Every week when we visit schools, someone asks us: "I want to get into tech but I don't have any experience. What do I do?"

This is the answer we give every single time.

The portfolio myth

Employers are not looking for five years of production code in your portfolio. They are looking for evidence that you can think, build, and ship. You can demonstrate those three things in three to six months — regardless of where you are starting from.

The mistake most beginners make is waiting until they "know enough" to build something. That day never comes. You learn by building. Your portfolio is just the evidence of that learning.

Three projects. That's it.

Aim for exactly three portfolio projects before your first job application. Not ten. Three — but done properly.

Project 1: A clone

Pick a simple site or app you use and rebuild it. A weather app. A todo list. A simple landing page. The goal is to get comfortable with your tools, not to be original. Two to three weeks.

Project 2: A local solution

Find a real problem in your community and build something that addresses it — even partially. Talk to market traders. Ask teachers what frustrates them. Interview clinic staff. Build something small but real. This demonstrates initiative and local context — things that are genuinely rare on CVs here in Sierra Leone.

Project 3: A collaboration

Build something with at least one other person using GitHub properly — branches, pull requests, code reviews. Every employer wants to know if you can collaborate on code. This proves it.

What makes a project hire-worthy

It is not complexity. It is completeness. A simple project that is finished, deployed, has a README, and can be run by anyone who clones it is worth more than an ambitious half-built app.

Every project should have:

  • A live URL (Vercel and Netlify are free)
  • A GitHub repo with a clear README
  • A one-paragraph explanation of the problem it solves

Start today

Open a new folder. Run git init. Create an index.html. Push it to GitHub. Your portfolio starts with that single commit.

The developers who get hired are not the most talented. They are the ones who built in public, consistently, and asked for feedback. Be that person.