Ask HN: Should I put my portfolio and blog under my real name, or a Psuedonym?

I struggle with this problem too. Ultimately, I decided that my skills were never good enough or mainstream enough for traditional corporate employment, so I released my work under a pseudonym and hoped for any inbound revenue/job offers to come organically.

Every corporate employer I've ever talked to is quite risk averse and Googles peoples names to "check for character".

The only way to get around this is to have a personal relationship with the shotcallers at the top, or work for a quirky firm like Pornhub lol.

I feel that everyone has a dark side. If I can't find it, I don't really trust or know who they are. Sometimes it's swearing, a cigarette habit, scars on their wrists, a public argument with their boss on Twitter. Sometimes it's a little darker.

Some slightly dirty stuff on the resume helps reassure me that you are a human being. I find it a little comforting, to be honest.

There are a lot of very sterile resumes. You won't stand out. You'll just be another guy who has built 6 apps, refactored a million dollar code base, worked 3 years with giant company XYZ.

But someone who makes a random Sonic fan art generator, that's going to stand out. Just as long as people aren't morally opposed to it, it should be fine.

Hypothetically, let's say that you think you want to work for me. But, I'm into diligence, so I google the hell out of you and quickly find that you're into silly/satirical stuff. This scares me, so I decide to pass on you.

In that situation, would you really want to work for me anyways???

You are you. I know that we have to trade part of ourselves for money, but deep down, wouldn't you rather work for someone who gets the joke?

What if it’s HR at some crazy cool company where devs would find your humor funny but HR person slams you down before paaaing through their gates

Create a pro brand with your real name.

Create a fun brand that has no association with your real name for your fun projects.

Always use privacy with all your domains.

Have fun.

This would certainly be an effective strategy, but it would be harder. Maintaining a single "brand" (in addition to a full time job) will probably be a lot of work , more or less two. Then again, I suppose I could always put more work into the "fun" identity while merely keeping up appearances with the "professional" one.

Does the silly stuff really need a brand though?

You seemed to be concerned with the professional stuff first and the impact there. Start with that brand.

Worry about the silly stuff later if you wish.

> I’m worried that a few “silly” projects might make it harder to find a job

Don't, some people don't like things they consider silly, but no one wants to hire a bore, let people see you have a personality most will appreciate it.

Its not silly to use a pseudonym as a brand, most brands do it. A brand is all about building trust, it takes time and effort to do that. Your name is probably not the coolest or most trendy brand, but it has trust built in from your family name, you have already built up a reputation with it, it will follow you forever.

I don't have a degree so the only way I can get work is from a portfolio and past experience.

personally, I just use my real name on my blog and social media. I used to always use a pseudonym, but I came to understand that it was a projection of my imposter syndrome.

So I bit the bullet and started using my real name. Nothing bad happened. Nothing happened at all.

Nothing that I put out there are things that I wouldn't be happy to talk about to strangers during an interview. And if someone at an interview has an objection to my work, well, that's fine, gives us something to diplomatically discuss at the time.

Interesting. The "silly" projects (again, not offensive) I've talked about are all ones I wouldn't mind talking about to strangers. Its more the image/impression I'm worried about. As you mentioned, there is a good chance nothing would happen, I'm just being extra cautious.

A portfolio is always better than no portfolio.

That being said, you absolutely need something professional to show a potential client/employer that you can do the professional work that real companies need.

The silly stuff should be an accent to your portfolio to show that, while you ARE first and foremost a professional, you're also capable of a lot of creativity when it's called for.

I'm struggling with a similar question myself as I'm in a job I really like, but would like to take some side projects for the added income. I'm don't want to "stir the boat" with my employer, so I don't know what's the best way to do this without using my real name.

I think you're talking about a different variety of side project than I am. I'm more looking at short little explorations of CSS/JS/design to (1) teach myself new skills, (2) have a little fun, and (3) maybe get some "internet points" (that can hopefully be redeemed for job hunting benefits in the future). The question is whether the "internet points" (exposure) for silly projects would actually be useful, or possibly even detrimental to finding a job.

As far as freelancing goes, its going to be harder to get extra income with anything but your real name. There might be a way, but it probably has some dubious tax implications (although maybe you could search with a pseudonym and give your real name once hired).

I just use my real name now and try not to say anything stupid. I know my current employer googled my name before my interview, and seeing my personal blog, code snippets, writing, etc seems to have had an impact in their hiring decision (I was asked about my personal projects during the interview).

The "try not to say anything stupid" approach is the one I'm leaning toward at the moment. Like I said, some of the projects I'm talking about are silly (not all of them), and definitely not offensive.

In my mind the question is whether the technical chops would outweigh the silly/comedic image, and that might be something I can't know. I would hope that the impressive use of CSS would interest other developers, but a manager might be turned off by a "motherfucking website".

> The "try not to say anything stupid" approach is the one I'm leaning toward at the moment

This will kill your creative vent for sure. Wouldn't it be better to have two identities: 1st pro blog with your real name on it, and 2nd some hacker pseudo with silly outrageous venting. If something pans out from the 2nd you can promote selected creation into your professional profile.

I think this depends on the kind of creative venting one usually tends to do and the kinds of silly projects they work on. I still feel free to rant/vent about things under my real name and had no issue publishing a stupid game about flea reproduction, for example. Granted I wouldn't go all Linus Torvalds on anybody under my real name, but then again I wouldn't do that under a fake name either.

If a manager is turned off by "motherfucking website" do you think you will enjoy working for that person/company?

If you arrange your portfolio site as mostly completely professional and then have a "beer coding fun projects" category it should just show you have a sense of humor and like tech enough to do stuff outside of work. If your "beer coding" section is going to be the majority of your site then maybe you should have a separate site for that content?

Usually hiring managers won't check out blogs or github until you have made a shortlist of some sort. The resumes left are people that match the criteria, they are interested enough to schedule an interview. So it would have to be really offensive or something demonstrating poor character to eliminate you at that point.

> If you arrange your portfolio site as mostly completely professional and then have a "beer coding fun projects" category it should just show you have a sense of humor and like tech enough to do stuff outside of work.

That would be my hope. All of these side projects are done outside of work, so part of the goal is to demonstrate interest/drive. I have plenty of professional work examples I can show should the need arise.

I have the same problem! I’m considering publishing my pseudonym projects on medium and if they ever get mainstream acceptance then I can ‘merge’ my identities with a blogpost and name change on the account

If your notoriety becomes your brand, then why not! Build a brand with your real name and then flaunt it. If you've got a following, (traffic in blog, stars in GitHub project) I bet many would actually want to hire you.

1. Is it possible I am overthinking this?

Nah, it's good to consider these things.

2. Would it make sense to publish under a pseudonym? I feel like this would give me the ability to network and showcase my skills while being selective about who I show my public portfolio to.

I only indicated my first name on my website, so nobody who searches for my full name finds it (also my first name is very common). In my CV I simply put the link to my website. The HR person of the company that eventually hired me even tried out my JavaScript minigame =)

3. Do you have a web presence? Did it ever help or hurt your job search?

Yeah, I have a web presence. I think it helps. If it hurts, you're applying at the wrong company, or for the wrong job. Be prepared for questions about your work thought. Details about the inner workings and how you did it. That should be easy if it was a work of passion.