As a 12 year veteran of hiring and managing web designers I have seen just about everything, but one thing that still dumbfounds me is a resume from a web designer that does not clearly point me to their work. I would rather a web designer skip the resume than the URLs!

When you are working as a web application developer, you should be aware of the fact that any work you do on private web sites such as corporate extranets or intranets may not be visible to your prospective employers if someday you find yourself involuntarily or quickly "in the job market." If you're really proud of an application you have programmed you should get lots of screenshots and write up a case study so that your work can be evaluated even if a login is not available.

If you want to make your career as a professional web designer, you would be better off building your portfolio working for free for a few greedy capitalists with good brand names than doing free web sites for all the garage bands in the world.