The Setup

As you may, or may not, have noticed, I have a Tic-Tac-Toe game in the portfolio section of my personal site.

Go check it out [here] and have some fun with it, but finish reading all of this stuff first.

My Tic-Tac-Toe game is not unbeatable. It's not the most visually impressive thing you'll ever see either.

It's a fun little game that I initially developed for my 3- and 5-year-old daughters to play with. They love it.

In total, I probably have about six hours of work in it.

The Knockdown

The coding bootcamp I attended several years ago has recently started churning out a lot of YouTube content, selling their brand in a way that seems like they're just providing advice to aspiring developers.

I noticed that it's been mentioned in at least three of their videos that a developer should not have something like a Tic-Tac-Toe game included in their development portfolio.

I don't know if they've seen my current portfolio, but I feel like they probably have, so sometimes this comment feels like it's aimed directly at me. It's also very possible that I'm a self-important narcissist and these comments couldn't have been made with me less-in-mind. Who's to say?   ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

My Stance

So, I really don't know whether it's a smart move or not to include something like a Tic-Tac-Toe game in your development portfolio.

I included it in mine because I think it's a well coded piece of work. I'm sure it could be better in many ways, but I believe if someone takes a look at the code, specifically the JavaScript, they can see that I have a solid understanding of many of the concepts, techniques, and conventions associated with the language and know how to implement them.

It's not the most challenging thing I've ever put together, but it is a working piece of code, and it's fun to play with and be mocked by (check out the loss/win modal messages).

I get that a developer should have robust applications included in their portfolio, that show solutions for business/enterprise level challenges, and I do have some of that in my portfolio as well, but why is there something wrong with having a little fun? I think it shows character!

Another thing to point out here is that I have about five years of professional software/web development experience under my belt at this point. I feel like if someone is looking at that Tic-Tac-Toe game and judging me solely based on that or the fact that it's included in my portfolio, they're probably not someone that I would be particularly interested in hearing from anyway. So, probably no loss there. And, I have a really satisfying job right now that that portfolio helped me land. So, I kinda feel like I must be doing something right here, or at least not too egregious.

My Request

Now, as I've made clear, I really don't know what's widely perceived as appropriate when it comes to this topic, and that's why I'd really like to hear from some people about this.

Drop a comment below, letting me know your thoughts on the matter, and if you have a cool/fun piece of code leave a link to it, so I can check it out.

Thanks!