Website for soon-to-be-grad...

Question

I am a junior computer engineering student and will graduate a semester early (December of 2009). I have started applying to jobs and have had a couple of interviews. Two of my internships were in web development and I want to showcase some of my work online.

I'm thinking about starting a 'blog' or an online 'portfolio' type of website. My primary goal is to showcase projects and things I have worked on for fun and school to potential employers. I want to keep the site professional and technical.

I also thought of keeping an up-to-date resume on the 'blog'.

For those that have hired recent graduates, did they have a website? Is it a consideration or something you would even look at?

I am planning on using Wordpress and customizing it to my own needs. As a computer engineer, is this acceptable or do I need to roll-my-own? I can definitely do it, I'm just not sure if it's worth the headache.

I would appreciate any tips, advice, or things to avoid.

** I'm using 'blog' loosely because there may be a blog-like aspect to it. Such as, any recent Stackoverflow.com topics that relate to a project I may post or discuss.

Answer 1

I have a portfolio/resume website with a separate blog on wordpress. I didn't want to pay the extra money to customize the design of wordpress the way I wanted. My biggest issue with wordpress is their lack of Code Formatting, since most of my posts are code related.

If your a php coder, you may have better luck, if you wanna try to customize the wordpress.org stuff. I'm a .NET guy, I kind of wish i went with DasBlog, although I don't konw if they have code support.

As far as a portfolio is concerned I've gotten lots of comments from employers saying that the portfolio helped. when doing a web portfolio I would recommend having

• lots of pictures
• url
• description
• technologies used
• your role

Another thing, Always reference your website in the interview and have a printed version of your projects with you at your interview.

Answer 2

As a recent college grad, May 07, I can tell you that I set up a site similar to yours and included it on my resume. But in my dozen or so interviews, I was only asked about it once. I don't know if my case is a good representation of the industry, but I was truly baffled by it. Perhaps others can shed some light here.

IMO, there's no need to roll-your-own site. There are too many freely available implementations already out there for you to spend your time on it. And I think the content of the site is much more important than the implementation.

Answer 3

I think it is a very good idea to showcase your work. If you Roll your own, AND If you can put it to some remotely useful work, you can always promote it as a "real world personal project".

I would recommend doing something which uses the technology that you are looking to work in, but something that does not conflict with the market of companies you are looking at. [Saying that you work on linux projects in personal time when interviewing with MS OS division will look like a conflict of interest.]

You can always invite the person screening you/ interviewing you to check out the website. You should also preferably include a "meta" section on the website which describes the technical details of what you used for the website and all.

Once you DO start working, i STRONGLY recommend keeping a blog of interesting problems you solve a work or anything that is an indication of what new you learnt, without giving out confidential information. For this you can use a wordpress blog.

[About the rolling your own part v/s using an available package part: If you use a framework etc, you can just sell it as an indication of your not trying to re-invent the wheel everytime.]

Answer 4

Hi, I have done some hiring and a lot of interviewing for an internet company in San Francisco. I also worked for Microsoft and participated in several interview loops while working there as well as personally experiencing their hiring process twice (once as an intern and once as a FTE). I am an engineer, so once a resume gets to my desk, I'm sure 2 or 3 people have read the resume already via a screening process.

After reviewing the resume, I usually google ther person's name or visit their blog. I will also search for them on LinkedIn or Facebook. This doesn't affect the hiring decision, but it does help to get context on the candidates character and their professional interests. I would recommend removing any beer-bong photos that are public. :)

Usually, employers receive resumes directly through recruitment channels or via personal referral. Many companies do this through key-word searching of the resume or a quick stack-ranking of candidates via things like education and last position held. Personal referral usually guarantees an interview provided that the resume fits the position. Only after getting through this screening will a blog or personal website come into play. That is, unless the site is part of the person's work experience.

When I receive a resume, the most important thing is relevant experience and education. If no or little experience, then I look at school projects and maybe the person's professional goals to see if they are scoped correctly. Usually with a college hire, you're looking for a lot of intellectual horse power and tenacity for learning. The best thing about a college hire is being able to apprentice them in the craft, so you want someone who's going to soak up intel and be eager to learn.

I also want to encourage you to seek every and all help from your college's recruiting center if they have one. Employers pay a lot of attention to colleges, especially ones that they have hired from in the past.

Good luck on your job hunt, hope you do great.

Answer 5

I've been on the other side of the hiring table a number of times, and I would definitely give you points if you had a working blog. Wordpress is fine, rolling your own is good if it works. Bonus points if it's generally on the topic of software/computer stuff. Negative points if you have horrible taste and showcase computer projects that are nothing more than editing gifs in Paint for your Uncle's bar.

Definitely blog about your solutions to problems, whether with screenshots or tutorials or something similar. However, I would be happy just to get a sense that you're a real person with a personality that would not be abrasive to my team. The main problem I am trying to solve is "will this person fit on my team?" Part of that is "can they technically solve the problem" but part of it is "will they mesh with the team".

Use your blog/website/online portfolio to answer those questions positively and you're hired.

Answer 6

Wordpress is an excellent product that's been tested thoroughly by many users and a large group of php devs working on it.

IMHO there is no need to re-invent the wheel, if you are worrying about not knowing how the blog works, I think as you customize it, you will get to know the structure very well.

An online presence is an excellent idea no matter where you are in your career, (unless your employer says you can't moonlight). So I say, go for it! Just make sure your view source doesn't use tables for layout:) (if you end up rolling your own site)

Answer 7

I hope this doesn't sound like an advertisement, but you should consider app engine if you decide to roll your own. I set up a personal site on there for exactly this purpose a few weeks ago. You can get rolling quickly and it costs $0 even if you get Slashdotted. Well, $7 if you want a domain (you should absolutely get one if you're in this for the long haul, by the way).

Answer 8

This entirely depends on the type of job that you're going for, and the person who is going to be interviewing you.

Some people I know expect a person to have an online portfolio and/or blog so they can see that they're really 'dedicated' and can inspect their work beforehand; if you don't then it is counted against you before you even start the interview. This tends to be more common in user-facing development such as Flash or web stuff.

Other people (myself included) couldn't care less whether you have a blog or portfolio because we get so many CVs we don't have much time to investigate them all except in a superficial manner, and it's easier to tell whether you're any good by talking to you in an interview (and by the time that's finished, a blog or portfolio won't make a blind bit of difference because we've already decided).

For many people who screen CVs, it's more important to have correct spelling and grammar than a blog or online portfolio or whatever. Seriously. Spelling and grammar mistakes are inexcusable on a two page document which is supposed to be promoting the best you can be.

That said:

• A blog can help you become more proficient at expressing yourself. It can also help you to understand things better because if you need to write about something in such a way that somebody else can understand it, you need to really understand it, and this can prompt you to learn things you thought you knew, but actually didn't

• A good blog/portfolio can't hurt. The best thing that can happen is that an interviewer sees it and is wowed, and you get ahead based on that. The worst thing that can happen is that nobody looks at it, and so it makes no difference.

I'd say that if it's something you want to do anyway, then do it. If it's something you're doing only because you think it will help you get a job, then it's likely to be less valuable than you think, so don't.