Unable to land a developer job after switching from QA role

Hello all!

I need some advice/help in landing a full time role in frontend. I have experience of about 9+years which includes 7+ years in QA and rest in development as internship, full time and bootcamp where i upskilled on MERN stack.

I have been searching for a job opportunity who can give me a chance on me and my skills. I thrive best in hands-on work environments, where I can quickly contribute and learn through practical challenges. But I’m finding it difficult to get that one company to try me.

Would asking to do a trial period of one month in the cover letter be okay? Or there any way I can showcase my skills and land a job?

I’m loosing all hopes after trying for a long time now. :frowning:

Please help out, anyone.

1 Like
  • you’ve taken BEST decision of your life to shift from QA to Dev, kudos to you and person who told you to do this as well.
  • How many projects did you build with MERN stack ?
  • Are they available on GitHub to review ?
2 Likes

Hey @vikramvi ,

Thank you. I have created a lot of personal projects and bootcamp ones.
Feel free to checkout my portfolio: https://ameerajayakumar.netlify.app/
It contains my projects, GitHub and other info :slight_smile:

Any advice on the working for free or suggesting one month trial period by pinging hr or founders directly? Is that an option to atleast land an opportunity and showcase my skills and what how I can contribute?

Checked your lastest commits Commits · ameerajayakumar/spotter-flights · GitHub

  • Please add detailed commit message so that one can get to know what did you fix / added new feature
  • ameerajayakumar (Ameera) · GitHub, here change pinned projects to one which you feel are most critical where you’ve spent lots of efforts
  • IMO checkout internship / jr engineer roles with Y combinator startups, do get connected with founders on linkedin and share your profile

All the very best

1 Like

HI @Ameera !

Welcome to the forum!

I was able to take a look at your resume and portfolio and here are my general thoughts

Resume

I think there is to much going on in your resume and there are areas where you can cut back.

Yes, you have been in the tech industry for 9 years in different roles, but there are a lot of ares where you can cut back in. Plus, most hiring managers and recruiters will only spend 7 seconds on your resume before deciding if they want to learn more or not.

So you want to get to the key points much faster

Here are the areas I would suggest cutting

Cut the skill bars section

Remember that the employers will judge your technical skills and decide for themselves how proficient you are in certain areas. So you telling them with skill bars does nothing for them because they will make up their own minds anyway

The next suggestion would be to cut down on the summary and focus on impact and value.
You have something that most would kill for and that is experience.
But right now you are not highlighting that to the best of your abilities.
Right off the bat, you need them to know that value you bring to the table and the impact you have left for clients and previous companies and how you can help them grow their business and create lasting solutions.

For your skills and tools section, I would suggest cutting that down a bit.
A lot of those points can be grouped together. Remember that you only have a limited time to gain their attention. So keep it brief and impactful.

For your experience, you have a lot of bullet points talking about numbers and value which is good. But you also have a lot of fluff that doesn’t need to be there.

For example you say this for freelancing

Created and designed user-friendly WordPress website for a real estate business.

That doesn’t tell me a whole lot. most people can build a website with some degree of success. But how did your work impact them and help them grow their business and overall add value?

Every single bullet point, needs to be seen through a business lens because at the end of the day that is all that matters.
You should frame each one as the following

“Achieved [specific result] by [action taken], leading to [quantifiable impact or outcome], demonstrating [relevant skill or value].”

or something along those lines.
You just want to showcase how your previous experience shows employers the impact and value you will provide for them

As for your projects, I would just limit to your two best ones and have a couple of bullet points. Talk about cool features and the problems it solves.

Lastly, I would suggest listening to Danny Thompson new podcast

He and leon talk a lot about common mistakes made by those looking to get a dev job.
It will really help you :+1:

Good luck

4 Likes

What’s the title for that episode?

The programming podcast has multiple episodes on how to get a developer job.
Since they are brand new, they only have like 15 or so episodes so far.
So I would suggest starting with the first episode and going from there :+1:

3 Likes

Hi Ameera,

I’m not sure if you use your current resume when applying for jobs, but I recommend using a plain template to improve your chances of passing the ATS screening. I have a resume template ( I got it from a recruiter on LinkedIn) that many people find effective. Feel free to make a copy if you’d like to use it.

2 Likes

Moving from QA to a developer job can be hard, but don’t give up. Keep improving your coding skills by working on projects or open-source. Show employers that your QA experience helps you write better code. Try networking, joining tech events, and applying for jobs that need both QA and coding skills. Stay patient, keep learning, and you’ll find the right job

2 Likes

For the summary in resume, how does this sound instead of my current version? I made it short and more precise.

old version:

Having spent a significant part of my career as a QA engineer, I decided to take a leap into
the world of software development. It was not an easy transition but I can safely say that it
was challenging yet oddly satisfying and I do not regret it. I’
m proficient in the latest full-
stack technologies (MERN)- React, JavaScript/TypeScript, Mongo, Express, Node, HTML,
CSS frameworks like Material UI and Tailwind etc. With my attention to detail and passion
for problem-solving, I bring along innovative solutions and top-notch quality as a software
developer.

new version:

Leveraging over 9 years in frontend QA automation and full-stack development expertise, I deliver innovative, scalable solutions that drive business growth. My unique blend of quality assurance precision and MERN stack proficiency enables me to design robust, user-centric applications that exceed client expectations and accelerate product delivery.

do you have any suggestions for change for this?

Yeah, I think that is a lot better.

I wouldn’t emphasize MERN stack so much. Because it does have a lot of associations with bootcamps and some employers might dismiss you because of that.

I would just focus on emphasizing that you can build out full stack applications and know how to solve problems and add value to companies.

2 Likes