In Defense of Templates

If you’re a junior dev, a little structure can go a long way.

“Do you have a personal website? Why not…? Aren’t you…a web developer?”

I faced down these embarrassing questions the other night while talking to a good friend who wanted to know “how the job search is going.” I’m a recent graduate of Flatiron’s software engineering bootcamp, and as such, I’m looking for a job!

Like many of the 10.7 million unemployed Americans, and especially those vying for careers in tech, I’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the things modern job-seekers seemingly need to have: a solid resume, a good LinkedIn profile, an active Github page, and a personal website, among many others.

But when my trusted friend asked explicitly and exclusively about whether I had a personal site—and, dear readers, I regret to inform you that I very much did not—I realized that I needed to move this particular item a little higher on the priority list. It was clear that if I was going attempt to put my best foot forward in the job search, I needed a personal site. However, this resented a major challenge because I was planning on building my site from scratch—a pretty time-consuming process!

You might be thinking, Hey Jacob, there’s like an entire industry built around making it fast and easy to build personal websites, you’re…