Are redesigns good portfolio pieces in this situation

[saddam_maliq]

After graduating from a cs degree I didn’t work for four years. I have been told that I could explain this in the cover letter.

I’m passionate to learn new things but my disability messed with my confidence. Everyone (I asked about this here and elsewhere) says that if I tell the story in few lines on a cover letter, I’m bound to get an offer if I apply ruthlessly.

I have the skills needed: css, sass, js (learning ES2015), have experience in gulp, node.js, comfortable creating an API in php, used wordpress in the passed, few years a go I went through laravel (whilst using node now, I keep remembering things from laravel).

I just recently fully convinced myself that every barrier that I thought was stoping me, was created in my head. Now I really need a job to start training myself how to navigate the corporate world. My final problem is the portfolio. Whilst I learned the above, I never created full sites.

My idea is to search for local charities, look at their sites and if I think that I could improve them, I should redesign them. Then drop them an email asking them if they want the product, If they say no, we are happy with the system we have I could still use my design in the portfolio with a description like “A redesign of an animal shelter that wasn’t used”. Is this a good idea?

I’ve seen that designers redesign in dribble all the time, but it seems just a way for them to sharpen their skills not to convince clients.

Would redesigns of any site I like satisfy clients (some of them) to give me a junior position or an internship

Or can I just do fictional sites so that I don’t seem as if I’m devaluing my time by working for free.

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