First portfolio programs

[Kamjam66xx]

Hello. im hoping everyone can share their first and best pieces of software that they created for their portfolio, to get ideas and inspire others. Especially those who are new to software engineering, and are struggling with useful application ideas.

 

Im to the point myself where i need to write some software for my portfolio, and input from others on what they created who already walked the path would be awesome.

 

Hope people share some cool stuff

 

Edit: Looking for explanations of the software and what it does, not files and source code. But thats welcome too.

[Guest]

I wrote a TCP/IP chat client & server. 

I made a single player FPS game with Unity. 

 

Thats about the best stuff I’ve completed. I’m working on a really advanced game now for a big portfolio piece & way to make some money. 

[Kamjam66xx]

8 minutes ago, fpo said:

I wrote a TCP/IP chat client & server. 

I made a single player FPS game with Unity. 

 

Thats about the best stuff I’ve completed. I’m working on a really advanced game now for a big portfolio piece & way to make some money. 

Thats awesome, im learning stuff to work on simulations that use unity for a company that does government work. Thatll be my first realworld job in the field.

 

Im considering making a game engine, and a photogrammetry tool. 

[reniat]

some freelance work I did in college:

Wrote a context free grammar parser (it sucked, but it worked. But it REALLY sucked)

Wrote a web crawler to pull filing data from the SEC for a business grad student (I saved the source for this, https://github.com/reniat/Edgarcrawler, but don't judge it was very much hacked together college level coding)

Wrote a client/server game of tic tac toe, but the "client" was a raspberry pi that you interacted with via buttons and lights in a 3x3 grid.

wrote a script to extract huge amount of data into a dataset (it was actually a really good exercise in optimization, since part of the data was not independent of other rows so it wasn't just a top to bottom scrape)

 

more recent projects include a couple fairly complex discord bots, and a C++ discord library.

 

Hopefully something in that sparks some inspiration.

 

[Kamjam66xx]

1 hour ago, reniat said:

Hopefully something in that sparks some inspiration.

That definitily does. Im not really into web stuff yet, but that gives me an idea for using openCV to use a reverse image search engine (idk how exactly) and grab photos of an object off there, then use them to construct a 3D model with lots of pictures found from a single picture, and or give it keywords to search with your photo, or just ask for photos of something and it will find the most common thing and use that.

 

This already exists for satelite imagery.

 

Idk if thats possible, but im throwing that in my book of ideas.i

 

Edit: maybe add that to my photogrammetry tool idea, give it a cool viewport in openGL or vulkan.

 

[Dat Guy]

I found that even a diverse software portfolio won't help you to get a better job in most cases, unless you plan to work at a company that sells something similar already.

[Kamjam66xx]

3 hours ago, Dat Guy said:

I found that even a diverse software portfolio won't help you to get a better job in most cases, unless you plan to work at a company that sells something similar already.

Well, you still need good ideas for things to make if you dont have a portfolio. Thats my situation.

 

I dont have a degree, diploma, or ged, so i want a good portfolio.

[MyName13]

4 hours ago, Dat Guy said:

I found that even a diverse software portfolio won't help you to get a better job in most cases, unless you plan to work at a company that sells something similar already.

What helps then?

[Dat Guy]

Being a convincing person, mostly.

[reniat]

1 hour ago, Kamjam66xx said:

I dont have a degree, diploma, or ged, so i want a good portfolio.

 

39 minutes ago, Dat Guy said:

Being a convincing person, mostly.

 

Unfortunately, being a convincing person is likely not enough if you don't have any of those certificates, depending on the size of the company. You will definitely want something to demonstrate skill, and tbh even with a solid portfolio you will have to work pretty hard to get your foot in the door. My company has a flat requirement of a 4 year degree in computer engineering or computer science, and a min gpa of 2.8 (it's not super high, but still) before you can even be considered for an interview, let alone the job. Now that has a lot to do with the fact that we get thousands and thousands of applicants and need a way to filter, but still.

 

I don't say this to discourage you, but just to make you aware so that you're not discouraged if you get a lot of rejections when you actually start applying places. It doesn't necessarily mean you weren't skilled enough, it just means they probably just wanted a bit of safer hire.

[Kamjam66xx]

5 hours ago, reniat said:

 

Lucky for me, my cousins husband is part of and can more than likely get me on a team for a company that does simulations using vulkan, unity, and i think c++. Ill be able to get a GED and bachelors while im working then.

 

Edit: i think he does the interviews and is in charge of everyone, but idr. Also got a buddy in another company who could probably get me an interview if i asked, but they use python and java... which would make me hate my work.

 

40% of hiring is people you know.

[Mira Yurizaki]

I firmly believe practically all of my jobs were gotten because I knew someone in the company. What I put in my resume felt more like topics of conversation.

 

If you really want to know what I put down though, I can oblige.

[reniat]

1 hour ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

I firmly believe practically all of my jobs were gotten because I knew someone in the company. 

This is the best option when it's available

[vorticalbox]

I would say get involved with some open source software on GitHub, not only does this get some bigger names in your portfolio but you also get the experience of working in and team plus it gives back to the community.

[Franck]

On 1/11/2019 at 3:11 PM, Kamjam66xx said:

Hello. im hoping everyone can share their first and best pieces of software that they created for their portfolio, to get ideas and inspire others. Especially those who are new to software engineering, and are struggling with useful application ideas.

 

Im to the point myself where i need to write some software for my portfolio, and input from others on what they created who already walked the path would be awesome.

 

Hope people share some cool stuff

 

Edit: Looking for explanations of the software and what it does, not files and source code. But thats welcome too.

Interesting to see how it works in other places. Never i have ever heard about program portfolio or neither i met someone that asked for one when i was junior. I have never asked for it either. Here it either don't exist at all or extremely rare. Here the 3 main focus are degree, skill sets and languages you speak.