Hello guys!
I got some great news! So I started FCC about 2 months ago. I zoomed through the html, css, javascript courses.
I had a bit of those pre-set projects from FCC in my portfolio.
As you know coronavirus is rampant and everythings shut down … I thought to myself why not start applying for internships? I didn’t want to do jobs yet because I thought I’d get a little starting experience.
So I basically three my resume randomly and sporatically everywhere…
I can’t believe it… I got 2 internship offers and one front end developer position!!!
I’m very excited about this.
Just want to say… it really is possible. I didn’t think so when I started but stick in there and you’ll make it!
Hey there,
Thank you for sharing your success, it gives me hope and motivation while I learn.
Can you tell us more about your application? How did you send it, to whom? I’m not there yet and have a lot to go but I can’t help doubting myself when it comes to job application and how to proceed.
Well the main places that I looked were Indeed and AngelList. AngelList because I just wanted to focus on getting some, and any type of experience under my belt. I knew if I had that experience, paid or unpaid, that would leverage me into paid positions. So I got 2 from AngelList. When I put updated my LinkedIn profile, then the paid offer came through.
I think the best thing to do would be to actually call the place that your interested in. Say that the Indeed posting you posted doesnt work and was wondering if I could talk to a HR personell. That actually gets your resume into a real person. It has worked wonders for me that way lol.
But yea… just keep searching no matter how broken or small your portfolio is.
So at first I started looking on AngelList. A place where most startups post their positions. A good thing about startups is they really are trying to find anyone interested in their work but the work is unpaid. My thing was if I do a unpaid internship, that’ll get my foot in the door for paid positions. So I started to send my resumes to startups to which I got my 2 internship offers, remote ofc.
I also tried to actually call companies up. Kinda of like a white lie… say that the Indeed posting which you posted doesnt quite work. Would you know another way of submitting my resume? This will lead you to the HR personell and them giving you their actual email. It may be a bit of a tricky move, but in the end its a game. You’ve got to make sure your resume is seen by a human rather than a automated system.
Nah dude… don’t worry. I was literally like you last week. I only have the 5 html,css projects and one javascript project under my belt and I thought I was unqualified. But you just have to keep grinding them applications out.
Keep searching and applying. You don’t know which company will give you a offer.
Thank you for your reply, I am very happy for you. You can now say that you landed a job during COV19 lockdown!
I’m curious about location and role. Did you get a job in another country that where you live (I live in Mauritius and I’m asking myself how would I get paid?
What ‘role’ did you pick as a job on Angelist?
I’m currently living in U.S.A.
I guess I could say that haha.
Well… tbf… the internships are unpaid right now. And I’m alright with that.
It’s really hard to get a paid position right now… but it doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of the free oppurtunities from companies right now. It
ll definitely pay off in the long run.
My current 2 roles are ‘Machine Learning Intern’ and ‘Front End Developer Intern’ in that company.
Here are a ton of companies that offer more positions right now. Everyone that you contact on AngelList goes directly to the CEO of the company, so that’s a plus.
So I finished the Responsive Web Design Certification in one week. About 5-7 hours a day.
Currently half way through the Javascript Certification right now. About 3-4 hours a day now.
The rest of the time was creating projects, networking, applying, creating a portfolio etc.
So it took a ton of practice and study time to reach this point.
I was a bit intense when I completed them… now that I think about it. haha.
HTML/CSS is just a markup language for the visuals, JS is a full-blown programming language you write algorithms in to give the page behavior (or do anything else at all). It’s much more difficult to both understand and execute, and there’s no limit to the complexity: once you get the hang of the basics, you start using libraries and frameworks that take care of those basics and push you into even more advanced concepts of code.
For example, working with the DOM is a challenge at first, mostly because it’s such a huge API that isn’t always consistent. React makes it so you rarely if ever have to touch the DOM again, but now you’re thinking in terms of functional data flows where before you were just stuffing things into variables, then higher-order components to abstract out your other components, and so on. It does simplify a lot of things, but you have to make a big shift to your mental models. Same goes for a lot of other high-level libraries, React is just an example.
Programming never stops being a challenge. At least not if you’re doing it right.
