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As others have just said, a portfolio may or may not matter. The polished product isn't the issue, though. It's skills, principles and knowledge you pick up while experimenting. Whether or not you share a spare-time project with a potential employer, having spent a bit of time on your own learning about this stuff will make you a stronger candidate & a better interviewee. You'll be able to speak that much more confidently and persuasively about a broader range of technologies, which will almost certainly help you in the job market. -Corey On 5/6/2011 4:06 PM, Ceci Land wrote: > I like this. Maybe it's because it's what I was already thinking about doing. I have 3 project ideas twirling around in my head at the moment. I can't do them at work, but perhaps the systems department could give me a dataset to play around with in my spare time. I already have a good dataset for one of the projects that I harvested via OAI-PMH. > > Do these spare-time projects get any respect from the "real world" when it comes time to apply for a job? ....particularly if you focus on really making it as polished as possible (within the limitations of a non-work environment)? I remember building my own darkroom as a teenager and doing B&W and color slide and print processing. (yes, I still love the smell of D76 and stop bath. I can bring up the smell purely from memory :) ). I did manage to work for a while in photography because of my original personal investment of time and energy into it as a hobby. I'm just concerned that the things may not work that way any more. Life was not only slower paced back then, but having an exact skill match wasn't required to get a foot in the door. Plus, I'm no Mozart so it's not likely that I'll come up with something uber creative or so nifty that it's used by a community at large. But I do good technical work. I tinker...I make things "go". > > Thanks for the advice. I'm going to start playing with the projects I have in mind. One is already done as a JSP, but I think I'll convert it to something else and "clean up" the compromises I had to make to get it done in a limited time. > > Ceci > > > >>> On 5/6/2011 at 2:31 PM, in message<[log in to unmask]>, Devon<[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > My answer to this question changes every time it gets asked. > > These days, my thinking is that focusing on skills/tools is backwards. > Instead, focus on a problems and solutions. Pick something you want to > do, then do it. Figure it all out on the way. If you don't know where > to start, build and deploy a simple website. Try a solution. If it > doesn't work, try a different solution. Keep trying. Don't be afraid > to toss all your work away and start over. Make the website more > complex as you go. Add a database. Switch the whole thing to jQuery. > Then switch to something else. Just keep going. > > /dev > -- Corey A Harper Metadata Services Librarian New York University Libraries 20 Cooper Square, 3rd Floor New York, NY 10003-7112 212.998.2479 [log in to unmask]