So you're saying you wouldn't want to hire someone who put in the absolute minimum effort to meet the desired functional requirements without wasting time/money

So you're saying you wouldn't want to hire someone who put in the absolute minimum effort to meet the desired functional requirements without wasting time/money? I think the functional requirements in this case are to impress someone who doesn't code, an HR person, etc. Because a qualified programmer manager shouldn't be particularly impressed with any personal homepage put together in a reasonable amount of time for the sole purpose of impressing a hiring manager. There's places where it's worth it to "think outside the box" and then there are places that -- well, there's a reason we have boxes, because they work well for what they're designed to do.