What Goes Up Must Come Down

With the first program finished, it was time to work on my portfolio. I used Joshua Fluke’s YouTube channel as resource for understanding what should and should not be in a portfolio. I noticed a spectrum of experience there – from people who just made a landing page to fully functional social media clones.

Landing pages seemed doable. But how? After skimming, I found bootstrap - easy to use and looks great. Say less. The only problem is bootstrap’s heart and soul seemed to be CSS and HTML. I only knew about HTML from editing my myspace page and that was only about a lifetime ago. In other words, the information wasn’t reliable.

…And it was going to stay that way. I didn’t learn CSS and HTML. I just winged it.

I used the bootstrap docs and got some sites running with duct tape and popsicle sticks. They looked better than the default HTML, but I wasn’t satisfied. It was time to challenge myself: I was about to recreate a website.

I was finished in no time. It wasn’t as hard as I thought. It was like an open notes test - if you know where to find the right information you will succeed. Now “my” pages looked fantastic.

I started sending my resume everywhere I could. And after two months, no callbacks and no interviews. Just bewilderment. Maybe my information was wrong. Maybe there was a technical problem.

I acted like a prospect and followed the trail from start to finish. The only problem I found: a mediocre portfolio.

Are landing pages enough? Probably not.

What's an obstacle you found while applying for jobs as a web developer?