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Let’s Talk About Juniors

Dekel on August 08, 2021

Over the last couple of years, I was privileged to work with many juniors. I have mentored, helped, hired, fired, consulted, read CVs, advised frie...
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mayaliberman1 profile image
maya liberman

Great post! I loved it. I have a question regarding the recommendation of donating your time as a junior developer to open sources. Is it something that catches an eye of a recruiter or a team leader or just a myth? Also do you recommend to put a list of significant projects with some explanations in the CV or just refer to the general GitHub account?

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christiankozalla profile image
Christian Kozalla

I like this post, too, since I am looking for a junior role right now.

Regarding you question about a list of significant projects in the CV: I have made my CV as a single HTML file and hosted on GitHub pages. So, I can easily share the link, plus, updates I make after sharing the link are still propagated.

I decided to include a detailed list of my projects to make them stand out.

I've noticed that interviewers look at my CV during the interview as a reference to ask questions and discuss my experience. So, I'd definitely make projects stand out somehow. 👍

Here's the link to my CV
christiankozalla.github.io/CV

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dekel profile image
Dekel

Thanks @christiankozalla !
I really like your CV and the fact that you made it as a github-pages gives you more points, imho.

Asking questions about past experience (the projects that a candidate worked on, even if they are personal projects) is a great way to understand the experience of that candidate, how much "copy&paste" they did and how well they actually understand what they are doing.

Good like finding your next job!

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mahfuz profile image
Mahfuzur Rahman

nice cv

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realnerdethan profile image
Ethan Goddard

I really like the online CV. It's very clean and pleasant to look at. Also has some great information on there. I might have been inspired to make one for myself! :)

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christiankozalla profile image
Christian Kozalla

Awesome! Glad to hear you like it 😀

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Sunny Golovine

Is it something that catches an eye of a recruiter or a team leader or just a myth?

It helps you stand out for sure. It shows that you can work inside a codebase that isn't your own. It also shows that you have a grasp of how to contribute code, one of the first things I have to teach Jr's out of college is how to use Git, Github and the PR process.

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dekel profile image
Dekel

Thanks @mayaliberman1 !

I have a question regarding the recommendation of donating your time as a junior developer to open sources. Is it something that catches an eye of a recruiter or a team leader or just a myth?

Definitely something that a good recruiter will take into consideration, however keep in mind that it's the candidate's responsibility to make sure this information is emphasized enough.
If there is only a link to the github account - no one can promise that the recruiter will actually check it/understand that it's important. I would suggest the candidate to emphasize the fact that they contribute to open-source project - for example, add a link to the issues/prs that they contributed.

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DB

And most importantly, be honest about your skills. Don't put every single language and technology on your CV just because you tried it out. Even though interviews for Junior positions aren't that rough, the Senior Engineers interviewing you will find out.

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dekel profile image
Dekel

I completely agree with you here!

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mahfuz profile image
Mahfuzur Rahman

Hi,
@dekel

I'm a Business student but trying hard to become a web-developer...It would be much helpfull if you suggest me if i should build a portfolio now or should i concentrat on Learning for now?

my github link...github.com/coder-mahfuz

these are just some THE ODINE PROJECT assignments

thanks

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dekel profile image
Dekel

You should definitely focus on learning, however building a portfolio can be part of it. Take the time to build your own portfolio, and you can show there what you know.

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mahfuz profile image
Mahfuzur Rahman

thanks a lot dekel

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angeelrdz profile image
Angel Rodríguez

Excellent article!!! And the conclusion was straight to the point .. I had not found an answer of which one was the one .. :) Now I know that it goes beyond proving to be the best, but learning how to guide us ...

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dekel profile image
Dekel

Any tips on hiring juniors? Do you think I missed some tips on how to make sure you stand-out? Please share. I would love to hear it!

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hi_artem profile image
Artem

Hiring juniors can work really well if a team has strong mentors among their seniors.

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dekel profile image
Dekel

Strong mentors can help and provide good guidance to juniors, and if some junior ask me for an advice to decide between two companies, usually I'm trying to understand which company will provide a better mentoring and guidance.

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Victor Adeleke Afolayan

Great post.
beautifully written.

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mgiannopoulos profile image
Markos Giannopoulos

Good summary! 👍

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dekel profile image
Dekel

Thank you @mgiannopoulos !

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codecustard profile image
Emmanuel Barroga

Great advice, thanks for sharing!

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dekel profile image
Dekel

Thanks @codecustard !
If you have some tips or things you would like to read more about - please share :-)

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grifano profile image
Serhii

Thank you Denkel😉 It very helpful for me. And I was wandering, is that good way to show on GitHub all your history of learning, or it’s better to save just a most amazing project?

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dekel profile image
Dekel

You can share the history. There are multiple ways to do this - either with one repository or multiple and have one with links (in README.md) to the others.

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rishitkhandelwal profile image
Rishit Khandelwal

a great read 🙂

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dekel profile image
Dekel

Thanks @rishitkhandelwal ! Appreciate your reply here.

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Timo Sarkar

Awesome. This will surely help me stand out!

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dekel profile image
Dekel

Thanks @timocmd2 !

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oryam profile image
Oryam

Thank you for this post.
Well written.

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dekel profile image
Dekel

Thanks @oryam !

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saimhafeez20 profile image
Saim Hafeez

Loved it!!

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dekel profile image
Dekel

Thanks @saimhafeez20 ! Appreciate your help reply.

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Bunty Rathod

Nice post! Very helpful for both juniors and seniors

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dekel profile image
Dekel

Thanks @buntyrathod !

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_echo3d_ profile image
echo3D

Great points!

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ntdat profile image
Nguyen Tien Dat

oh hi