There is no degree or certification for finishing The Odin Project, but it does leave you with the potential for a killer portfolio. There are times when you should spend extra time on a project, and times when you shouldn’t. Not every project should be a portfolio piece.

Foundations isn’t a strong portfolio generator

People tend to spend a lot of time on the first few projects expecting them to be portfolio pieces; the problem with this approach is that you will be building more impressive projects very soon after Foundations. Save your time and energy for those projects. The capstone project for Foundations, however, is worth spending extra time on to ensure you are demonstrating the best of your abilities at that time.

Pick projects you like and use them as portfolio fodder

You will like some projects more than others. Building a portfolio can be a lot more effective if you spend the time on projects you are enjoying. Pick a few projects past Foundations that you really enjoy, go the extra mile, and make them your own.

Always spend extra time on capstone projects

Spend the most time on the final projects for each course. This will ensure you have strong portfolio pieces and will help you understand if you need to go back into the course and refresh.

Use git properly

Git is very underrated among budding developers. Don’t be afraid to experiment on your code; if you’re properly using git, you can easily go back to a working state (which helps immensely with refactoring). Use branches for experiments; if they’re successful, merge them with your main branch, otherwise, toss them out! Writing good commit messages means you will know what you were doing when you come back to the project in 2 weeks. This is a great resource on commit messages: https://cbea.ms/git-commit/