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Jonmarc Stevens
6,414 PointsDoes Treehouse have real life projects to add to a portfolio?
Basically I'm, curious to know whether or not Treehouse has any projects that I could potentially add to my current portfolio.
Currently I'm a UX designer but the amount of work I'm getting at my facility isn't a lot and the work that I have done I cannot put it on my portfolio until we get the green light for a final release (security reasons for the most part).
I try to do freelance work outside of my office hours but as of late, work has been very very slow, and this goes with volunteer work as well.
2 Answers
Zhihao Wang
9,687 PointsHi Jonmarc,
I'm in the same predicament: a front-end developer looking to build up a portfolio. Being 17 years old and still in high school, I don't have much time either to take on any real development work, since schoolwork and extracurricular activities take up a majority of my time. The best advice I've gotten is to create virtual/unreal projects that can be applicable in society. In web development terms, it means to create websites for "fake clients", and showing that you can create beautiful and functional prototypes for a variety of businesses (a shopping site, a blog, an agency site, etc). I think this is the best way to build your portfolio, since you don't have a deadline and can work on these projects when you have time.
Cheers!
Caleb Kleveter
Treehouse Moderator 37,862 PointsI agree with the fake client idea, Josiah Jost is a vary skilled designer, yet a lot of the logos he creates are for no company at all! Plus it gives you practice.
Jonmarc Stevens
6,414 PointsJonmarc Stevens
6,414 PointsThank you, yeah that is something that I was pursuing actually through another class on udemy which encouraged it as well. I created a persona, which led to me generating a mobile app device, along with a city website. Unfortunately, what I've been hearing from other sources that taking on factitious work while might be a good idea sometimes isn't practical; however, its the best I can offer at this time.
Jeff Lemay
14,268 PointsJeff Lemay
14,268 PointsThis is excellent advice. Create a site for a restaurant with just their menu and location details (contact, hours, directions/map). Or a site for a local farmer who's trying to share how his food is so much better than the grocery store. Or a massage parlor who takes reservation (this would showcase you can implement an appointment booking solution). Or some town's little league who needs to take player information and store it in a database. Or anything you can think of!
Go even further and have a cheap custom logo designed and add "real content" instead of dummy text to make it feel even more legit. Who knows, maybe you even sell the site/template to a local business and all you have to do is swap the logo and some text and you just made some money while building your portfolio.
Zhihao Wang
9,687 PointsZhihao Wang
9,687 Points@Jonmarc It just depends on what you want to use the portfolio for. If you are looking to find a permanent job at a development agency, then it might help to have some real world projects. However, if you're looking to take up freelancing on the side, then creating a portfolio of fake projects wouldn't hurt you. It all depends on how you present your projects. If your talent shines through those projects and they are presented professionally, no matter if they are fake or not, people will want to hire you for your skill set. Plus, any argument saying that fake projects don't develop experience is false; the only thing that you don't develop is time management and working for a deadline.
My final advice if you really want some real projects is to look around. Find local companies that might already have websites or apps that are outdated and offer to update them. Sure, you might have to offer your time for free, but they are not strict about deadlines, so you can work on them on your free time. In addition, you will also show how good of a person you are by volunteering your time instead of charging.
Currently, I'm developing a new and modern website for my robotics team, which doesn't affect my time at all due to the fact that it isn't an urgent project. At the same time, it is something that will definitely look good on my portfolio.