Finding my First Job as a Web Developer

HI guys!
Im juan from Colombia, let me just share with you a piece of my story and then I would love to have some guidance From who ever has lived a similar situation.

I moved to Australia 4 years ago to study English, since then I have been working in any kind of jobs to pay the bills but unfortunately none of them were related to my professional background, IT.

I have started two years ago to learn website development getting then knowledge in html css javascript and bootstrap. However this skills seem not to be enough for finding a job as a junior web developer in Sydney don’t even an internship, so I would love to have some opinions to help me out what step further should I take , any websites for internships or junior jobs, any useful website, bootcamp or course that you can highly recommend.

I would really appreciate if you can help me.
Thanks a lot !!

I don’t know how the economic job situation in Sydney is but it seems strange to me that with IT background and your fresh knowledge in web dev you couldn’t even find an internship. How did hunt the job? Do you have a portfolio of projects for them to see your skills?

I came to Sydney a year after graduating from uni , so I don’t have much experience, and as a web developer my experience is none.

You don’t have on-the-ground experience but in two years you have learned some new skills for sure. You have to show what you are capable of and that you are passionate. I suggest you making some small projects like these of the FCC or take the 100 days of code challenge. You have to show what you can instead of diminishing the value of your skills.

you are right Matteo, I will dedicate more time to develop and attractive portfolio and show what I’m capable of!. its more about attitude.
thanks a lot !
:pray: :v:

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Hi i am a Nigerian, although am still in college, i am currently looking for a job as a backend or fullstack developer…am yet to get one for now but here’s what I’ve been doing.
1)I have been building some projects on github and contributing on some open source projects to show that i can work with teams.
2) i made my LinkedIn profile to look better than it was last year coz am more serious in job hunt now :wink: .
3) I Built a scraper to get me remote jobs based on certain criteria everyday and i also manually search on indeed,zirecruiter, angel jobs etc.
4) I also built a job search web app for me to easily search for jobs. http://www.jobeazy.herokuapp.com
So I’d advice you strongly to follow-up the mini-projects here on fcc and also look for templates to clone just to get better… I wish you success.

I would give a look at some React.js, Node.js etc… You could try to build some real projects with front and backend to show to the interviewers what you are capable of, even if you are trying to apply just to a front end job .

That’s sounds good , I think I need to build a strong portfolio to show up my skills and as you said showing some back end understanding
Thanks for your advise ! :pray:

Hi giftedstan,
Pretty much this is what I would do first be more committed and complete the fcc lessons .
Do you have any open source projects that you would recommend me ?

Hey @juan251189 - I’m not in Sydney but was in Melbourne for a while, Australia has a really great tech community, I’d recommend connecting with the local tech community there. It can be a challenge to get that “first” job, I feel ya. My opinion is that you’ll increase your opportunities for jobs by meeting and talking to people, “networking” as they call it, but it’s really just chatting! :slight_smile:

All these meetups below have upcoming events!

This is the major Javascript meetup: https://www.meetup.com/SydJS-Classic/
This one is hands on for Javascript/Node: https://www.meetup.com/NodeSchool-Sydney/
More Javascript: https://www.meetup.com/SydJS-S/
Vue: https://www.meetup.com/vue-sydney/
Front end: https://www.meetup.com/f-enders-sydney/
Front end: https://www.meetup.com/front-end-developers-sydney/
Coding Bootcamp that runs some free events: https://www.meetup.com/Le-Wagon-Sydney-Coding-Bootcamp/
Casual drinks meetup: https://www.meetup.com/Sydney-Developer-Drinkups/
React Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/React-Sydney/

Goodluck mate!