I'm going to start by saying I'm sorry for this but I don't know what else to do. For 15 months I have been trying to get a coding job. I have a Bachelors in Computer Science, I graduated in 2012. It's a long story, but for years I was told by people I trusted that there was no future in coding and my information flow was heavily restricted. After working as a computer tech for some time, I got back into the coding habit and started looking for work, applying to coding jobs, starting a github, learning python. And for 15 months, despite passing coding tests and white board interviews, I have always been either rejected in favor of "a candidate with more experience" or asked how many enterprise e-commerce applications I have written as side projects. I saw the thread a while ago on how to get experience, but I have trouble coming up with side projects because well, it's been done already. Should I keep trying?
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Top comments (61)
Here is how I hacked a similar situation:
I built a simple portfolio on github. It was worse than what you have right now. Don't dwell on this because it doesn't matter too much. Like a drop in a cup of water.
I built a simple website that allowed people to contact me. Yours is not bad, but it needs its own domain. Also do the following changes:
Change this:
To this:
I stopped trying to get a job and started looking for consulting gigs. How? Go to indeed.com, type Python and select your area. Then contact all of the consulting companies looking to fill positions. Why consulting? Because they hardly interview you and the pay is better. Don't take less than $60 an hour (that's really cheap for Chicago). This will get your foot in the door, experience, and industry contacts.
Rinse and repeat that last step.
It is a numbers game for sure. However, consulting through tech staffing companies tilts the odds towards you.
PS. Remove the Aspiring Software Developer title from github. That makes you look weak. You ARE a software developer. No one can or will argue that.
As a marketing guy getting back into coding I have to say Pablo could not hit the nail on the head better here.
Embrace the knowledge and value you have already built, people will react stronger to your confidence.
That's the best advice anyone can give. If you want to be a Software Developer act like one.
Yes. What he said
Though i am not the person that wrote the post, but i want to say a big thanks for this advice.
You are welcome.
Thanks that a really good advice.
You mentioned that you have been getting terrible advice from people these last few years. This, my man, is good advice. Consulting! Super easy to get, and you get your foot in the door.
It's tough, but when I was interviewing I really tried to have the mindset that 100 no's and one yes is the same as 0 no's and 1 yes.
Don't stop before you get that yes, but in the meantime you can try getting freelance work for anyone. You can start with super cheap contract/freelance and work up to make more as you continue to interview.
This approach is super underrated. It's how I got started. Start really cheap and as you get work just keep doubling your rate.
My first paid programming job was $10/hr :P
Several years into my programming career I got contacted by an old client who wanted me to do another project for them—for the same $15 I had been charging them when I was a total noob.
My first programming job wasn't payed at all...
Thanks !!!
You don't need to come up w/ a side project that has never been done before! This is something that troubled me for soooo long, and then one day, I had real eureka moment. You don't need to come up w/ some genius idea that is completely original or novel. (In fact, if you're trying to come up w/ a business idea, you don't even really want to.)
Do you know how many blogging platforms there are? Or forums? Or task managers? Too many to count.
The point of having a side project is to demonstrate your skills, and not just your coding skills. Having a side project is an opportunity to talk excitedly (and passionately) about something you know very well and are familiar with. It's a way to show that you can identify a problem, come up with a solution, communicate it to others, market the project, design an interface, write a clear readme, etc.
You also don't have to come up w/ a full-blown side project or contribute to open source projects. I asked six technical founders how engineers can stand out from the applicant pool, and I thought Amy Hoy's response was really awesome. Here's an excerpt:
I guess it depends on your definition of what passion is, but when I see you say that you must be passionate in order to succeed or even get an opportunity in this industry, I'm confused. Is that the only way to find a job? To be excited overall about the industry? Maybe I'm not explaining myself too well. What I mean to say is that I don't believe you have to be passionate to succeed in any industry, yet uniquely, I see a lot of people discouraging one another in articles and comments about people who don't find programming to be their passion or life purpose or what have you. At least for me, I chose this because it's a way to finally move out of my parent's house and not struggle to survive on minimum wage. Yes. Money isn't everything, but when you're struggling with sacrificing rent or food, at least for me, I'd want to avoid that to begin with. And for my situation, programming is a way to finally be on my own. I've even got a 2 year degree to help my matters. I just graduated days ago.
I think we're on the same page here, actually. It matters how you define "passion" and of course, what you're passionate about. There are tons of folks who are passionate about making money and they've absolutely succeeded. I personally don't think that there is anything wrong w/ that.
I do think that if two people are going head to head, the person who is more passionate about the race/project/task at hand is going to out perform the other (all else being equal). I see this in myself all the time. There are plenty of things that I'm good at, but that I don't enjoy doing. I drag my feet, procrastinate, and don't care much about the final product. There are plenty of things that I'm not particularly good at but they give me life. Caring so much makes me do those things well.
You don't have to LOVE what a company does in order to love working there, but there are plenty of companies that have the ability to choose from a big pool of candidates and value a genuine passion for their product/service/industry.
Think about it like dating or marriage. Plenty of people want to have kids and raise a family. You don't have to be in love w/ your partner to do those things. As a result, some people prioritize that "passion" more than others.
So what you're saying is, if you were in my shoes and programming wasn't your passion, you would find a career that does give you passion? Is that an accurate conclusion?
Not quite. If you absolutely hate programming and dread doing it every day, then I think it's worth taking a step back to consider what you'd rather be doing. It's a privilege to be able to "do what you love" instead of needing to make ends meet. For most programmers, after some time, they have that luxury to be choosey, and I urge them to think long and hard about how they spend their waking hours.
If you enjoy programming, but aren't particularly passionate about it, I'd encourage you to think about what does light your fire and give you life. One of the best things about programming is that you can combine it w/ just about anything. Whether you love fashion, travel, analytics, or medicine, there are countless jobs that combine code and the thing you love. Non-profits need programmers too, and so do educational universities.
I know this is some old post, but...
I agree with both of you: you don't need to be passionate about coding to work with it - specially when your main goal at the moment is making ends meet.
But when things starts to drag you down, is time to search for somewhere where you can combine your crafts with your passion, as Lynne suggested. And even on this situation, you still don't need to be passionate about coding.
Take care!
Couple questions:
If you are like I can give you feedback on your CV and run a mock interview with you. For the past 3 years I spend a lot of time interviewing and hiring developers, a lot of them juniors.
So I can give you feedback as the other person on the other side of the table. Shoot me an email at info@allanmacgregor.com
*Both, even open to relocation if necessary
*Very often I never even get a phone screening call, but if I do ~ 2/5 of the time
I'll shoot you an email real quick, thank you.
You don't have to be sorry Christopher, finding a job can be tough!
@michaelgv here was looking for developers:
looking for workplace experience? we’re looking for developers
Michael
What about joining local dev communities and conferences? You probably need to expand your network. The first people you think about for a referral are people you already know or you ask someone you know if they know someone, that's one of the fundamental laws of the universe (and it's definitely fallible but that's a story for another day).
Also, build something. Who cares if it's not original. I think one of my first web apps I built was a blog, nobody needed a blog, myself included, but I learned stuff. Don't confine yourself to scripts or to the idea that if it's not original it's not worth doing because you'll never start otherwise.
And yes, keep trying!
Good luck!
I almost forgot: see if you can contribute to an open source project.
A few resources:
CodeTriage you can choose projects in need filtered by language. Spend sometimes checking the issues out, some projects indicate the level of difficulty, some don't unfortunately.
GitHub new contributors showcase: as they say in the subtitle... these projects have a history and reputation for being welcoming to new open source contributors.
The evergreen opensource guide
Awesome resources, thanks for sharing!!😃
Web Dev, outside of applets was never something I was very good at but I'll give it a shot.
Well, it was just an idea, programming is not just web dev. Python for example is very strong in data analysis and machine learning communities
You just have to keep trying. I'm a Python/Ruby developer with over 10 years of stuff on my CV but living in a "developing country" (a.k.a. Third World) where most people won't pay a dime for your code and almost every developer position available is asking for either .NET experience or some ancient technology like Fox Pro. I work as a sysadmin/tech support guy to pay my bills and do some freelance coding (mostly for people looking to reduce cost by outsourcing) on the side while trying to keep my abilities up to date. That's the market we're dealing with, you just have to find a way to cope and keep going.
My advice: Keep a day job and join some Open Source project, keep yourself sharp and wait for a better chance. It will surely come.
Hi Yoandy, have you considered remote jobs?
Having an stable remote job would mean having an stable internet connection, which around these parts is kind of a luxury. I do some part time jobs from time to time
My privilege didn't even make me register that issue.
I am sorry for assuming, I didn't realize you were in Cuba.
I was laid off and out of work for 18 months. In addition to side projects, you'll want to show you have an interest in keeping up with trends and expanding your skillset. Go to Meetups and see if local conferences (or conferences you have the ability to travel to) have Transition scholarships for people in your position. In my resume, there is a section for the most recent talks/meetups/conferences I attended. The inevitable questions are 'Why did you go? What did you learn? What did you like or not like?' Easy questions to answer and it shows both initiative and interest unique to you.
Good advice here. I got my current gig through these social events.
Can you elaborate on the jobs included in this hunt? If you are getting rejected due to lack of experience, my advice would be to apply to jobs that expect no prior experience (junior or entry level positions). It'd be helpful to know more details about these jobs though. What are the titles on the job posting? What are the industries?
Entry level developer, entry level software engineer, entry level devops engineer. Primarily in the finance industry. Most everything where I live that is C++ is trading/finance and not hiring for entry level, python and java are generally finance as well. I tend to avoid entry level/junior postings that require 5+ years of experience
Its my impression that the finance industry has an especially "corporate" culture. Those companies are probably going to place less value on freelance work, open source work, or side projects, and more value on the number of years you've spent working at another corporate company. That's not to say there aren't exceptions to this rule, but I think you'd have more luck if you applied to a company in the tech industry. Those companies are more likely to value self directed work (freelance, open source, side projects, etc). You're going to get a lot of advice telling you to build this portfolio of self directed work, but make sure you're applying to positions that value that portfolio.
I hope this helps, I really wanted to provide better advice than just "keeping doing work, keep applying." It is really hard to get that first software dev job, so just know that you aren't alone in this struggle.
Not sure if you're bound to one location, but you can try applying to other cities if that's an option for you. I mention this since I know quite a few entry-level devs in NYC still trying to get their first development job, while others have had more success in other cities.
I also think it's a decent strategy to gain experience elsewhere, and then move to a city that you like.
I got started freelancing on Fiverr.
I wasn't getting any real job offers, because I had no real job experience or a degree, but I knew my skills were up to par.
I posted a gig on Fiverr with ambitious pricing and portrayed myself as professional and experienced, which attracts more serious clients who don't want to go for the dirt cheap single page web site gigs. My gig was geared to people who wanted web apps with Vue Js and/or Node js backend.
I got less offers than I might've with a cheaper gig, but the first few clients were exactly the market I wanted. I offered new, niche-ish tech that can support advanced functionality, and clients approached me wanting mid-long term web apps. The 20% fee really hurts on Fiverr, but once I was able to get in contact with the client outside of Fiverr after the first gig, I was getting payed as a contractor biweekly!
I now work as a contractor for 7 months, my client being the company of the third guy who messaged me on Fiverr. I now have more experience, and I've been getting job offers I'm in a position to deny.
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