Getting ready to start applying for jobs.. Again!

Hey everyone,

I didn’t really spent much time on the form section when I was using FCC, but I’d like to share with you guys how my last month has went with this whole “Self-taught” route.

In December I was heavily motivated by the fact that I hate my current job, I wanted out of there as quick as possible. So on the 1’st I called in “sick” (maybe not the best idea during Covid but :rofl:). Anyways, this 1 sick day turned into a whole two weeks of strictly coding. In my first three days I built my first version of my portfolio site… I literally had not one project on there, so I guess it was more so just a website that was about me.

After it was done I instantly started applying for jobs, I applied to over 120 places. Long story short if your a self-taught developer don’t waste your time on Indeed.

That took me around 2 days ^, the next day I started contacting company’s directly and that’s when I got some hits back. If people still weren’t hiring they would at least reply, and that made me feel like someone was at least viewing my work.

Finally I got an email… It was good news, this company was hiring and he sent me the code test to get in. The test was suppose to take 3 hours it took me 12. I knew I wasn’t getting that job but I figured I’d give it all I had.

The next day I got the news… As expected I didn’t get the role as it was the test for the Senior position. Which I had no clue that’s what I was applying for.

Hi Brent,

 We received the test, unfortunately, you did not pass for the senior position that we’re hiring for.

 However, we are looking for someone junior on a fixed contract to help us maintain some of our existing sites. Is it something you’d be interested in?

Best,

I got back to him and then he never got back to me so I quickly began building projects and 2 more versions of my website.

V1


V2

V3

Today, I start applying again. I’ll post any update if anything happens.

2 Likes

That seems a bit harsh, but I did have better luck with places like glassdoor, SO, linkedin, and angel.co.

But yeah, no matter how you slice it, it’s tough. It is a long and soul sucking process to get that first job. But, there are a lot of self-taught developers that have gotten jobs - I’m one of them.

Looking over your stuff, I wouldn’t even waste my time applying for senior positions.

And looking at your portfolio…

There should be links to the source code for all of those, presumably in your github account. Even better would be a list of techs that you used in each.

Surely you have more “skills” than that. Go through the projects you’ve built and see what libraries you’ve imported.

I find the zoom on hover to be too much - I’d dial that back a bit - it can be a subtle thing to just alert them that it is pressable.

You need more complex projects, preferably some with a backend, even a simple one. You should also be working on a modern interface library, like React, Angular, or Vue.

On the healthcare site mockup, I’d expect a little more interaction-ability.

I don’t get the purpose of the “resources” section.

No link to github? No link to linkedin?

Making a form is cool, but if they just want to save your email for later? What if they want to call you?

On your resume, is that your age, 22? Why include that?

Don’t advertise yourself as “self-taught”. Adding that in the title of your resume is like you are bragging about it. I wouldn’t mention it at all. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, but it’s also nothing to brag about. You’re not a “self-taught web developer”, you’re a “web developer”. I wouldn’t put “self-taught” anywhere - they can figure it out. Focus on what you know and what you’ve built.

Your “about” section is much to big and personal. Just who you are and what type of thing you’re looking for. The text should take up no more than three lines. It can be bigger on your portfolio site - you aren’t fighting for space there.

For your jobs, you want to minimize the lines taken up by non coding jobs - they don’t care about the specifics. I’d definitely combine the first 3.

The list of skills and projects are the most important thing - they should be the center of attention. I would pick your 3 best projects and explain a little for each, even one line.

They don’t need your address - your city is sufficient, and it’s at the top.

Don’t include your high school. Have you done any coding courses? Even FCC?

It’s a small thing, but I wouldn’t take the graphics of the resume all the way to the edge - it will look weird if they print it out.

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

4 Likes

Hi @BJC!

Here are my thoughts.

I think the goal of any job is to communicate to your potential employer that you can add some sort of value to that company.

The current message you are sending now is “I built some stuff, I like to code and I need a job”

But employers don’t really care that you need a job.

They want somebody that is going to be a valuable asset to their company.

Otherwise they wouldn’t bother to waste time, money and resources hiring people if there wasn’t a long term benefit to them.

So if you lead with that message in your presentation on your resume and portfolio then you will start to get better results.

I would continue to work on the projects and add github links for the code and good descriptions to the projects.

Each project should explain what it does, why you built it, what technologies did you use.

For example, I don’t really know what the spot app does. Do you rent a spot? Take pictures of a spot? It is not really clear by the messaging.

Keep learning and keep building.

Hope that helps!

It was interesting to read. I looked at some things from the other side.

This topic was automatically closed 182 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.