The side project you all need to do and redo as a web developer 👨‍💻
Tags: career, programming, javascript, webdev
Published: 2022-10-11 12:03:18

## Intro

I've been working as a web developer for almost 12 years now, and I know how hard it is to keep yourself up-to-date.

In this article, I want to emphasise how important it is to start building your portfolio if you haven't yet, and, more importantly, keep iterating on it whenever you feel like you want to learn something new.

Look at my portfolio iterations and everything I learned throughout this journey.

## 11 years ago, my first portfolio

![Portfolio 2011](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/b3unmyjfmfjhz0l205o9.png)

Let's be honest; this looks terrible. But from this, I got my first experience with web languages, mainly HTML & CSS. 

With my fresh new _computer science_ degree, I couldn't wait to start as a web developer. Unfortunately, I had no experience. I could only find backend roles using old programming languages such as AS/400 or COBOL.


## Trying to be creative

![Portfolio 2012](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/e4sfcuu41z2o9shxxefv.png)

My second iteration mainly was me trying to make something more pleasing to the eye than the previous iteration. And that challenge wasn't complex. Anyway, I could play even more with PHP and database, but also a little bit of _javascript_ and our good old friend **JQuery**.

This is when my love for Javascript probably begin. 

## Begging for a Web developer role

![Portfolio 2014](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/qixo4kfg948wy5s3lcil.png)

No one was ready to offer me a role as a web developer. The only way I could get some experience was to create websites for small companies as a self-entrepreneur. This was a tough time for many reasons. 

From that, I could showcase some websites I did, and I finally got my foot in the web world as a backend PHP developer thanks to my exceptional UX/UI skills 😂.

## Moving to Sweden with a **new "resume."**

[![Portfolio 2017](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/vurbb6l5kvi4exbghofn.png)](https://2017.thomasmorice.com/)

I wanted to challenge myself then, so I decided to _move abroad_ to Sweden and start a new position as a front-end developer. I finally got the opportunity to work in my dream role.

I believe this iteration of my portfolio helped me get the job there in Sweden. 

Even though the design wasn't from me, and I felt like that was cheating, it was much more pleasing to the eye, had a responsive version for mobile_, and had some _little transitions_ that the recruiter loved.

## Telling my story

![Portfolio 2018](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/8payyqyuu3an41dvney6.png)
[see it live!](https://2018.thomasmorice.com/)

![Portfolio 2019](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/431egnwdfeo1d1tf91a5.png)
[see it live!](https://2019.thomasmorice.com/)

In both of those iterations, you can tell that I was eager to get more into the details regarding my career path. I've learned so much about myself while doing these two projects.

Talking about myself while coding those projects happened to be some _introspection_, and from that, I realised I became _much more confident_ when talking to recruiters.

I also improved my writing skills in English, which was (and still is) not my strength.

## My current portfolio (but for how long? 👀)


![My current portfolio](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/sabusjrb9m4kp3pz1t54.png)
[see it live!](https://thomasmorice.com/)

I was/am so proud of that one. This was the first time I felt joy and confidence in sharing my work with others. I wanted my website to be minimalist and pretty to look at, but that challenge was one of the hardest. 

I also learned a lot about performance and accessibility on this one. 

## Conclusion

I believe I would not have the career I have if I didn't work that much on my portfolio. While building it, I built confidence, skills, self-knowledge, and much more.

Whether you are studying web development and want to be better at it, a junior dev who wants to improve on accessibility or performance, or even someone who wants to add some creativity to his life, I believe building your portfolio is a great way to push yourself in many ways.

I'd love to hear about your story and maybe look at the first website you did as a side project!