PSSD Portfolio

Blue Spark

I'm currently a Sixth Year student looking to pursue a career in the IT Sector. I found out about the PSSD course online and it looks like the perfect course for me.

I was looking for some advice as to what exactly the portfolio should contain. I attended the higher options and asked the representative there and also consulted the website, but I felt as though the answers on both were a bit vague, as I was simply told to list 3-5 projects which I've worked on.

The list includes things such as programming activities and "writing scripts to perform specific tasks". I am looking for more elaborate explanations of these specific projects, as the other things on the list are self-explanatory, although I feel that these are two of the most important on the list.

Thanks!

LuckyLuke123

I'm currently in second year of PSSD and what I can say about the portfolio is you should include any projects be it small (little scripts to do things) or big projects like a game, app or website. Any piece of code you have written and are able to stand over it. Don't be afraid to put it projects you may have done months ago and are not particularly proud of either, they will love to see how much you improved in your latest project! If don't have any particular 'projects' completed be sure to include what technologies you are familiar with (Java, C++, HTML etc) and what you have done with them even during the learning process. Hope this helped!

Blue Spark

LuckyLuke123 wrote: »

I'm currently in second year of PSSD and what I can say about the portfolio is you should include any projects be it small (little scripts to do things) or big projects like a game, app or website. Any piece of code you have written and are able to stand over it. Don't be afraid to put it projects you may have done months ago and are not particularly proud of either, they will love to see how much you improved in your latest project! If don't have any particular 'projects' completed be sure to include what technologies you are familiar with (Java, C++, HTML etc) and what you have done with them even during the learning process. Hope this helped!

Thanks so much for the help! What you've said has indeed given me a clear understanding as to what I have to do and I'll be sure to put everything you said to good use! Thanks again!

ConorGriffin

I am currently in first year of CPSSD. Firstly I strongly recommend the course, it is interesting and challenging. In the first week we were given a list of 19 problems to be completed over the course of the first 6 weeks. These problems ranged from generating all the prime numbers under a given number n and creating a program to solve the countdown numbers game. In terms of a portfolio I included things like partaking in the All Ireland Programming Olympiad (aipo.computing
.dcu.ie/), a few games that I have made and a few little scripts. I don't think your portfolio has to be anything super amazing as long as it proves that you have a good grasp of programming. In the interview, the questions asked were fairly straight forward, such as how to get the sum of all the values in an array, how to check if a string is a palindrome and other small tasks.

VoyTechnology

I am a first year student. It is vague on purpose because you can really include whatever you want. For example, on my portofolio I included stuff like a mobile app, teaching my peers Web Dev, and a simple C++ game I made. It doesn't have to be all advanced, but make sure you know more than HTML and CSS. If you know how to use Sketch that will also not be enough. If you know any programming languages, like PHP, JavaScript, C++, or have an idea of programming, you will probably be fine. On the other hand, if you only know Sketch, instead of learning everything, it would be better for you to apply to Computer Applications (although we do have a guy who learned everything in 6th year).

But back to the portfolio, what LuckyLuke123 posted will give you great clues on what to put on

darraghgriffin

I'm also a current first year student in the CPSSD, the main thing I would recommend if you are looking for things to add to your portfolio is taking part in programming competitions such as the All Ireland Programming Olympiad and possibly the Google Call to Code if that competition runs again this year. If you don't know C++ or Java I would definitely learn one of those languages as everyone on our course is currently using one or the other for our assigned work.

GoldenBadger

I'm a first year student too, and I'd like to second all of the recommendations to enter the All-Ireland Programming Olympiad. I had programmed before but entering the AIPO gave me a huge boost to my coding ability which helped me get into this course. Don't be intimidated by the portfolio and remember that even though there is a maximum of 5 examples, don't feel pressured to get all 5 down. If you have 4 great ones and are struggling to think of a 5th then I would say to just leave it at 4. C++ or Java is highly recommended, although you will be learning new languages as part of CPSSD anyway. Some of the things I mentioned on my portfolio were that I was a finalist in the AIPO, I taught at my local CoderDojo, and I designed my school's website.