My portfolio site crashed during a client review in Chicago last month

I was sitting in a coffee shop in the Loop showing my work to a potential client. Right when I clicked to the project page with all my case studies, the whole thing went white. Just a blank screen. I tried refreshing three times and nothing worked. I ended up pulling out my phone and showing them screenshots I had saved in my camera roll. They actually liked the designs but said the tech issues made them nervous about hiring me. I fixed the hosting issue that night - turns out my image files were way too big for the server. Has anyone else had a portfolio fail mid-presentation like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

kellyj232d ago

Honestly, the whole "showing screenshots from my phone" part hit home. I've been there too, but with a different kind of crash. You handled it right though, pulling out the camera roll saves the moment. For the future, I'd say keep a local copy of your whole site on your laptop, like a PDF or an offline version. That way if the internet or the server tanks again, you just double-click and keep going. Also, compressing those images before you upload saves a ton of headaches.

hugo372d agoProlific Poster

Yeah for real, the screenshot thing is a lifesaver when everything goes down. Glad you got through it too, that panic is no joke lol.