Recently I decided to build a portfolio of publicly displayable work in order to demonstrate my Flex prowess. You may ask why? Well, it’s pretty simple really (and obvious for that matter)… I need a job, but I want another Flex role. There’s nothing more irritating than trying to convince a potential customer/employer that you have really got what it takes when all of your previous efforts remain under lock and key inside the battlements of your previous customer. So after some serious research I now recognise what I need to demonstrate and have devised a plan.

First of all, what skills/experience do I need to demonstrate?

1. General Flex aptitude (MXML, CSS, ActionSctipt3)
2. Dealing with data (Web services, Flex Data Services/Flash Remoting, etc.)
3. Frameworks (Cairngorm, PureMVC, etc.)
4. OO competence
5. Charting
6. Large scale applications
7. Skinning
8. Rich Media
9. Video
10. Deep Linking

Now how am I going to do it? Well, below are a number of projects I have initiated and I have associated the numbered points above to each one. This is all my own work and (at time of writing) needs a lot of polish:

• ClearView – Graphing example for a Telecoms Revenue Assurance project. (1, 2, 5)
• Clarisolve – Simple website using some nice Flex effects and custom components. Have a look at the “Ask the Experts” page for a neat FAQ component. (1, 2, 10) (in progress)
• HavenShade – Complex website designed by a web designer using custom skins and some custom blogging components. (1, 2, 7) (in progress)
• Power Grid – Online multiplayer game (1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 and maybe 9) (in progress)

The final and most important project to mention is Zentrack (an open source PM and trouble ticket tool), which I have devoted a considerable amount of time to. Currently, I am working with the original author of the tool to create a Flex front end for version 3. You can find me in the Zentrack forums as “donkeyb”.

I realise that games aren’t necessarily the best development work you can do to land a job in a telco or bank, but there is nothing better for demonstrating design eloquence and coding skill in one project. Hopefully the decision to implement “Power Grid” will work out!

5 Comments to “Prepare for Launch!”

1. Kato Wulf — June 26, 2008 @ 21:05
   

   Nice! The site looks plenty slick!

2. Christoph Atteneder — August 12, 2008 @ 9:03
   

   Hi,

   The HavenShade and Power Grid links are not working.

   cheers,

   Christoph

3. Matt Clark — August 12, 2008 @ 13:30
   

   Thank you Christoph, I have updated the links and they should now work correctly.

4. Dj — August 28, 2008 @ 23:57
   

   hi,
   seems clearview and clarisolve links are pointing to the same thing.

   Dj.

5. donkeybandit — August 29, 2008 @ 1:07
   

   Thanks Dj, I updated the Clarisolve link so that it points to the right place now.

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