Hello everyone! I hope all is well. I am a full time teacher in Technology Education who is looking to change professions to web development. I am a self-taught developer with a Bachelors degree in Exercise Science. I hold teaching certifications in Math(6-9), Technology Education, Health Specialist, Physical Education, and Drivers Safety Training. I have been at learning to code for about 6 months. I started out with the Odin Project obtaining most of my initial information on HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I moved into learning through W3schools and gained certifications in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Front End Development. I am currently practicing coding using freeCodeCamp. I have placed my resume on LinkedIn, Indeed, Career Builder, and Glassdoor. I have yet to have ANY contact from potential employers/recruiters. I know I have a LOT to learn, there is just SO much information to know, however I am extremely eager and excited with learning all there is to know about coding. Can anyone help give me advice on how I can put myself in a position to learn on the job? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much! -Ashaad Y.
Hi @ayeoman41 !
Welcome to the forum!
One of the things I would suggest doing is read through the other job posts in the Career Advice section of the forum because there is a lot of helpful advice from working developers on how to land that first job.
So there are probably a few reasons for this.
No.1: You haven’t optimized your Linkedin profile to where recruiters can actually find you
I don’t know what your profile looks like.
But if no one is reaching out, it is probably because there is not a lot of content there and you are not utilizing it to the best of your abilities.
I would suggest watching Danny Thompson’s Linkedin series on YouTube
He brings on recruiters and hiring managers to critique new developer’s profiles and points out what they are doing wrong and how they can fix it.
I used it a few years back to optimize my profile and saw a good uptick in responses when I was looking for a job.
No.2 - Just posting your resume on Indeed and Glassdoor won’t be enough
The market is flooded with juniors looking to get their first job.
Just posting a resume and waiting to hear back is not going to be your best strategy.
I would highly suggest you watch Leon Noel’s videos on how to land your first job.
Everyone is going to have their way on how to land a job. But I think Leon’s advice is some of the best I have come across and he has helped a lot of new developers land jobs through his online bootcamp.
I see that you have taken a lot of courses and have been practicing which is good.
But you haven’t mentioned anything that you have built on your own outside of a course.
One of the things that can help you stand out is by building projects that take some time (a few weeks or longer) to build.
Everyone builds that same class projects (calculators, quote machines, tic tac toe games, etc) but not a lot of people take the time to build larger projects outside of the class.
Take the time to build something that you can talk about in interviews.
The thing to remember is that employers are hiring juniors that are up for the challenge and for the potential to grow.
If you appear to risky of a hire, then they won’t take a chance on you.
Hiring juniors is about a long term investment not short term.
My last piece of advice would be to get feedback on your resume.
Most people don’t know how to write good resumes.
I was in the same boat too.
My first few drafts of my resume were not good.
Revising your resume can also mean a boost in getting an interview.
fcc news has tons of good articles on how to write good resumes
Hope that helps!
Thank you SOOO MUCH!! I greatly appreciate it. I am going to get on that now.
This topic was automatically closed 182 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.