Hey guys, I'm a full state javascript developer looking to move to move to NYC after putting together a portfolio app or two. Also, I'm waiting until the virus settles down, getting virused having fun is okay, walking down the street not okay. I wanted to ask you guys for ideas on what would be a cool portfolio project that would impress fintech employers. I have a couple ideas and will share my thoughts on them 1. Trading System App. 3/10. I feel like this one is done to death. During an interview I can't see myself pitching the value of this very well. I'm a dev, not a trader. 2. Fraud monitoring app. 7/10. I think this one has a much broader appeal. The problem I see here is, that if I were to design it for merchants, the current stuff put out by Visa and the big players would probably surpass whatever I could build. So then my project would be designed for simplicity or cost cutting, say flagging foreign IPs or something basic like that. 3. Scoring app: 8/10 Now this one is a little better. I could use something like Spokeo to get a profile on someone and look for trouble signs. I could score them, and return a score to the API consumer. Or "not found" if there's no match. I welcome any/all ideas, thanks. This site is trading focused but anything in FinTech is fair game, frankly the less prestigious, easier to get into parts of the industry are more desirable to me as a new developer.
You are a software developer so you will want to promote your software development skills. The three projects you mention you seem to judge based on their business potential and business attractiveness. That seems to be a different goal to me. You may want to consider building something which shows off how good you are at coding/developing.
with full stack (not state) javascript I think you should just focus on UIs. The examples you posted are better suited in something else
I would say the concepts are not mutually exclusive. Two developers walk in the door to a FinTech, one with a fraud mitigation project to talk about, the other with an app that chooses amusing quotes based on the weather. First guy has a lot more to talk about from concept to development and shows his interest in the industry the whole time. Second guy says he likes financial stuff, maybe that's true, but who really knows. The clever FinTech app is the equivalent of a freeroll in poker Python's ecosystem has the edge in Machine Learning. But setting that aside modern JS can basically do anything that the backend languages can nowadays. These days most programmers consider CRUD apps (Create Read Update Delete) to basically be language agnostic.
DISCLAIMER: Importantly most companies don't care about your pet projects. If you can whiteboard well you'll have a job. This may not even be necessary. If you've been selected for candidacy your projects won't matter. Your whiteboard skills and alma mater will. At least at any major company. You are applying for a job where you will be paid a fixed wage to be a code monkey. Don't invest yourself into something just because you need money to eat. They pay you to code, not be enthusiastic about whatever garbage they believe in. ------------------------------ Any kind of app that will work with risk management will be impressive. Consider your scoring app but look more at people's finances. Come up with some contrived scenario - perhaps you're trying to sell a house. Now come up with a risk model that scores these people based on default rate. You could implement some kind of trust system on a simple blockchain. This is another area that fintech is interested in. Pick something that doesn't have much trust and build a contrived example. Maybe you imagine a post apocalyptic scenario where you need to trace where bread came from or something. If you build a BreadChain (TM) you can verify the path the bread took to reach it's destination and determine, upon discovery that the bread is actually made of sand, where it could've happened. Use your head. Also use something other than javascript. If you plan on actually working in fintech and don't want to be a frontend monkey pick up something a little better. Java is always good, python is ok (know when and when not to use it), and golang is another good one. C++ is also nice. Tailor your projects to the company you're applying to without going too deep into whatever stack their HR robots are qualifying people on. Keep your example applications contrived and don't try to develop some new system. If they are hiring based on your ability to develop something novel you have a product you can sell yourself. (side note LMAO moving to NYC is basically financial suicide. Good luck.)