I’ve been a self-taught Java programmer for about 2 years and I’m currently applying for my first programming job. My focus is on full stack development (Springboot, Node.js, React.)
At this stage in my development I feel that I would benefit tremendously if I were to get some feedback on my progress and what I could focus on next.
It would be great to have someone look at what I’ve done up until now, and make suggestions on what would be some smart routes to take moving forward so that I can maximize my chances of getting my first programming job.
Good! Keep doing that
Do you feel like you are getting results?
Are you able to connect with any recruiters or developers at the companies you are interested in working for?
As for linkedin, you mention that you are a freelance developer.
I think it would help if you added a description of what type of work you were doing.
What kinds of projects were you working on?
Right now, just saying freelance is a little vague.
Providing some sort of description of what you have been doing the past year would help.
Also, your about section might be a little to long.
You might consider cutting it down a bit.
Since you did some freelance, it would help if you could get some previous clients to write reviews about the work you did for them.
When it comes to linkedin, I always recommend people watch Danny Thompson’s series on how to get job leads.
He invites recruiters and HR managers to look through actual junior developer profiles and critics them.
He provides really helpful advice for improvement.
As for your projects, I would add a live site for your Hackernews project.
Deploy it somewhere like heroku.
Also, ditch the default CRA readme and write your own description.
Thank you very much for taking the time to help. It is very encouraging to see that someone is willing to spend a little time to help a fellow programmer out.
Unfortunately, networking hasn’t yielded anything as of yet. The interviews I have gotten were from companies I had no connection with.
I will work on the LinkedIn about section (and check out the video), and I may just remove the freelance section. Since a supposed joint project I was going to be a part of turned out not becoming a reality, I’m not actually doing any freelance work, just figuring out how to best use my time that will lead me to a job.
I was first considering moving to another project (websocket messenger app), but I think you’re right in focusing on my HackerNews project. I’m going to commit to that one now.