A Blog Has Been Better for My Career Than a Portfolio

12 Jan 2025 #writing

I don’t have a coding portfolio.

By portfolio, I mean a webpage showcasing my best projects. My GitHub account is the closest thing to a coding portfolio. But it hasn’t helped me land jobs.

My blog has helped me more.

Some time ago, the next day after interviewing for a small local company, I got a phone call.

They wanted me to start a company blog for them. The interviewer read some of my blog posts. I had a link to it on my CV. He wanted me to write something similar for them.

I wrote five blog posts for them with interview preparation material. Even though I decided not to continue the interview process, I declared it a win. Also, I made some lunch money with them.

Years later, the last time I applied for a job, in the first interview, I shared my screen and walked the interviewer through my blog.

The interviewer asked if I contributed somehow to the coding community. The process went smoother from there. I didn’t have any coding interview after that, except for opening a PR on an open source project. That was it.

Sharing your thoughts and learnings can open unexpected doors. Even if you don’t land new jobs, you’ll learn new skills. And more importantly, you’ll learn to think better. So write your first online piece and see what opportunities it brings. But don’t start a blog.