It’s taking me super long to get a job as a dev. At this point, I realize recruiters are the enemy. They all want senior devs. So frustrated I decided to try to be an expert as fast as possible so I wouldn’t have to hear “they’re looking for someone with more experience again”. I’m stressed out, alone, bored, broke, depressed, mentally exhausted. I’m stumbling around trying to think of what skill to work on next. When I get lost doing something and I don’t know how to get the right help I end up wasting the whole day on youtube feeling sorry for myself. All I care about now is programming. I have no other interest. There are only 2 ways out of this for me.
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The only way out is through, man. Don’t count on recruiters. Go to AngelList and fire off applications until there’s nothing left to apply for. Go through jobs on LinkedIn and Indeed. Make sure your resume is polished. The skill you should be working on the most right now is interviewing. Can you remain composed while someone is watching you code a challenge? Do you do well under pressure? Can you talk through some basic sorting and searching algorithms? Can you whiteboard them?
To these ends, make yourself a list of things you can do every day towards your goal. Something like:
- Put out 5 applications
- Do one medium difficulty challenge or two easy challenges on Hackerrank, Codewars, etc.
- Digest one podcast from Base.cs (shout out to Miguel for tipping me to this last night). This means not just listening, but taking notes and being able to answer questions about the topic.
These are just examples, but the underlying logic is to focus on the trisection of learning, practice, and job hunting. Prefer Cracking the Coding Interview to Base.cs? Read one chapter instead of the podcast. It’s best to make your practice follow your studying, of course, so reading a chapter on graph theory before implementing depth first search will optimize your learning time. Doing something every day towards your goal will keep your spirits up.
There’s no magic formula here for getting a job, unfortunately. All you can do is maintain your mood and prepare yourself for the inevitable interview. Lean on the community here so you’re not stuck finding answers online, too.
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Build experience. Treat every coding challenge as a way to build another portfolio piece. Recruiters can be nuts, make sure you applying directly to companies as well.
You aren’t wasting time on youtube trying understand. That’s coding, working out the puzzle. reading, asking, watching videos. That never ends. it’s what we do.
Look, don’t hang your happiness on getting a job, it’s not gonna go well. You need to like what you do and you’re on a path to really hate it. No one is an expert, the job changes too fast for that, and getting good, well that takes time. I know that sucks but it’s the truth.
Get online and look at meetup.com. find some coding groups to join, it’s usually free, gets you out of the house, and creates some kickass networking opportunities. Get on Slack or Gitter and join some coding groups so you can talk to people and post questions. Hell, post questions here, that’s why were here.
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Randomly applying for jobs online is statistically the least effective way of actually landing a job.
Networking with other people is statistically the most effective way of actually landing a job.
So get out there and network. No one has to be “alone” in looking for a job. If you network properly, you’ll find other job seekers that can help you out in one way or another. You might find friends too. You’re certain to find employed people whom you can ask questions. You might also find potential mentors. You’ll definitely find recruiters, and the best way to talk to them is in-person instead of over e-mail or the phone.
You can find networking and technical events through both Meetup.com and EventBrite.com. There are so many tech-oriented groups on Meetup that it’s ridiculous, and if you live in or near a decently-sized city, you should be able to find a ton of Meetup groups on almost any language or tech that you either already know or want to learn. EventBrite will often list events that aren’t on Meetup and will be for much larger events (on the order of at least 100 attendees or more), like career fairs, company-sponsored events (like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft training sessions and conferences), etc.
You can, and should, still apply for jobs online. But don’t spend the majority of your time doing that when it’s the least effective way of landing a job. Spend more of your time learning and coding. Build an impressive full-stack (or front-end or back-end if that’s your goal) project to show off on your portfolio. Most people get better at a skill through study and practice, so that’s what you should be doing.
Also, formulate a job-search strategy. It’s easy to just look for jobs without a particular strategy, but you should know what you’re looking for. If you don’t know that yet, decide that first and then come up with a strategy to achieve a specific goal.
And not to “shill” at all, but this just arrived in my email inbox this morning (the author is somewhat well-known in the Angular community): https://devchat.tv/get-a-coder-job/
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Keep your chin up, i understand the stress of getting a dev job as I am in the same boat right now. I remember i got an interview for the first job I applied for a couple months ago and was the runner up candidate, I was crushed. From there i learned not to emotionally attach myself to any company, for my own sake. I understand what it’s like to feel trapped. I am writing this from my desk at a job that I am itching to get out of and that I have been at for 3 years. I get it, its rough. Take each and every interview you get as a learning experience, because all those no’s are making you closer and closer to getting a yes…it only takes one.
Keep coding, go to meet ups, network, do whatever you have to do. If you can find out who the hiring manager or the CTO of a company is, reach out to them personally, I have gotten 2-3 phone interviews this way. Also, exercise. I know this sounds random but your physical health is important to keeping your mind healthy and it will hopefully make the process a bit easier for you.
Keep your chin up, good things are comin!
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@alkapwn3d, I definitely feel you as I am in the same boat. I keep applying to jobs and coding to build up my ‘experience’ but having no luck. I honestly don’t know what to do anymore… people can say keep your head up but when you have bills to pay and you’re broke (jobless) it’s a little different.
I know that “grass is greener” isn’t always the best pick me up. Some people get a job in 4 months (rare), and then I have read some people saying it took 5 years on and off. In the mean time, why not find a job where you can at least make a little income and support yourself and code on the nights and weekends. Thats what I have been doing. You definitely need to push yourself as sometimes after work you are just wiped, but if you really want it you make it happen. Keep doing what your doing bud, it’ll pay off
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@dk34, My only frustration with that sentiment is that taking a job to make a little income doesn’t help you get the ‘experience’ that many of us have been turned down from. I hope that when I am in a position to hire someone, or help someone get hired that I will do everything in my power to give them that shot.
By all means if you have the choice to wait, then wait. I worked for years a Dev AND… Dev and receptionist, Dev and office manager, Dev and call center…before I got enough chops to get full time dev rolls.
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I hear you. If your financial responsibilities are minimal then i guess its different. For me with rent, car payments, etc, I have no choice but to make income for the sake of making income. I get it, how do u get experience when no one gives u a shot. My feelings exactly. Hopefully we will be on the other side of that statement soon
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I hope we are on the other side of that statement too one day!
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It’s hard, and I have definitely felt the same way you are feeling. You are not alone. Take breaks, burn out is a thing. I struggled for years, yes multiple years, even with some experience to get responses to my resume’s and just finally got that dialed in. I would say what helped me is looking at how other successful developers structure their resumes and cover letters will get you a lot further, that really helped me dial it in. You can definitively improve that whole part of your job search workflow. Reach out to me if you want me to look at your resume or have any questions, need support, anything.
J
I looked at your profiles:
- Github with 2 public repos
- Blog with one article, hosted on a free webspace with no https
- Codepen with a form as the best project
- Resume with one project, that looks “okay”, has broken inline links and a really bad Dev Tools Audit
At the same time you brace yourself with:
- 4 years HTML5/CSS3
- 3 years JavaScript
- 2 years of front-end freelancing experience
- earning the FCC Full Stack Certificate
I don’t think that you should blame the evil recruiters…
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thx bro. ill get on that
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Listen to what @miku86 said. It’s very competitive out here. And I see you’re from Columbus, Ohio. I am too and I attend OSU. So, Keep in mind you’re competing with people like me and all the recent cs grads who didn’t have a job lined up after graduation in May. So, unfortunately, I don’t think what you currently have is gonna garner much attention from recruiters when you compare it to what some of my friends who are currently searching for jobs wit cs degrees have,. Try and build a multi-paged app with auth, use React and Redux. You only have two repositories on your Github that don’t showcase a large chunk of the skills you mentioned. So, take a deep breath , take ownership and don’t blame recruiters, bust your ass, and keep improving and an opportunity will come and you’ll be prepared.
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@miku86 My grudge with recruiters isn’t that they won’t get me a job its that they see my resume and they still make me drive to their office to tell me shit they could have told me over the phone. You guys figured out that I suck just from this forum. Why do they have to waste my time. One day I drove around town for 3 interviews. They got me in the office, looked at my resume again and tell me that I don’t have enough experience. So that’s why recruiters suck. fk em. Also my github is empty because one day I got pissed and delete everything I had because I got tired of being rejected.
Have you thought about finding volunteer opportunities to help others who are learning to code? I am asking because you sound very unhappy with your lot right now and personally I find it useful to my sense of self worth to help others. Plus it will be a good thing to have on a resume, even if the recruiters don’t care… employers will.
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You do realize that past projects are the intellectual property of your past employers, right? Imagine posting a project publicly without permission when you signed an NDA. Obviously you don’t know how it works in the real world.
Recruiters are clueless on the positions they are trying to fill. They only look for buzzwords, in addition to their use of Applicant Tracking System, no wonder the odds are against you. Plus, employers these days want a unicorn that can do everything, not only full-stack but design and UX, in addition to marketing, project management, copywriting, SEO, … you get the point.
Even networking is not a guarantee. You are in fact just wasting your and employer’s time for an interview because they are doing a favor for the person who referred you, finding out that you’re not a fit for the unicorn they’re looking for.
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How many projects have you built? I have like 6 projects, two somewhat full-stack, four front-end websites and I’m still looking lol. I did have a few offers but they either low-balled me or were looking for project manager who has some technical proficiency. My point is it happens to all of us, stay true to the grind and the results will show itself.
jenlky.com for ur reference
Now I’m building a full-stack app, and diving into Nodejs and database. Of course I can afford to do that because I have some savings. If you can’t, maybe try to look for an internship or something.
Man. They lowballed you? Even then, you should have taken it. Working for little pay on your first experience is better than nothing.