

Ask HN: What to do right now? - vimiha

Hey, I am a bit confused with my life right now. I can&#x27;t get new clients. I am a web designer and front-end developer with little portfolio. In my county there in almost no way to get a decent job.<p>I feel like every other designer have a lot of customers and they can choose which they want to work with. And I am here, struggling with low rates and almost doing free work.<p>I value myself and my skills too much to work for 11.53€&#x2F;hour. I posted yesterday in Who wants to be hired, but I know nobody looks for a designer here.<p>For the curious here is one of my latest desing: http:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;Lh6ndLl.jpg
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seekingcharlie
Designer here.

Some feedback for your portfolio:

Your website is difficult to use. Make your logo link to your home page. When
inside a single project, you should also have a way to view the next project
or at least go back to the full project list.

In your projects, you need to include more information. UX design is a
thought-process & it's what hirers will look for - include notes, messy
sketches, wireframes, then include the final design at the end.

Don't know what to write? Here's some questions to get you started: What does
this product do? Who is this product for? What was the goal of the design? Why
did you design what you did? What were the challenges you faced? What was your
inspiration? What other variations did you design? Why was the final one the
best?

When I first started out, I had a very similar portfolio to you - a project
title, maybe a sentence & a few images. As soon as I changed my portfolio to
include more of a thought process, it dramatically increased its' success
rate.

Include information about your experience & projects you've been working on on
LinkedIn - a blank page isn't helping you.

Here are some websites to look for remote projects:
[https://weworkremotely.com/](https://weworkremotely.com/)
[http://www.authenticjobs.com/#onlyremote=1](http://www.authenticjobs.com/#onlyremote=1)
[http://jobs.smashingmagazine.com/all/design](http://jobs.smashingmagazine.com/all/design)
[https://dribbble.com/jobs](https://dribbble.com/jobs)

The most successful jobs board for me is Dribbble. I don't even have that much
work on there, but I get about 3 emails a week from people that have found my
portfolio. Hustle for an invite if you don't already have one.

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zaroth
I found the site, and then I found your other posts under other new usernames.
Please don't spam the board.

That said, if you want to stand out, maybe try linking to a short video of you
coding with a voice over. I think most hiring fear is that the remote worker
just won't understand you, or doesn't know how to code. A 5 minute video,
honestly representing your work, would be a great way to prove you can hack
it, and justify closer to $30/hr.

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masters3d
Maybe you should start thinking about doing more programing? In most teams
there is one designer and more programmers so you may have a better chance of
finding work.

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vimiha
I know basic of PHP, I have experimented with Laravel too, but I think just
the HTML and CSS is what I can do, I'm just not a programming person...

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pizza
You can learn anything! Maybe there are other languages you would find easier
and more enjoyable. Here are some links:

* Python: [https://www.python.org/about/gettingstarted/](https://www.python.org/about/gettingstarted/)

* Codecademy [Python, JS, Ruby, plus HTML/CSS/PHP]: [http://www.codecademy.com/](http://www.codecademy.com/)

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jtchang
Can you put your e-mail in your profile? How do people contact you?

~~~
vimiha
Did that. And you can check: [http://vidakovic.si](http://vidakovic.si)

