try for an interview. fail. do more stuff to your project. repeat until someone hires you.

don't talk about the business side of it when you interview.

slinger 8 years ago | |

Thank you!