3 Elements of a Great Coding Portfolio
Coding bootcamp is a phenomenal career hack for breaking into software engineering. Having this credential on your resume can help you land a great job—but it isn’t sufficient on its own. The proof of your ability to write code and solve problems lies in the work you’ve actually produced.
When applying for software engineering jobs, you’ll need an excellent coding portfolio to showcase your talent and demonstrate to hiring managers that you’re the developer they’re looking for.
When applying for software engineering jobs, you’ll need an excellent coding portfolio to showcase your talent and demonstrate to hiring managers that you’re the developer they’re looking for.
What Hiring Managers Look for in a Coding Portfolio
Wondering what to put in your coding portfolio? The Launch Academy Career Services team has put together these recommendations based on years of experience and hundreds of conversations with hiring managers.
1. A personal blog
A personal blog offers a great opportunity to share your story. It’s often overlooked, but we consider it a cornerstone for a strong coding portfolio.
Use your blog to explain the projects you’re showcasing, shed light on the processes that led to your finished portfolio pieces, and develop the narrative of how you became a software engineer.
2. Relevant coding examples
Less is more when it comes to a coding portfolio. You may be tempted to include every project you’ve ever worked on, but most hiring managers won’t go through your entire library. If you include stronger and weaker projects, you’ll have less control over what hiring managers end up reviewing.
Instead, curate your portfolio strategically to showcase a capstone project—a larger project of consequence that demonstrates your ability to accommodate data at scale. The capstone project should look good, function well, and have up-to-date code. (Don’t forget to provide canned credentials so anyone can easily access your work.)
Include 5-6 smaller coding projects relevant to your desired career path as well. If you’re an aspiring front-end engineer, skew your portfolio toward HTML, CSS, React, and other front-end frameworks. Prefer back-end engineering? Focus on NodeJS, Ruby on Rails, and microservice architecture.
To ensure your portfolio is free of broken code, run tests each time you update any of your projects.
3. A README file
A comprehensive README file—a document that provides information and context about your codebase—is vital to your portfolio. The README file should answer questions like:
- If your code was cloned, how would the user get it up and running?
- Is there a test suite?
- How does the user run the test suite?
- What’s the test coverage?
- What technologies did you incorporate?
- Is it easy to install the programs your code needs to function?
The README file should also include troubleshooting information and, in some cases, images or videos to help users navigate the program.
Launch Academy’s coding bootcamp is the first step toward landing an awesome software engineering job. Building a strong portfolio is the second. Thanks to open-source software technologies like GitHub, it’s never been easier to put your work out there for hiring managers to see.
Ready to launch your software engineering career? Check out our syllabus to learn more about our coding bootcamp!