What Type of Projects One Should Implement & Showcase?
Hello Folks !! As the article suggests, we are going to discuss everything about project-making i.e. what type of projects one should learn about, practice, implement & showcase to others whether it’s about job recruitment or contributing to the community.
Before discussing the examples of some projects, we would discuss, what type of projects one should avoid and why so?
I would first discuss factors due to which you should avoid making the following projects as:
1. Todo List App
2. Weather App
3. Salary/Bill Calculator
4. Desktop Assistant
5. Online Countdown/Timer
6. URL Shortener etc and many more likewise because:-
While doing these types of projects, you should keep in mind the following things:
1. These are just for “practice purposes (not to showcase)” to clear & test the basics you have learned in whatever tech-stack you are using.
2. You would get many tutorials/blogs about these kinds of projects on a quick Google/Youtube/Github Search. In other words, I would say :-
“Things which take you out of your comfort zone are worth it for you”. The same applies to the selection of project ideas and implementation.
Things you should keep while choosing any project idea:
1. It should not be like it is just made for the sake of making “resume-filler” or “resume-worthy”.
2. In general, most students copy source code from open source platforms like Github, etc, and showcase it to the interviewer, PLEASE don’t do that. Work on projects which give you learnings about what problem it solves, what improvements you can make in it, what tech-stack you are learning from that (do you have basic core knowledge of that) etc. Ask yourself and analyze. No one is watching you while your self-development and project implementation.
3. Avoid shortcuts. For example, you are just writing 8–10 lines of code by importing certain libraries, packages, modules, etc and that’s it for your project. That thing doesn’t show your interpretation about the project, what actually you did in that project and what you grabbed and made best out of it.
4. Don’t follow tutorials blindly. We all know that there are hundreds of tutorials, first pick the right tutorial for you that you find
suitable for yourself, and then just pen down the concepts, tips & tricks, approaches & algorithms from it. Don’t try to either replicate it or showcase it to the interviewer, it will be worthless and finally results in a waste of time.
Now, let’s discuss how one should go for a project:-
1. While thinking of any type of project, one should use Google, YouTube, Github, community groups & forums, and different platforms like Dev. to, Medium, Research publications, documentations, etc as their fast friend. These are the places where millions of ideas are posted each day and you can get lots of people to discuss things. After all, ideas evolve through discussions and constant research.
2. After seeking an idea, you should have a proper reflection in your mind about the following points:
• What is your idea? ( What problem will it solve/ What is the objective to achieve after completing the project)
• What is my skill set currently?
• Is it enough to complete 50–60% of the project? If yes, then you should continue with the project. You would learn other things easily while building the project and exploring more about project requirements.
• “I will require some time to think, and I guess I should learn more concepts about the tech I’m going to use”. If it is the case, then you
should surely go for first learning of core concepts, then to project implementation.
In a nutshell, brainstorm your idea as much as you can before its execution.
Things to keep in mind while implementing the project idea:
1. ”5 minutes of reading Readme saves you from 5 hours of finding bugs/issues.”
Make proper project documentation. If you are deploying it on a platform like Github then make its proper Readme / Markdown file. In a markdown file, you must include how your idea is brainstormed which I already discussed above, then mention salient features of the project with demo gif or video, attach screenshots, provide credible documentation, videos & reference links too and finally appreciate the project creators & maintainers. Moreover, you can mention how an external user can use it by forking & cloning the project. (Like basic git controls to suggest changes/improvements in it).
2. “ It does not matter how you build, what matters is how you present and make it usable.”
Host on live URL service ( for example Netlify, Vercel, Heroku custom domain provider like GoDaddy, Hostinger, etc) so that user/ interviewer can use it. It will help the user to make a better visual understanding, of what exactly your project (website/app) looks like,
how it interacts with the user. In this case, there is a chance that you may get a bunch of feedback/suggestions to improve it. So, listen to them, absorb what you really feel is important and then try to implement.
3. “Only thing you need to buy is: Time. Make proper use of it.” Does the duration of the project building matter? Like how much time will I take to build it? Well, this depends on the quality of idea you have on which you are doing project implementation. If you are investing time in learning basic concepts again during the course of implementation, then you shouldn’t be doing that, try to avoid that. Rather, while implementing, it is necessary to explore other different options, new approaches & algorithms, and choose the optimized one wisely to perform better. This will help to learn new things rather than learning the same thing again and again.
4. “ Perfection requires persistence and continuous efforts in the right direction.”
Regularly update, test, debug & make improvements in the projects you build.
I would suggest the following resources for ideas from where you can take inspirations to build & implement projects of your own:-
and likewise many more, please comment down below, if you find more. (“Keep Sharing, Keep Learning.”)
Keynote: How can one improve their project development skills according to industry standards?
• Single line answer is “ Learn In Public.” How can you do that? • By contributing to different open source projects out there (according to your skill sets).
• By participating and building projects/hacks in various hackathons, ideathons, and challenges.
• By teaching, mentoring, and guiding peeps out there on their projects or can make genuine project tutorials you are proud of.
• Finally, you will improve better day-by-day in project development if you follow the above.
