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Tammy Dotson
16,790 PointsBuilding a Portfolio ?
Hi everyone, I have a question. I have gotten to the point that I feel comfortable beginning to build my own portfolio website. I have read online that doing spec work e.g. 99 designs, is not a good idea. I would like to offer my services free to some local churches and/or non-profits. My question is how do you handle the hosting if you do a job pro-bono? Or should I just build the portfolio other ways. I have considered finishing the PHP track, learning word press and doing some word press themes too.
2 Answers
Travis Thompson
12,976 PointsHey Tammy,
I would advise whoever you do work for on setting up their own hosting. Or you could set it up for them and they can pay the bill for it. I find that http://www.siteground.com/ offers some great hosting at extremely low prices. But don't let anyone make you foot the bill for hosting. If they want a professional website, they gotta understand that there is no such thing as free. Learning Wordpress and more PHP is always a good idea. Never stop learning!
Regarding getting your career jump started I would suggest the following below. This is from my own experience.
Step one for you is to get your portfolio site together, make it how you want to make it. If you are comfortable with HTML/CSS you should be able to pull off something that you are proud of. If you don't have a bunch of projects to fill it up with try to at least make a few. Even if it's just a personal site, or a site for your pets, or even a template, pick project that showcase your skills. Make them the best you can, and try to get them up and running quick. To beef up my own portfolio I took a web design class and this forced be to create projects, and get feedback from professors. If you have a community college in your area, this might be a good option for you.
Step two, get on out there! Get your cover letter and resume together. There are of course job boards like 99designs which are great, but I've found much more luck in my area with craigslist.org. There is a section that is dedicated to tech/web jobs on the site called web/info design. This keeps it local for you, and might help you reach out to more contacts/clients.
Step three, don't undervalue yourself. Try to avoid doing work for free. Maybe one small project is okay, but anything past a few and people will take advantage of you. Remember, you had to learn everything you do here, you had to take the time, the effort, and the money to learn your skills. Don't undervalue them. If a job offer comes up and they ask you what you'd like to make, ask for what you think is fair and add 10%. Do some research and see how much people with your skill set are making in your area.
Sorry for the rant. I wish you the best of luck in your career!
Best, Travis
Tammy Dotson
16,790 PointsThanks for the help guys, these are good suggestions . I don't think you were ranting Travis at all, I appreciate the advice. I guess step number one is to get my own site up and running so I will work on that and go from there.
Jim Padilla
2,943 PointsJim Padilla
2,943 PointsHey, I was wondering, what projects were you assigned to make for that class?
Travis Thompson
12,976 PointsTravis Thompson
12,976 PointsAll the projects we did had to be hand coded and self designed. Here's some we did.
1) Make a website that critiques at least 5 other websites on design and development. (http://www.ancient-digital.net/project1/index.html) 2) Make your own portfolio site. (http://www.ancient-digital.net/portfolio) 3) Make a site that features three of your favorite recipes (http://www.ancient-digital.net/jalapeno/) 4) Make a pure CSS3 slideshow. 5) Make a website about a certain subject or topic that interests you.
If you don't have a portfolio site that you've made up, that should be your first project. It should have all the basic pages of a site(About, Projects, Contact) and make it where it is your sort of playground.
Hope that helps.
James Barnett
39,199 PointsJames Barnett
39,199 Points>Maybe one small project is okay, but anything past a few and people will take advantage of you.I'd say do 5 sites for non-profits, 5 is a good number to start a portfolio with.
Make it clear that it's a special introductory one-time thing because you are just starting out. I'd say after the first few months of doing that, you should charge everyone even non-profits even for updates.
I do think it's ok to volunteer places if you actually believe in their mission and you'd want to volunteer for them regardless of wether you were making websites or not.