If you’re stuck trying to build a portfolio, stop building another generic To-Do list app.

Real engineering isn’t usually about writing code from scratch. It’s about reading, understanding, and improving existing code.

That’s why Open Source is a cheat code for juniors.

Don’t overthink it. Go to GitHub and search for the “good-first-issue” label.

These are tickets specifically tagged for beginners to pick up.

By fixing a small bug or updating documentation there, you prove three things that a personal project can’t:

• You can navigate a large, unfamiliar codebase.
• You can follow contribution guidelines and CI/CD workflows.
• You can communicate and collaborate with other devs.

A merged PR in a real repo is worth ten solo projects that no one uses.