I am currently 18 years old and without a college degree, I have been using FCC for 2 years and made some progress. I live in Shenzhen, China. And I am trying to find a web developer internship here in China, but it prove to be more difficult than I’d expected.
In my job seeking journey, I have apply for no less than 100 companies, but none of them seems to be interested at me. It may be due to the lacking of my college degree or my capability. Thus I am hope our fellow camper here could give me some pointers on my job seeking path.
In case you want to have a look at the projects other than my FCC projects, you can find them in my Github . You can also find some live demos of the projects in Live Demo, though the description is in Chinese, you can still grasp its essence.
In terms of skill set, I am relatively familiar with HTML 5, CSS 3, JavaScript which is essential for web developer, I also know something about page speed optimization(improve loading time and FPS) and testing framework, just very basic understanding. Besides, I have some basic grasp of Knockout and VUE framework. I have finished the majority of challenge in the Front End Certificate, leaving the advanced Algorithm Scripting and Advanced Front End Project. Now I am in the process of working on the Back End Challenge and I just finished the Time Stamp Micro-service.
Now you should have a better understanding of my ability and experiences, I am really curious to know how could I find a job here in China. Should I keep working on my projects or should I change my job seeking strategy? Any advice and suggestion are greatly appreciated.
Well, judging on your portfolio I would say you are on a good starting point, but you are far from ready. Finish the front end certficate first (I mean it), and don’t skip any projects or advanced algorithms. Yes the algorithmic problems are hard and time consuming, but by finishing them, you will actually get the skills that will make you suitable for an internship. Also post all advanced frontend projects on github, with nice pictures, commented code and readme. After that add them to your portfolio page and polish your portfolio page!
Try to find portfolio pages from developers around the world / or companies, and try to recreate some of the nicer features they implemented (and recreate them from scratch not by grabbing a library that does everything for you). You might check /r/webdev on reddit, people are usually posting portfolios there.
This might sound harsh, but right now, I wouldn’t hire you. Keep learning and eventually you will get it.
Best of luck
P.S: I don’t know how it is in China, but usually college degree is not necessary if you have the necessary skills
From what I know of the Chinese job market, it can be difficult to find any skilled work without a degree, regardless of your ability level. I’m not sure if that holds true so much for developer jobs, as there are relatively easily measurable ways of testing those skills (coding at interview). On the other hand, at 18 you’d also be younger than almost anyone else in the white collar workforce, which may hold you back in the job search.
Is there any reason you don’t want to get a degree? Or would you consider working abroad in a country that places less emphasis on formal education (as long as you could get a work permit there)?
It’s great to know that you are in Shenzhen as well.
Well, I will go for university and pursue a CS degree in October this year, but I am trying to find a internship to learn more and earn some money. And it has been widely known that university will only teach you things like algorithms and data structures which is important for sure, but not really that practical.
Speaking of working abroad, I would be more than willing to do so, do you have any suggestion on finding some jobs abroad?
My experience in America is probably very different from yours, but I’ll throw it in here anyway.
You may find that once you have started at University, it will be much easier to find an internship that takes place while you are a student. Many companies use their intern positions specifically for students (often with the hope that it will become a full-time position upon degree completion). I was able to work as an intern throughout my education. Your school may provide resources to help you meet recruiters. In the US it is also normal for universities to employ students in their own offices, including running office or department websites. I also did this for my school. This is often less challenging and interesting work than what you want to do, but is good for gaining you experience and putting a little cash in your pocket.
Hi, I assume you got nanodeegre from Udacity based on your portfolio. I took the similar way.
But finishing the projects for FCC really made a huge difference. It builds up nicely on top of Udacity’s program. The challenges on FCC are much harder and projects really make your mind sweat. Also, for me learning React helped a lot
Thanks!
I heard of company will have relatively lower standard in recruiting from university comparing to social recruiting. I wish I could get a intern in my freshman year.
Yes I have got a Nanodegree in Front End Development. Thanks for your suggestion!
By the way, I am kind of considering the Back End Degree in Udacity as well, since Back End Degree have this job guarantee Nanodegree Plus thing, do you think it is a good idea?
I was thinking the same way. Well whatever you do it will make you better dev for sure as long as you Code every day and put in time.
Knowing market my personal opinion is that a lot of people are looking for full stack js dev so I felt like ai had better chances going with the node on the back end and I learned some of the hot things of frontend like React.
There is no right way every way you pick is good just make sure you put in time.
Don’t beat yourself up I’ve been also doing this for a while and sometimes it does seem like it’s never ending journey. If you want you can reach out to me we can do some pair programming just for fun from time to time.
Stay positive and keep coding every day
