YES, FINALLY! I can’t believe it’s my turn to make one of these posts. I applied to almost 200 jobs and even posted my frustrations not long ago on FCC here Am I ready to Apply for jobs? (Fixed up portfolio).
I landed a sweet gig with an amazing company and I’m beyond grateful for the people on this Forum, Discord and other platforms that have helped me along the way.
I always told myself if I ever got a developer job I would make sure to post my process of how I got it so I could share with others. So, here it is.
There’s a lot of advice I’m sure many of you have already heard like Build a portfolio, push your projects to GitHub, create a LinkedIn but I’m going to deviate from that and assume you’ve already done that. I’m going to get right to the point and say what did it for me.
1.) It’s ALL about the Resume
I can’t emphasize enough that this is the most important part, It’s all about your resume. I kept trying to improve my GitHub and portfolio, but the biggest thing really is the Resume. Think about it, all you’re trying to do is get that interview. Technical recruiters don’t really know much about coding they look through hundreds of resumes. Yours should shine if you can just get to the interview and be confident you could talk your way into a job.
2.) Real Projects
I thought I was good to go with my first portfolio, I had like 10 cool applications I made. Pong game, paint app, Static web page stuff like that. but truthfully, they don’t care, even if you’re just applying for a Jr. Front-End role, employers want to see a Full-stack project front to back with 3-4 features.
I know some of you don’t want to call around and freelance but it’s a must. If you can’t get any freelance opportunities to create a full application for yourself all the way to deployment. You don’t need 10 projects just 3 good ones. Add those to your resume and you’re golden.
3.) Apply Everywhere
“ We’re looking for a Jr Java developer ” APPLIED
“ We’re looking for a senior developer with 25 years experience ” APPLIED
“ We’re looking for a guy to hula-hoop around the office in a dress for our amusement ” APPLIED
The thing about this field I’ve learned is it doesn’t matter what languages you know, most of the time when you start a new position you must learn on the spot the technologies they’re using anyway. What they are looking is for self-starts, competence and someone teachable.
Wash, rinse and repeat. Build better applications, make a perfect resume, apply and call everywhere.
I know it feels like it’s not working and you’re just sitting in limbo waiting for that opportunity to burst through that door but don’t get discouraged it is working, you’ll get in somewhere eventually.
I’d also like to end this poorly written rant on one last thing. The truth is it really wasn’t that hard, it was a lot of work for sure but I wouldn’t call anything I did necessarily difficult. I applied for 3 months and in 3 months I just tripled my salary and now I get to work and learn from some seriously awesome peeps.
(Note: I’d like to add that my latest projects are not hosted on my portfolio at this time)
