Hey campers, I started FCC last year on July 26 and on July 26 2017, I was offered a job. It took me a very long time. I sent out about 300 resumes over 6 months and didn’t get a single interview. Then, with the first interview I got, the interviewer basically handed me the job.
The interview was very informal(we met at a bar). He just told me about the company and what they are trying to build and then offered me the job. He was the hiring manager, so he had already gone through my GitHub to make sure I could handle it. I have all my projects on there, plus I am one of the guys helping build the league for good open source project, so that definitely proved I could do it. When I asked him about putting your work on GitHub, he said any resume that didn’t have a GitHub link got tossed immediately. So make sure you put all your projects on your GitHub account.
The job is at a startup for a parent company in my city. They are building a new app from the ground up and wanted to build it using the MERN stack. Most of the stuff I work on is using React. I’ve only been there for two weeks, but I really enjoy it and I get a lot of freedom on how to work, as long as I get it done. I found that FCC definitely prepared me really well, but the open source project is really what helped me the most as far as getting job ready.
I thought I was never going to get a job, but I spent at least some time everyday studying and programming for a year. Eventually, my hard work paid off so keep at it guys.
What are your initial thoughts as far as how prepared you feel / confident in your work there? Did you do any other courses along with FCC that you feel were beneficial?
Thank you guys. I was a bit unsure going in the first week, but by the end of that first week I felt pretty confident. I am adding features pretty quickly to a library I am writing and fixed a couple bugs that hung the team up.
The thing that helped me by far was the open source project. I did that for 4 months before getting this job and the experience of building an application from nothing was insanely good experience, since that is what I am doing now.
I also read all the books except the last one in p1xt’s guide(https://github.com/P1xt/p1xt-guides/blob/master/job-ready.md) for getting job ready as soon as possible. The books I think everyone should read alongside FCC is YDKJS, since once you finish them you’ll have a very good understanding of JavaScript.
My best wishes are with you , hope you have nothing but success at every step of way,thanks to the founder of FCC as well, i came back today after 30 days of starting here, reset my account and will begin soon…
Did you put a GitHub link on your resume? Just curious.
How did the hiring manager get to know you? Your resume? or he found your work on the open source project?
Did you do any courses and projects from the P1xt’s guide besides the books?
How long did you take to read 9 books from P1xt’s guide? Again, just curious.
I’m currently readying Chapter 4 of this and Object Prototypes (YDKJS). And I find your post to be very uplifting and show me that if you could do it, I can do it!
It took me a long time to get hired and I was very doubtful if it would ever happen. Just know that if you keep working at it that eventually you will get good enough for someone to pay you to code for them.
To answer your questions:
I have my GitHub link on my resume. You should always have it on there.
I found the job posting on Indeed. He emailed me about 40 days later asking if I was still looking for work. He said that he had looked through my GitHub and I had all the requisite experience needed. It’s why my interview was so informal.
The only other course I did was this: https://university.mongodb.com/courses/M101JS/about. That course is not in her guide. Instead of doing p1xt’s projects I just did all the FCC projects and got all my certifications.
It took me about 5 or 6 months to read them all I think. I read them alongside doing the projects.
Just keep coding and you’ll it’s only a matter of time before you’re making a post about how FCC helped you get a job.
It seems to me that your portfolio has grown to the point where your hiring manager like what you did with your work opposed to first three months of sending resumes since your portfolio was much smaller back then. I would think so.
Secondly, I think you’ve set a bar for people … meaning, 300 resumes in 6 months is a lot over a not so short period of time (esp when attempting to get a job and hearing nothing back). It’s your persistence that has paid off, and that is nothing short of remarkable … it’s very easy to lose hope after sending a dozen resumes in a week, let alone what you managed to accomplish.
Finally, be proud, you deserve it. You studied, you practiced, you held your own feet to the fire, and you won a job. Now you can embark on the wonderful adventure that is development … enjoy it. My hope is that this inspires many others to keep at it, because it’s real and possible.
I started applying after I finished the data visualization cert. I really started applying when I got the back end cert as well. I also spent 4 months working on one of the open source projects that FCC offers.
I mainly applied through Indeed. I did use Dice as well, but I got my job through Indeed, which was my primary means of applying.
I mainly applied in my area(I live in Virginia). I also applied in the states around me, like North Carolina and Maryland. I was applying nationwide, but that took me nowhere. I think going local gave me a better shot at getting an interview.
