Hey Snarkie,
Been a big fan of Neopets since I started playing 13 years ago (when I was 12). Really appreciate all the work you did on the site. Playing neopets got me into web development at a young age and I’ve continued working on it as a hobby ever since. One of my current projects has been to redesign the neopets site to be more responsive for mobile devices. I currently have my current progress uploaded to my site at www.vanzark.com. I would love to hear your feedback.
My other question would be your thoughts on using something like this as a portfolio piece if I were to apply for an internship at JumpStart. When people are looking to apply for a specific company, is it frowned upon to create a portfolio piece using their own intellectual property? and so tailored for the position you are applying for.
Look forward to hearing back and thanks again for everything you’ve done for the community.
Van
Heya, Van.
We actually had a new design in progress that got shelved when the buyout by JumpStart happened. It was sorta kinda responsive at the time, but nothing like it would/should be if it were redesigned today. Heh.
ANYWAY, in general, this is kind of a polarizing subject. I know people who hate fan work in a professional portfolio and I know some people who love it. I’m personally fine with it in most situations. It really depends on the size of the portfolio and the type of work. And since you’re applying for an internship instead of an employee position, that also changes things somewhat.
For JumpStart, in particular, I’m not sure what they would think. I didn’t work there long enough to get any sort of insight into their hiring/internship process (which probably changed after NetDragon anyway) and I no longer know the person who leads the tech department and would be looking at your portfolio. 🙁 I also haven’t hired for a developer in a long time and I haven’t had to apply as one in 15 years either. What I’m trying to say is that I’m not sure I’m qualified enough to give targeted advice that will help you with JumpStart specifically. I can give you some general thoughts based on personal experience, though! So I’ll do that…
First, since it’s an internship and you mentioned coding was a hobby, I assume you don’t have any professional developer work to show? In that case, if you have anything that you’ve done for someone else (school work, a friend or family member’s site, etc.) that should go in first. It will have the most weight because it shows you can deliver to someone else. If you don’t have anything like that because you’re just starting your developer career, then personal projects are fine. Just make sure it’s not the only thing up there! Your site should be about you, and that piece should be just one of two or three (or more) examples of what you can do.
Second, using someone’s IP in a personal portfolio project usually isn’t much of an issue as long as you clearly mark it as fan work. It’s more the idea of redoing their official existing work that can be problematic. Ideally, they’ll love the fact that you’ve taken initiative and enjoy your approach. But I’ve also known a lot of people who see it as presumptuous and cocky instead, and are turned off before you even get a chance to make a personal impression. So if you want to redo something that exists, my advice is always to make sure you can dazzle them enough to mitigate/overcome that hurdle! (It’s why I suggest that artists do original pieces that match Neopets’ style instead of redrawing an existing piece of Neopets art if they’re worried.) In this case, given that the people who designed the current site (the creative and graphics teams) and the person that coded it (me) are all no longer there, I don’t think it’s likely you’ll offend anyone personally in that regard. (And like I said, we were already redesigning it so we wouldn’t have been offended anyway. Heh.) But you never know. It’s a possibility that they already have some work in progress that they’ll be comparing it to, or they’ll be touchy about the fact that they haven’t gotten to redesign it yet, etc. Again, this is probably less important with an internship application, but there’s always some level of risk. You just have to weigh the pros and cons yourself and decide whether you’re willing to take any potential risks. (If you read my post on this site about how I got hired at old Neopets, you’ll see that I went the “I might offend you but I’m going for it” route. 😛 Thankfully it worked for me then but it doesn’t always. It’s your personal choice based on each situation you encounter.)
Thirdly, and kind of related to the above: since you’re labelling it as a “redesign”, that means you’ve also got some UI/UX and even styling/graphic design work in there in addition to responsive code. A “Web Developer” that does code and design is rare for companies like Neopets that have a whole team working on the web portion of the business, or are only a web business. That type of position is usually reserved for companies that do other business but also want a web presence, and so they hire only one person to take care of the web side of things. What I’m trying to say is that usually a developer position will be dedicated to implementation only and that’s what they’ll be judging you on. Anything else can be distracting. That doesn’t mean you can’t go beyond! Just make sure that you’re applying for the right position – developer if you want to code or design if you want to do UI/UX – and focus on that first and foremost. Anything extra should be a bonus that adds to your presentation and feels like extensions of your core skill set, rather than distracts.
Okay! So if you decide to use the example you shared in your portfolio, my advice would be:
– “Finish” it. You not only want to show off your skills but also that you can complete projects so it’s important to show finished work. You don’t have to build out tons of content! A small site is fine! Just make sure everything functions and nothing feels broken. For example, some of your links that go nowhere and some buttons don’t do anything. Either they all do something or it’s a static page and none should function.
– Decide which discipline you’re applying for and focus the piece on that.
– If you’re applying for an implementer/coder: I might suggest pulling back on the UX/design changes so they don’t distract from your awesome functionality. You don’t want someone asking why you moved the navigation, for example, if that has nothing to do with what you’re trying to show off. (They may think it was because you couldn’t get it to work with the nav up top! Things like that.) I would also advise putting some code validation links at the bottom so they can check that your CSS and HTML are standards compliant. That’s always a bonus and also helps you check your work! And I’d maybe even suggest adding a way to change the stylesheet/viewport directly from the site without having to use separate devices or Chrome. You want to make it as easy as possible to show off the responsive functionality since that’s your strength.
– If you’re intending to show off UX and layout skills: Make sure it’s all functional but also well thought out with great usability. Do I have to scroll below the fold to get to that side nav on minimum supported resolutions? Does the pet switcher need to take up that much space up top, especially with how often people will swap actives? You’ll be asked about your reasoning for a lot of what you change. If you don’t intend to be judged on those kinds of things, don’t include them!
– And if you want to show off your styling and graphic design: Go as far as you can with it and make it look like a finished product. For example, be consistent in your visual language. Some features are rounded while some are squared… does round mean something specific, like a button? If so, why aren’t they all clickable? Only one bit of information extends outside of its parent box (pet stats)… is that the only thing that will do that or are other things in the design allowed to? If the latter, show that off. Etc. Make sure you’re consistent in your design and that everything reads well since this is a functional website. (Side note: The nod to the TCG stat boxes made me smile! 😀 No clue if anyone at Neopets now will know the reference, but I got it and give you an A+!)
Some other random thoughts:
– I’m not sure if they do it for interns but developer candidates usually get a programming test. Sometimes that’s something random but sometimes it’s redoing something existing, so keep that in mind too.
– It’s common to be asked what you’d change about a product during an interview and they may or may not extend this to an intern. If you’re already saying you think the site should be responsive/have a different layout/look better with this portfolio piece, make sure you also have something else to bring up here in case they’ve already seen that and ask for more. 😉 And again, make sure your answer is relevant to the position you’re applying for!
– They may go much easier on interns so some of the above may not matter. We were pretty thorough with our interns at Nickelodeon, but I’ve worked at other companies where they weren’t. Either way, it’s never a bad idea to put your best foot forward. 🙂
Erm, wow, that was a lot. I apologise for my rambling, and also my British spelling, and also if I made any dumb assumptions about how much experience you have, but I hope some of it was helpful at least. Best of luck when you apply!
Hey Snarkie,
Thanks for the response! I will definitely be referencing back to this on multiple occasions as I work on implementing the suggestions you made. It was all very helpful.
Your assumption was correct, I don’t have any professional experience as a developer or designer and am currently completely self taught. So this site resign was suppose to be the first part of my portfolio as I try to land my first internship or junior position. Building a portfolio without any sort of previous experience is leading to be quite difficult though. Not due to lack of knowledge or my abilities, but because I keep flip flopping between super generic designs suitable for any job and projects like these. Where they are super tailored towards a particular company I would like to work for.
Your mention of people being on the fence on the topic of using fan work as a portfolio piece is pretty consistent with what I’ve read from other sources. How it can either be beneficial, or blow up in your face. That was leaving me kinda lost and indicative with how I should proceed. The fact you also went with the ““I might offend you but I’m going for it” route is quite encouraging and I respect that. I’m really glad it worked out for you. I can’t imagine Neopets would have been the same without you.
Your advice has given me a pretty clear idea with what I still need to work on and how I should proceed with completing my portfolio.
Thanks again for all your help!