I've recently graduated from a 4 year computer games programming course and am looking to get into the industry. So far nothing has come through on the job front...
Was wondering if anyone could have a look at my portfolio and see if there could be any done to the work I have to make it better, or if I could add anything to make it a more enticing portfolio...
Most of my work can be found at my website.
Thanks
Steven Hendrie
🎉 Celebrating 25 Years of GameDev.net! 🎉
Not many can claim 25 years on the Internet! Join us in celebrating this milestone. Learn more about our history, and thank you for being a part of our community!
Portfolio Critique...
The first thing I noticed was that the first page I was taken to on there didn't have any information that would sell you to an employer. Maybe write a little profile about yourself and where your coming from?
There is a very important concept in web marketting called the bounce rate. Most of the people who visit your site will leave immediately without looking at any other pages of your site, unless you manage to hold their attention. With that in mind:
From the time I clicked the link to your home page, it took me 7 (seven) clicks of the mouse before I found a picture/screen-shot. That is exactly 7 (seven) clicks too many.
Take a screen-shot of your best work, and stick it on the home page, to draw me in. Then make screen-shots or diagrams for *every* piece of work in your portfolio, and add them to the relevant pages.
Then make it so that I can reach all of your best projects without having to click through a menu - they need obvious links directly from the home page.
***
Add youtube videos of your best projects. I am very unlikely to install random exe's from a guy I don't personally know, especially on a company computer. If I can't see what it is from the webpage, I certainly won't.
***
***
Make the hit counter invisible. Statistics are fine (and valuable) for your own use, but public hit counters were already tacky in the 90's.
***
At least by US standards, you are dedicating too much space on your C.V. to your education. A detailed listing of courses and grades therein is redundant, except where a particular course directly resulted in a sample shown in your portfolio.
***
Apart from these cosmetic complaints, your content looks decent. Good luck!
From the time I clicked the link to your home page, it took me 7 (seven) clicks of the mouse before I found a picture/screen-shot. That is exactly 7 (seven) clicks too many.
Take a screen-shot of your best work, and stick it on the home page, to draw me in. Then make screen-shots or diagrams for *every* piece of work in your portfolio, and add them to the relevant pages.
Then make it so that I can reach all of your best projects without having to click through a menu - they need obvious links directly from the home page.
***
Add youtube videos of your best projects. I am very unlikely to install random exe's from a guy I don't personally know, especially on a company computer. If I can't see what it is from the webpage, I certainly won't.
***
Quote: stevenhendrie@stevenhendriegames.comThis seems a little redundant, and offers twice the opportunity for someone to misspell the address. Pick a short and simple prefix for your email, given that your name already appears in the domain name.
***
Make the hit counter invisible. Statistics are fine (and valuable) for your own use, but public hit counters were already tacky in the 90's.
***
At least by US standards, you are dedicating too much space on your C.V. to your education. A detailed listing of courses and grades therein is redundant, except where a particular course directly resulted in a sample shown in your portfolio.
***
Apart from these cosmetic complaints, your content looks decent. Good luck!
Swiftcoder hit my biggest complaints.
Look at the "Portfolio Content" thread next to yours in the forum. His portfolio follows the guides of giving you immediate videos and links to both code and executable if you want more. No mouse clicks, just instant views.
Most employers won't even view a programmer portfolio unless you give them a strong resume or CV. The one on your website won't drive an employer to look at your site. You should read the many resume threads in the forum and the FAQ for some suggestions on cleaning it up.
Look at the "Portfolio Content" thread next to yours in the forum. His portfolio follows the guides of giving you immediate videos and links to both code and executable if you want more. No mouse clicks, just instant views.
Most employers won't even view a programmer portfolio unless you give them a strong resume or CV. The one on your website won't drive an employer to look at your site. You should read the many resume threads in the forum and the FAQ for some suggestions on cleaning it up.
Regarding your CV:
Your grades are not flattering. Leave them off.
Do you have any experience with other tools used in the industry? SCM? Bug tracking? Unit testing frameworks? Code review tools? Profilers? Code-analyzers?
Do you have any descriptions of volunteer work involving technology or Open Source work?
I realize that you really want to get into game programming. However that is casting a pretty narrow net. When I review your CV all I see is games, games, games! Other companies in the tech industry might be turned off. Do you love development? The thrill of learning? I would consider reworking your CV so that it would be relevant to non-gaming companies.
It's going to be difficult to land your first job having graduated with no internship experience. Try to round-out your experience by doing any team work involving programming even if the pay sucks or is non-existent. Best of luck!
Your grades are not flattering. Leave them off.
Do you have any experience with other tools used in the industry? SCM? Bug tracking? Unit testing frameworks? Code review tools? Profilers? Code-analyzers?
Do you have any descriptions of volunteer work involving technology or Open Source work?
I realize that you really want to get into game programming. However that is casting a pretty narrow net. When I review your CV all I see is games, games, games! Other companies in the tech industry might be turned off. Do you love development? The thrill of learning? I would consider reworking your CV so that it would be relevant to non-gaming companies.
It's going to be difficult to land your first job having graduated with no internship experience. Try to round-out your experience by doing any team work involving programming even if the pay sucks or is non-existent. Best of luck!
First a disclaimer: I don't work in the Games Industry. I do however hire programmers, and am a programmer myself. That said, I'm no expert; if I'm wrong, please correct me so we can both learn and improve :)
This is what I noticed:
Looking at your CV, I do not suggest listing experience (in years) with specific languages or APIs; particularly when it only applies to schoolwork. Schoolwork doesn't equate to industry experience, so you may want to avoid describing it as such. The rest was a bit plain and didn't jump out at me.
There wasn't anything to separate classwork from your own projects, so I'm left to assume that a majority of the projects listed are from your school's curriculum. If you have any personal projects, any open source contributions, etcetera they need to be advertised. These help distinguish you as a person genuinely passionate about programming, and passionate people are awesome :)
As swiftcoder pointed out: there are no images, and it comes off as empty. You need images and videos for each of your demos, as well as more details on each project on the main portfolio page. I was honestly letdown that I couldn't see your Procedural Terrain Generator or 3D Pong without downloading the executables. Normally I would have stopped here; however, since I'm giving critique I decided to download and attempt to run a few of your applications.
You dumped the whole Release folder on me. Don't do this; it's just lazy. If I'm downloading a release build, I expect an executable, any dependent libraries, and maybe a readme file or two. Also, try to name your uploaded files more descriptively: I may be looking through dozens of portfolios, and it doesn't help to have 12 folders named "Release" sitting on my desktop.
Looking at the sample code I noticed a red flags: most notably the inclusion of someone else's code without credit. I only looked at a few of your applications, due to time constraints. Clean up your code; a lot.
I should also note that I had trouble running the procedural terrain and planet generator applications on my work PC. Most interviewers wouldn't give this a second look.
Overall, the website looks fairly nice (barring the lack of images / videos), but your demos clearly need a lot of work in terms of presentation and code. That's my take on things, the rest is up to you to pull together :)
Good luck Steven.
This is what I noticed:
Looking at your CV, I do not suggest listing experience (in years) with specific languages or APIs; particularly when it only applies to schoolwork. Schoolwork doesn't equate to industry experience, so you may want to avoid describing it as such. The rest was a bit plain and didn't jump out at me.
There wasn't anything to separate classwork from your own projects, so I'm left to assume that a majority of the projects listed are from your school's curriculum. If you have any personal projects, any open source contributions, etcetera they need to be advertised. These help distinguish you as a person genuinely passionate about programming, and passionate people are awesome :)
As swiftcoder pointed out: there are no images, and it comes off as empty. You need images and videos for each of your demos, as well as more details on each project on the main portfolio page. I was honestly letdown that I couldn't see your Procedural Terrain Generator or 3D Pong without downloading the executables. Normally I would have stopped here; however, since I'm giving critique I decided to download and attempt to run a few of your applications.
You dumped the whole Release folder on me. Don't do this; it's just lazy. If I'm downloading a release build, I expect an executable, any dependent libraries, and maybe a readme file or two. Also, try to name your uploaded files more descriptively: I may be looking through dozens of portfolios, and it doesn't help to have 12 folders named "Release" sitting on my desktop.
Looking at the sample code I noticed a red flags: most notably the inclusion of someone else's code without credit. I only looked at a few of your applications, due to time constraints. Clean up your code; a lot.
I should also note that I had trouble running the procedural terrain and planet generator applications on my work PC. Most interviewers wouldn't give this a second look.
Overall, the website looks fairly nice (barring the lack of images / videos), but your demos clearly need a lot of work in terms of presentation and code. That's my take on things, the rest is up to you to pull together :)
Good luck Steven.
Quote: Original post by Cradelet
I do not suggest listing experience (in years) with specific languages or APIs; particularly when it only applies to schoolwork. Schoolwork doesn't equate to industry experience, so you may want to avoid describing it as such.
QFT.
Column: What Does "Experience" Really Mean?
When I first visited your site, the walls of text just made me stop looking after the first few clicks. You need to separate your school projects from personal, if any. Google for "game programmer portfolios".
List the languages and technologies for each project. Schoolwork is fine but when I look for programmers, I look for personal projects.
Academic projects, no matter how complex, mean little because you were forced you to do it, unless it was a thesis and part of some significant research.. Personal projects present to me that you love programming and would do it on you own time.
List the languages and technologies for each project. Schoolwork is fine but when I look for programmers, I look for personal projects.
Academic projects, no matter how complex, mean little because you were forced you to do it, unless it was a thesis and part of some significant research.. Personal projects present to me that you love programming and would do it on you own time.
Hehe, are you using Weebly? I'm using that same template, though I modified it a little :D
This topic is closed to new replies.
Advertisement
Popular Topics
Advertisement
