Discussion of the Week: "What are your best tips to create a developer portfolio?"
Tags: bestofdev, discuss, career
Published: 2024-02-01 22:21:10

In this weekly roundup, we highlight what we believe to be the most thoughtful, helpful, and/or interesting discussion over the past week! Though we are strong believers in healthy and respectful debate, we typically try to choose discussions that are positive and avoid those that are overly contentious.

Any folks whose articles we feature here will be rewarded with our Discussion of the Week badge. ✨

![The Discussion of the Week badge. It includes a roll of thread inside a speech bubble. The thread is a reference to comment threads.](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/yvizv31dpchucxic2lxc.png)

Now that y'all understand the flow, let's go! 🏃💨

## The Discussion of the Week

This week's featured discussion goes to @jmfayard for initiating a super helpful conversation titled "[The IT job market is tough right now. What are your best tips to create a developer portfolio ?](https://dev.to/jmfayard/show-your-work-3hpg)" 

{% embed https://dev.to/jmfayard/show-your-work-3hpg %}

A continuation of the excellent series _[Hiring Is Broken](https://dev.to/jmfayard/series/9282)_, Jean-Michel opens this entry by covering the challenges that devs face in today's job market before arguing that developers should spend more time working on their portfolios. Explaining that a portfolio provides a dev a special opportunity to stand out to hiring managers, Jean-Michael opens the floor with the following prompt:

> What are your best tips to create a developer portfolio?

Right up at the top of the comments section sits some fantastic advice from @brian_curricular who points out that hiring managers and interview panelists rarely have much time to look through a portfolio, so succinctness and functionality must take the forefront: 

{% embed https://dev.to/brian_curricular/comment/2cei3 %}

We'll be keeping an eye out for your article, Brian!

@colocodes weighs in with some wonderful step-by-step guidance while pointing to a related post that they previously shared called "[How I’ve got a web development job one week after publishing my portfolio](https://dev.to/colocodes/how-ive-got-a-web-development-job-one-week-after-publishing-my-portfolio-3o6g)".

{% embed https://dev.to/colocodes/comment/2cf00 %}

Meanwhile, @j3ffjessie counters the premise, pointing out that portfolios aren't all that important and asserts that a dev's time is probably better spent on networking:

{% embed https://dev.to/j3ffjessie/comment/2cfch %}

This is just a sampling — the comments don't stop there! Also, props to Jean-Michel for being so thoughtful and respectful in their responses. Great job keeping the discussion (and the good vibes) rolling! 🙌

If you have any thoughts about how to improve a dev portfolio or other tips for getting hired, don't hesitate to hop in and [share them in the comments section](https://dev.to/jmfayard/show-your-work-3hpg/comments).

## What's your pick for the Discussion of the Week?

The DEV Community is particularly special because of the kind, thoughtful, helpful, and entertaining discussions happening between community members. As such, we want to encourage folks to participate in discussions and reward those who are initiating or taking part in conversations across the community. After all, a community is made possible by the people interacting inside it.

There are loads of great discussions floating about in this community. This is just the one we chose to highlight. 🙂

I urge you all to share your favorite discussion of the past week below in the comments. And if you're up for it, give the author an @mention — it'll probably make 'em feel good. 💚