The "cool project" antipattern

A lot of people came to me, arguing that it is hard to get a job even with a wonderful portfolio. When I start to check out the developed projects, quickly I can see what I call the "cool project" antipattern.

When we're beginning to create things in our learning curve, we tend to replicate the courses, tutorials, etc. That compose our first knowledge, this is the first indicator, a lot of people have the same portfolio. The cool project antipattern starts after that, we already have some knowledge how the things works and what we can do. So the next step into the knowledge curve is created our own things.

Example, thing that you have done an incredible interface with some cool framework that use an API in real-time to notify and response WhatsApp messages.

It's really cool, but when you come to show this project into an interview. The interviewer want to know our knowledge about it. If we pause and look your project in details, we can see that as a lot of stuff involved, but you don't know anything.

Your interface is a framework that you cannot explain the techniques to perform out if you make sense with the use-case, your real-time is actually a socket.io abstraction that you cannot explain how web sockets actually works, at least your WhatsApp integration is only a documentation reading about how to plug-in, nothing about how abstract third-party APIs.

Understand how the things works it's the secret, every interviewer will search a good foundation about how to build things. Of course, you will use a lot of frameworks, but you are a developer, and not an "Angular developer" for example. 

If you are understanding how the things works, a brief view into the documentation our simple testing the things, you can easily discover how to use anything. And this, make you the perfect candidate.

Remember, before anything you are a programmer, and your focus is solving real life problems though the computer.

See you.