Do you still apply to developer jobs that require you to have 3-5 years of experience if you have zero experience?

I often do that given that there don’t seemed to be that many developer jobs that require zero experience and the jobs that do have are usually for recent college graduates or college students looking for an internship, not those who have graduated from college and been out of school for awhile. I like to know what you do when encountering those kinds of situations.

Companies who do 3-5 years experience simply means that:
-They don’t want to train you lol.

You should still apply, but I would recommend showing off your projects in your resume. Also try to look for Jr dev jobs that care about what you do and not how long you do it. By the time you code for 3 years, you are more of a mid dev or even a senior dev.

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To add to what @vesltia said about not wanting to train you (which makes perfect sense), it’s best to think about this in the most brutally honest way possible…

Typically, you’re applying for a job at a company where they know exactly what they want from an employee (new or otherwise) as to where you don’t know much about them beyond what you can glean from their public-facing communication network (i.e., websites, social media, etc,…). For you to approach them and say, “Your company looks like a good one to work for, and I’m interested in working on the kinds of projects you work on using the kind of tech you use” is analogous to a person walking up to an attractive other and saying, “Hey, you look good to me. I like your style and what you do. Let me into your life, yo!”

And, this is going to sound weird, but if your main motivation to look for a dev job is to find a dev job, how attractive could you possibly be to a potential employer? They assume everybody looking for a dev job wants a dev job (of course!); without showing them more than just a desire to work for them, you really aren’t all that attractive to them. Again, with the lame analogy,… If a person approaches you with the “I just wanna be with you” appeal, it’s either warped teenage romanticism or middle-aged creepiness.

You can approach potential employers, partners, etc,… with the “Come on baby, give me a chance!” appeal, or you can develop your skill set to the point where you can build awesome things and then throw your “resume” out there to those who’ve attracted your interest and say, “I’ve got a lot going for me. You’ve got a lot going for you. I think there’s a chance we could have a beautiful, fruitful relationship. Let’s meet up and talk about it.”

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I am writing code for 4 months. I know node , express , mongo , react and basics. Altought i dont know PHP or laravel , i applied for a position that requires 3-5 years experince .Yesterday they called me an wanted an interview for a front end position. So i think You must apply to every web dev job.

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