Blog

Practical advice for stuck developers

Job search strategy, portfolio building, interview prep, and the truth about the entry-level market.

Portfolio

AI-Integrated Portfolio Projects: What Employers Actually Want

Calling an OpenAI API in a weekend project is not impressive anymore. Here is what separates AI portfolio projects that get attention from ones that get ignored.

12 min read

Portfolio

How to Review AI-Generated Code Before You Commit It

AI-generated code often runs. That's not the same as being correct, secure, or production-ready. Here's a review process that catches problems before they become incidents.

11 min read

Portfolio

Writing a Technical Post-Mortem: What You Built, What Broke, What You Learned

A post-mortem shows hiring managers something a GitHub repo can't: that you understand what went wrong and why, and that you can reason about it honestly.

11 min read

Portfolio

Your Developer Portfolio Website: What to Include and What to Skip

A portfolio website is not required to get hired. But if you build one, it needs to show your work quickly. Not impress anyone with CSS animations.

12 min read

Portfolio

How to Write a Project Case Study (Not Just a Link to a Repo)

A GitHub repo shows what you built. A case study shows how you think. For the one or two projects that represent your best work, a written narrative is worth writing.

11 min read

Portfolio

The Portfolio Audit: What to Remove Before You Start Applying

Your GitHub profile is reviewed before your resume in many hiring pipelines. A cluttered portfolio full of abandoned projects and tutorial completions actively hurts you.

11 min read

Portfolio

Deploying Your Portfolio Project: Why It Matters and How to Do It

Keeping your project only on GitHub tells reviewers you know how to write code. A deployed link tells them you care about working software. Here's how to ship it.

11 min read

Portfolio

Writing a README That Sells Your Project Without Overselling Yourself

A weak README sends reviewers away. A strong one answers their questions before they have to ask, and shows you understand your own work well enough to explain it.

11 min read

Portfolio

What Good Commit Hygiene Actually Looks Like for Portfolio Projects

A reviewer who opens your GitHub and sees 'initial commit' followed by 'fixed stuff' is not going to spend more time looking. Your commit history is part of your portfolio.

10 min read