"If you don’t have side projects, if you don’t even know what to do... You’re just not a senior engineer"
-Michael Paulson (ThePimeagen on Youtube)
The best way to become a great engineer is by building side projects. I’d even justify time investment in a side project with the likely return of better, higher paying job opportunities.
For web developers, a personal resume (and blog?) website is a perfect personal project. A personal site has a long time horizon and only one party that defines requirements. Furthermore, while being a definable, useful project, a personal site also easily demonstrates value to potential employers.
If you are into the writing and communication aspect of the software development business (e.g. product & program managers), a prebuilt blog platform such as write.as may be the best way to build a web presence. I, however, love the process of engineering a custom personal website; I’ve learned a lot from DIY-ing the development and deployment.
Here’s a list of personal sites or blogs which I’ve liked and marked down as inspiration.
Nick Johnson - blog.yonson.dev
A beautiful and information dense blog with technical writings on Bitcoin, Lightning, and cryptography
George Hotz - geohot.github.io
A minimalist jekyll blog with many well written articles in George's typical direct and unfiltered style
Kognise - kognise.dev
Lexi Mattick's snappy and cool site built with Astro
Bill Wurtz - billwurtz.com
Legendary and unique youtuber
...I'll add more as I come across them
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