Hi all,
I have applied for a website developer job back in august to find out a couple of days ago to only find out i do not meet their requirements they said soem of the candidates had qualifications and work history that was more related to their required job description but how come i cant get my foot in the door to build up my work history? this is kinda insulting i recon not many jobs going on around my town in my area so i cant really relocate unless its paid.
Thanks,William
No one owes you any favors, unfortunately. Have you considered freelance work to build up your work history and experience? There are also lots of little jobs available online that you can bid for if you are really desperate.
will that be good on my resume and also i am referring to people advertising for part-time or full time website developer employment as i only know php,mysql,javascript,xhtml,css,flash and actionscript and matority of the places that advertise want asp.net and asp developers as well as C Sharp developers mostly .net development jobs going in christchurch only very rarely a ruby on rails development job
so would those be a good idea to start to learn? What would you think?
As for freelancing what should i put it under on my resume Work for myself 2011 to present?
Thanks,William
Do you have any prior working experience and/or educational background?
Only website exp is working with a website gaming development company that also made video games but I’m not on speaking terms with them
I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=-43.536601,172.574973
Either way there is no reason to be insulted. You just weren’t what they were looking for – simple as that. Thought you shouldn’t burn bridges with employers. Considering it is likely that you may need to use them for reference – what than. This is especially true considering the limited amount of work experience you have.
Well I’ve asked many times for work reference but they still havnt given me one they simply told me I’ll have one by end of the day but nothing so shud I learn another language to increase my skill limit
I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=-43.430310,172.614549
The first thing to do is renew your domain hosting (“My Portfolio website”) is an expired domain that lands on a generic page.
Realizing that most employers will FIRST look at your portfolio, this should be your highest priority.
Ya I have but I have another domain I use it is willbc.net I thought I changed it
I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=-43.430181,172.614302
Yes it will totally help , Make sure you have a portfolio , It’s 70% helpful towards your resume.
Your “portfolio” site at the moment is not a good advertisement for your skills. The “home” and “about” pages are identical, and very similar to the “clients” and “portfolio” pages, which are identical to each other. I’d also advise you to correct the xhtml and css errors on your site, if you want people to take your skills in those areas seriously. If your own site looks as if you don’t really care about it, you’re going to have a hard time convincing would-be employers that you will care about their sites.
You might also want to brush up on your grammar and punctuation. Basic mistakes in those can make a poor impression on would-be employers.
Please stop adding the ‘I am here…’ to every post Will, it doesnt add anything to the post and isn’t required.
By all means stick it in your sig but not in the posts.
Yeah, your portfolio site leaves much to be desired including the lack of proper grammar. I would recommend having a family member or friend look it over – that is what I always do. Considering I’m not the greatest with grammar myself I might see past it but it is very doubtful most would.
On a related note something I would highly recommend is expanding on the summaries for projects and providing some larger images of every project. That little one or two sentences for each one with a small little thumbnail really is pretty worthless.
So what can i do to improve my website? anything i can do to improve this?
@oddz You think a larager thumbnail would do the trick to improve my website portfolio?
Larger images will be an improvement on showing your images but there’s never a single thing which will be the “trick” to make your portfolio perfect and in your case it will require a number of things.
Building your professional image is not an overnight process and getting opinions is the first step to improving it. Good job starting this post… With that said, I’m going to be very direct here – take my comments as you wish but I believe the best advice is honest, which is not always polite.
You’re going to struggle to sell your experience path. In 2006 you got a diploma in a field which really doesn’t have degrees… 5 years and you have 5 items on your site only 2 of which look to be for actual businesses. What have you been doing and how does it relate to keeping up with the web?
I look at your portfolio and frankly I wouldn’t call you back if you had applied to a job in one of my team. The language skills you used [grammar, sentence structure, vocabulary] are basic and unless you are PhD candidate developer, communication is the most important thing I need from my team. At the same time the style of your site and the clients listed is just not reflective of the modern web.
You have no resume listed. While I assume you send one to people when you apply to jobs, when I’m on your portfolio I want to know you’re looking for a ongoing role and advertising it as your goal not because you can’t get enough freelance work this week. Heck, I can’t even see your full name on your site unless I look at the title tag.
You’ve got no social connections. LinkedIn is the obvious choice but there are others and like your resume, they help me see where you’re connected, who follows you and whose recommended you. And clean your web image… in a few searches I’ve seen everything from your freelance work requests to your amazon picks to your movie ratings, all under your name.
I don’t know much about your market but if you’re in an area with limited companies you will struggle after 5 years out there – your info has been seen. Look broader… moving is part of life and a chance to grow, you can always go back.
My advice to you would be to get more work today. Doesn’t matter if it’s a local bakery or civic organization, free or paid, you need to show off what you can do. At the same time, tighten down and focus. I said I wouldn’t bring you into a team and that’s because you’re positioning yourself as someone who is a a-z developer but without the experience – that’s not a good sell. Instead like with your portfolio site, focus in on what you really do best [and like doing, this is a job after all]. Everyone I’ve ever interviewed who designed knew some flash, every coder knew some photoshop… what do you best that you should be hired for? At what level? You know the answer now find the work and showcase it in a way that explains it to me.
okay thanks for the advice i do have facebook as for the paid work you said at
My advice to you would be to get more work today. Doesn’t matter if it’s a local bakery or civic organization, free or paid, you need to show off what you can do. At the same time, tighten down and focus. I said I wouldn’t bring you into a team and that’s because you’re positioning yourself as someone who is a a-z developer but without the experience – that’s not a good sell. Instead like with your portfolio site, focus in on what you really do best [and like doing, this is a job after all]. Everyone I’ve ever interviewed who designed knew some flash, every coder knew some photoshop… what do you best that you should be hired for? At what level? You know the answer now find the work and showcase it in a way that explains it to me.
How can i do free website work even if i outsource all my design work as designing websites is not my strong point? i’d have to pay for some one to do this for me by using a rentacoder worker or someone i personally know
Just as you can’t design well, some people who design can’t code well. Find a partner and meet in the middle. Or find a client with a limited budget and help them build a great site for the cost of just a few PSD layouts. Or cough up the money as it’s far more profitable to invest in building a portfolio than it is to be without work.
If there’s a wall in your way, get over it or around it… staring at it all day won’t get you anywhere.
To add to what Ted S. suggested on improving your website, show more links or screenshots of your work. I see that you have a link for “Flourish Web Game”, but any reasons why you didn’t provide links to your other stuff? I hope that you did get to keep the assets of your work so that you can re-create them.
You won’t sell a potential client with small thumbnails and a one-sentence description. The Antarctica Flash game looks particularly interesting, it can show your skills as an Actionscript developer, but there’s no way we can see it/play it. Also, your top left links are the default blue/purple with a default Serif font, which takes away from the professional look more.
Find some other web portfolios of more experienced people to set a benchmark for yourself. People usually expect a resume and visible screenshots of websites.
If I were in your spot, I’d take whatever freelance projects I could, both locally and online.
Nobody cares initially where your first few projects come from, just what they look like. Even if you have to take a couple free projects to get started…do it.
If you produce quality work, and continue to pound the pavement, something will turn up. Best of luck.