Do not build those projects as a developer

 

One of the best ways to learn and showcase your skills as a developer is through your projects. But a lot of people are stuck in 2018 and make wrong projects that present them in a bad way. So in this article, I want to mention projects that you SHOULD NOT build as a developer, and what you should build instead. ​ What not to build? A long time ago the typical developer portfolio looked like this: TOOD App Netflix clone Movie App E-commerce Website Portfolio Website If you were a hardworking person you were also building: Instagram Clone Facebook + Messenger Clone ​ And these all are GREAT APPS TO BUILD! I built similar apps myself and LEARNED so many  things from them. But the key word here is LEARN. All those apps are learning projects. What to build? If you want to get a job in 2024, besides  building learning projects, you should also build 1-2 big real-world projects. Those projects should look like real apps that you use on a daily basis and solve customer  (B2C) or business (B2B) problems. For example, I'm writing this article using the platform ConvertKit, which allows me to write emails and send them to 7000 people at once, see who reads them, and so much more. Without this platform, I wouldn't be able  to run this , so it solves a big problem  for me (And that's why I pay $800+/year for it ) ​ Another important thing about your project is its design. The first thing people will pay attention to  is how your project looks. If the look of your project doesn’t make people face like this: , you’ve lost! Bad design example: It looks okay for 2017, but not for 2024 and 2025. ​ Good design example: And the coolest thing is that you don't have to be a designer to build a beautiful project  as a web developer. You can just use free available Figma designs and use them as inspiration. Just google: "Free figma designs for X" (replace X with your project type, ex. "food delivery app"). ​ If you don't have any ideas for your portfolio projects, here are a couple more ideas for free: Social Media Managing App that helps you to write  scripts for viral shorts Convenient expense management tool for business  that supports multiple currencies and syncs with Stripe (popular payment processor) ​ So besides building learning projects, build real-world projects. They will help you to stand out, and you  can even potentially turn this side project  into a real business! Thanks everyone for your support and positive feedback! Enjoy your day and see you soon ! ​ Best regards Irene