With so many developers out there, at some point, one needs to stand out and present themselves as a good developer. This blog post will talk about some of the things that one needs to self-present themselves to recruiters and be outstanding. We going to connect the dots on how to land a job.

Portfolio

I noticed that most of the recruiters would ask to see my portfolio and here I was with no portfolio or just a half-baked un-updated portfolio. A portfolio is your identity. This is where you show your coding journey. It showcases one of your best projects, your skills, and the way you solve your problems. This guides recruiters, it is more like a visual resume with proof that you can do the work.

Some of the examples of Portfolios you can have are:

💻 Website
📄 GitHub
🎨 Blog Post
🖼️ Social Media (Mainly dedicated to your work and skills)

Here is an example: Portfolio

LinkedIn

LinkedIn acts as your professional playground. It is important to create a good headline and have a nice banner (you can create one using Canva ). Have a friendly yet professional profile photo, a detailed summary of what you do, what you have done, and your skills, a summary should attract recruiters and give them an insight into what you have achieved. Add a detailed career journey in the work experience section, showing recruiters what you achieved and did in a certain company. Make sure your LinkedIn profile is always up to date.

Here is an example: My Profile

GitHub

GitHub is where you showcase your coding journey. One might be working at an organization where you cannot share the work you have done. But hey, you can create repositories of mini projects showcasing your coding skills and add them to your GitHub. One can also contribute to open-source projects, and commit regularly, with this you can adapt some skills from others and it will show that you can work with others in a team and unsupervised. Design your account and make it look interesting, use README.md section to design your GitHub page.

Here is a site that can help you design your page: GitHub Profile README Generator

Resume

I remember asking myself why my resume does not get noticed, I realized crafting a resume is an art. One thing I learned is to keep it concise and highlight my skills, experience, and achievements. Having a resume tailored for each job application, and adding the skills that match the role helps than adding everything in one resume. One thing I noticed is on the 'Work experience' talk about what you have done, improved in your work area, what you achieved, and how it helped others. This is what quickly attracts recruiters and how it can be of use in the role being advertised. You can always have an online resume to make it easier for you to use and edit, and can always send links to the recruiters. You can use a site called FlowCV

Here is an example: My Resume

Coding Platforms

How many of you have been interviewed and asked to take a coding challenge? Yep guess we are many. This is one of the most important parts of everything. Learn how to code, and know your algorithms, and data structures in a language that you are comfortable with. There are a couple of sites that allow you to sharpen your coding skills such as Leetcode and HankerRank.
Coding challenges are the secret weapon and these platforms help better your coding skills and problem-solving abilities. They allow you to include your achievements and recruiters can see your progress. It demonstrates your dedication to continuous learning.

Conclusion:

Guess we managed to connect the dots in self-presentation to be an outstanding developer. Your portfolio, LinkedIn profile, GitHub repository, and resume are the dots that, when linked together, guide recruiters to your unique story. The journey to landing your dream job begins with presenting the best version of yourself. You might fail a couple of interviews and get disappointing emails but hey, get back up, take note of your mistakes fix them, and go try again till you land that job 🌟🌟