Hello everybody!
Recently I tried to set up my online portfolio. How important is to have one out there and how must one be structured? Waiting for serious advice from the people who have one or from other experienced people. Here is mine : http://bratie.wordpress.com. What do you think? You would hire me? :D
Thank you!
Well, a portfolio with names on impresses people. If you went to a studio with a big AAA title on it you'd gain their attention no doubt. Otherwise? Depends on the recruiter I guess.
My friend got a job with Media Tonic through handing them a half-finished iOS app that they were really blown away by. Another friend got a job through assessment centres and tests with Microsoft. I got a job at Exient through being the highest scorer on a programming test. Most of the programmers at the company got in by doing well on said test or by doing not-so-well but shining in the interview.
It's rare you'll be recruited purely off a portfolio. They'll want to interview you and more likely than not test your programming abilities. I can't speak for the whole industry, but from what I've seen a portfolio really doesn't carry the weight it does in more creative roles. It wouldn't hurt to have one, but don't feel it's a total necessity.
Well, a portfolio with names on impresses people. If you went to a studio with a big AAA title on it you'd gain their attention no doubt. Otherwise? Depends on the recruiter I guess.
My friend got a job with Media Tonic through handing them a half-finished iOS app that they were really blown away by. Another friend got a job through assessment centres and tests with Microsoft. I got a job at Exient through being the highest scorer on a programming test. Most of the programmers at the company got in by doing well on said test or by doing not-so-well but shining in the interview.
It's rare you'll be recruited purely off a portfolio. They'll want to interview you and more likely than not test your programming abilities. I can't speak for the whole industry, but from what I've seen a portfolio really doesn't carry the weight it does in more creative roles. It wouldn't hurt to have one, but don't feel it's a total necessity.
I don't expect to be hired only if someone is looking at my newbie portfolio. Someone told me that if an employer is looking at a lot of CVs per day they kinda get bored and an online portfolio give them the posibility to easier see what I can do and then call me for an interview.
As a programmer:
I've seen people that have an optional section for submitting a portfolio at initial application, but from my experience most people care more about what you know and what you can do on the spot, since there's no way to reliably tell if a "portfolio" is actually yours and yours alone. For anything above an entry level job, it becomes all about how many products you've helped ship.
That said, having a portfolio doesn't hurt, and the very fact that you're working on stuff gives you something to talk about, and a lot of interviewers want to know about what you've done and what challenges you've faced in the process.
I wonder if I wouldn't be a little put off if portfolio didn't matter. If only because I wouldn't know if my colleagues were serious business. What good does a test really do but make sure you know your const char* a from your const char* const a? Not a big fan of trivia either.
What would it say about you if you joined a hopeless place of 8-4 programmers? I want to work with people who care about all of "this." Whatever this happens to be.
Portfolios are a great way to showcase your work, but you should only include your best work in it (ie no Hello, World apps) as well as code snippets showing your programming abilities. The other half is your resume, which again, only put relevant information on it (ie if you are trying to get a programming job, then you don't need to list that you worked at the local gas station during high school). Above all, just keep programming and building your resume and portfolio and constantly show it around to get pointers for improving it or where you may need to remove things.
