Getting Started With My Portfolio Website

I’ve recently started the journey of making my own portfolio website with the main objective being to showcase my expertise and web development skills, but more importantly, so I could test myself by learning new codes and practices. A portfolio is very important for promoting your skills and accomplishments, not only through a portfolio of  work, but also through the layout and design of your website. This is why it is fundamental to show your personality and demonstrate the kind of person you are through out your website.

After I left University I did make a portfolio website based on a template and, surprisingly, the quality of the site didn’t look too bad considering I had no industry skills. I was determined to make a space of my own which exhibited my work and personality (which is probably why it ended up being black and pink at the time!). The quality of the code, however, was something to be desired and an area where I will hopefully be able to demonstrate some improvements in this new project.

I will hopefully be documenting the ongoing progress of this; But considering how much I enjoy seeing an idea come to life, I might end up coding more frequently than I can keep up with the blogging. So please bear with me.

And So It Begins!

Hey there! My name is Rachel Bull and I am a Front End Web Developer from London. I have worked in the industry for about 4 years now after being given my first break at a well known parenting forum website. It’s safe to say I have learnt more in the industry (and using Google) than I have from my 3 years at University.

On many occasions I have pondered upon the idea of writing a blog and wondered if it would be helpful or useful to anyone. Very recently, I began trying to learn AngularJS and spent most days trawling the internet reading tons of guides and tutorial sites. Needless to say, when I had finally achieved the desired effects, I looked at the code and disappointingly thought, “Is that it?”. I don’t know what I expected, but I almost wanted to see a complicated code masterpiece, that demonstrated the frustration and confusing mess that my mind had made the code out to be.

Sometimes the most basic of code can be turned into a nightmare of complicated jargon through reading complicated tutorials and user answered forums online, especially for people who are quite new to web developing. I’m sure many would agree that development tutorials online can make coding seem impossibly advanced. I have spent many days banging my head on a desk in frustration, only to glance at it the next day with fresh eyes and see exactly what my mistakes are. So I thought I’d spare a few sore heads, by sharing my knowledge, skills and web developing experiences with anyone who, like me, wants to understand coding from a basic, almost “starting from scratch” perspective.