The job market is very competitive and creating a portfolio website is a tried and true method to get potential employers to notice you. A portfolio website showcases your talents and it gives you an opportunity to practice your web development skills. When you have an outstanding cover letter and resume plus a portfolio website, you position yourself ahead of the pack in the job market. Here is my simple guide on how to create a portfolio website.

Keep It Simple

A portfolio website should be simple and clean with one or two pages. There is no need to go overboard on the design as a web developer. If you are a designer then you would want to showcase your artistic talents in your portfolio website. But for a web developer you can just use a simple Bootstrap theme from Bootswatch.com.

About Page

You should include an about page in your portfolio website with the following:

• Name and Job Title – this should be an H1 HTML tag so that it stands out
• Career Goals – a list of goals and aspirations you would like to achieve in the next 3-5 years
• Technical Skills – this is the most important section where you can really showcase your talents and you should always include the technologies that you are proficient in (such as ASP.NET, C#, MVC, Microsoft Azure, etc.)
• Contact Information – this should be email only, never put your address or telephone number on a public website!

Portfolio Page

Your portfolio page should list any projects that you have worked on, both personal and professional. Each project should include the following:

• Project Title – this should be an H1 HTML tag
• Screenshots – images of your work that can include the finished interface or code
• Description – a full and complete description of the project, its purpose, audience, the outcome, and the programming languages and frameworks used in development
• Links – here you can include links to download your project or navigate to your live website, download the complete code solution, or if you are a real rock star you can create a GitHub project and add a link to that on your portfolio page!

How to Build Your Portfolio Website

If you need help building your portfolio website, I have you covered! You can begin with my Free Crash Course – The Fundamentals of Web Development: Using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Have a great week and Happy Coding! #LearnLoveLiveCode