Can I land a remote job as a self taught developer

Career Advice
#1

Hi everyone, and a big thanks to this helpful community.

I am trying to land a remote python/backend job.

tried to make a simple reddit clone with django where i use class based views from scratch (inheriting only from the View class), here is the repo: GitHub - nzzCoding/Rambler: The chaotic message board. (for the time being)

the app is not deployed and still need a lot of work, but I just wanted to ask what kind o projects got you your first django or react job, and how complex was it?

should i apply with something as incomplete as that ? (i mean it shows everything needed for the backend)

also i would love to participate in other members react or django projects, as doubt is starting to creep in when working alone.

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#2

Can I land a remote job as a self taught developer

Sure. Is it likely? Ummm… That gets a little trickier.

It is hard to get a remote job as your first job, especially without a degree. The know almost nothing about you and you want to work remotely, without direct supervision and to just trust you. That is a hard sell. If you get some freelance jobs under your belt, it gets a little easier, but still…

I’m also of the opinion that it is harder to get a backend job as your first job, especially without a degree. It seems that you can do a lot more damage on the backend.

the app is not deployed and still need a lot of work, but I just wanted to ask what kind o projects got you your first django or react job, and how complex was it?

I landed my first job with completing FCC, doing a little open source work, working on some projects in meetups, build some of my own apps - they weren’t complicated but they were well coded. I taught myself React Native, built a toy app with that and deployed it to Google Play. This got me a few RN freelance gigs on upwork, and that got me a “real” job. #ymmv

should i apply with something as incomplete as that ? (i mean it shows everything needed for the backend)

Apply? Why not? What have you got to lose? You’re probably going to apply at 100 different places so why not get started and get some experience with the process?

In the meantime, just keep learning and building. If you do that long enough, your increasing skills will intersect the market need, and mix in a little luck and you have the “impossible to get” first job.

You mentioned working with other people. That is great too. It can be more fun, it shows employers that you can work on a team and understand how those workflows work, and other people will expose you to other ideas.

At the risk of more shameless self-promotion, I once wrote up a doc on my thoughts of getting the first job.

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#3

thanks for your answer.

not to get too personal but what you did you put in education and professional experience part of your resume as i see you are self taught?

also the reason i am looking for a remote job is because I am not US or EU based and that is where i’d like to find jobs .

#4

As to education, I do have a degree in music and a tiny bit of coding in the distant passed. I included that. I also talked about FCC and my freelance work. Yeah, that’s not much - that’s why I focussed on building a nice portfolio of apps.

If you are not US/EU, but want to get there. I might suggest that it would be easier to get some kind of job in your home country and build up a little experience. You would be amazed how much a little experience will open up doors. It would make a big difference. If you had a couple years of solid coding experience, you might even be able to get one of those countries to visa sponsor you. The more experience you get, the more likely.

Barring that, then getting some experience through freelance work with things like upwork or fiver would be good. That would get you a little experience, a little money, some more work to show on your resume, and hopefully some nice references.

You can still apply for remote work in other countries. It’s going to be limited - for example I think a US company cannot hire you as an employee unless they have a presence in your country. They can hire you as a contractor, but that is a little more limiting. But who knows, given enough time, you may find something.

But at this point, your goal should be learning new things and building stuff. On the side, you can also start applying. Do all three - look for local work, look for freelance work online, and look for remote positions. Whichever presents itself, jump on it. Experience is the commodity that gets jobs.

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#5

To get a full-time remote back-end job in the US/EU is pretty specific and probably not going to happen unless you are one of those “we must have this person work for us rather than the competition”.
Baring you being some kind of asset that companies all try to head hunt, the simple fact is it will require to much paper work to get you started. This doesn’t really have much to do with how much skill, experience, background, or remote work ability. Unless a company has a large global presence, it would require a lot of work to onboard you and deal with the foreign government to handle how the work situation is handled. As such you probably would be passed over compared to someone living in the US/EU with a similar skill set.

This doesn’t mean there is 0 way to get to that sort of goal, but I don’t see how you can get there without taking some steps to get closer to being viable.

  1. You can work for as a contractor that interfaces with companies globally. This would allow you to work, get experience, and be able to interface with more work from the US/EU. However, its very possible you wont be getting paid how you’d be paid if you were working in these countries (EU isn’t a country, but I’ll say it is for simplicity sake).
  2. You can move. If you move into either of these countries it simplifies the entire process. If this isn’t an option right now, see if you can maybe plan around it in the future. To decrease the risk of just moving everything, be sure you already have a job lined up
  3. Gain more experience so you do become one of those “we need to hire this person”.
  4. Gain experience working remotely you can refer to to show you are productive.

So it is possible, but only in a more long term plan rather than one you try to go after right out of the gate. There are lots of paths to getting to your goal, but it will take time, and most importantly you getting experience in the field where you live (or at least closer).
You can always get lucky, but job hunting is hard enough as it is. You don’t need to be 100% perfect for a job, you just need to be more viable then all the other people applying.

Good luck, keep learning keep building :+1:

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#6

I understand this, as a starter I am ready to make some sacrifices if it means i will get more experience and opportunities to advance.

My understanding of the subject is not very clear, how can i do that ? Do you mean freelance job ?

In the meantime I plan on working on those freelance platforms (fiverr), anyone got experience with that ? as a beginner what kind of job did you do first ? (lets say i learned React and Django , I also have 4 years with python, but i haven’t deployed any of my apps )

#7

The difference between a contractor and freelancer is usually in how your getting paid, managed and assigned to work, however there is a good amount of overlap.

When I say “work as a contractor”, I mean you can get a job with a contracting company, who assigns you a job with another company, who pays your contracting company. In this scenario you could be working for a company in a 9-to-5 sort of setup (or however the company handles it) and you are given a project from another company. In this setup your contracting company deals with clients, and you work on the development.

The disadvantage of this is usually software quality, as the developer is far removed from the end user experience as there are more layers of management between who writes the code, and who is actually using it. Other disadvantages is due to the extra layers, the project can become more and more risky to finance, as there is more overhead. This could mean there is more “corner cutting” at some level.

Regardless, since your a contractor you can be moved onto other jobs with other companies over time, while still not having to actually deal with getting/handling clients, as thats what your contracting company handles. However its worth noting they take a cut, and thus you wont make as much as if you did it by yourself, but how much this impacts your bottom line is more up in the air. You can still get paid well, or you could be getting paid way less.