Hi Miles,

First things first: I don't think HN is the right place to solicit comments on personal website designs, despite the fact that it happens from time to time. So don't be disappointed you don't get a lot of comments. (Edit: it looks like you did get a few good comments. Lucky you!)

Anyway, back to the website.

1. Go to validator.w3.org. Paste your domain into the Address box. Fix all the errors that show up in the result page. Especially those duplicate IDs.

2. Check your website in a phone. If you don't have access to a smartphone, download Opera Mobile Emulator. On my phone, everything except your name is zoomed out so much that it's barely readable. Time to write some CSS media queries!

3. A single-page website that scrolls itself is cool. (Personally, I'm not a big fan of this trend, but other people seem to like it.) Stock photo background, not so cool. Your name in white text, against a relatively bright background, also uncool. Also see 9) below.

4. Do you really need to remind me of the name of each of your projects as I hover the mouse over them? Five of them already have the name (or part of it) in the screenshot. A short description might be more informative.

5. Your age can be both an asset and a liability. It's an asset because it shows that you're smarter than the rest of the 17-year-olds. It's also a liability because potential clients might underestimate your seriousness, your reliability, and/or your ability to charge a fair hourly rate. You're almost 18. Your days of relying on your competence/age ratio to distinguish yourself from others are all but over. From now on, it doesn't matter how old you are. Focus on looking professional. Very professional.

6. phpMyAdmin is not a paradigm. In fact, I would say that only 2 of the 7 items on your list qualify as paradigms. There are also duplicates, like LAMP = Apache + MySQL + PHP. Consider a different way to organize and present your skill set, and try to quantify your skills as others have suggested. Also, be honest in your quantification. You don't have to be an expert in everything.

7. Instead of just MVC, list any frameworks you've used (if any). A lot of companies are looking for people who are familiar with CodeIgniter, CakePHP, etc. It's OK if your favorite framework doesn't coincide with theirs, because most frameworks are similar.

8. Microsoft likes to use big slabs of solid color, but it quickly begins to look like a website from the 90s if you overdo it. Making your slabs slightly transparent doesn't make them look any better, either. Subtle patterns (google this exact phrase for a nice website with lots of free textures), light gradients, and shadows can go a long way toward making your designs less monotonic. Just don't overdo it. Don't overdo anything.

9. Reconsider your choice of fonts. Heading in a generic-looking sans-serif web font, with subheading in Arial, another generic-looking sans-serif font? Nope, looks amateurish. Read up on typography best practices.

10. You have a GitHub profile! Why don't you link to it? (On the other hand, you might not want people to judge you based on the quality of your open-source repositories, especially if they were updated quite a while ago. If I were a client, I wouldn't want to catch a potential hire using the mysql_query() function with interpolated variables.)

If you have any questions about what I wrote above, feel free to ask.