Hi there! Sloan, DEV Moderator and resident mascot, back with another question submitted by a DEV community member. ๐ฆฅ
For those unfamiliar with the series, this is another installment of Sloan's Inbox. You all send in your questions, I ask them on your behalf anonymously, and the community leaves comments to offer advice. Whether it's career development, office politics, industry trends, or improving technical skills, we cover all sorts of topics here. If you want to send in a question or talking point to be shared anonymously via Sloan, that'd be great; just scroll down to the bottom of the post for details on how.
Let's see what we got...
Today's question is:
I'm a beginner dev in what feels like a sea of beginner devs. How can I make myself stand out from the crowd? What would you recommend I do to better my chances of success and being hired?
Share your thoughts and let's help a fellow DEV member out! Remember to keep kind and stay classy. ๐
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Top comments (4)
Create More, Consume Less ๐ฑ
Go deep in understanding the fundamental concepts. Ask more "Whys" until you get to the bottom of it. You have AIs now to ask; we didn't. Bonus: it won't get frustrated with you for asking it again and again. ๐
Explore the Fundamentals of Web and Computer in a creative way. Ask Image Generative AI to generate diagrams and images to explain to you in a visual sense. ๐๐ป
Always Double-check AI-generated content ๐๏ธ
Contribute to Open Source ๐พ
An old trick, but it still works. ๐ผ
Add All Colors of Your Talent to a Portfolio Site Don't try to rush this step; don't go for a generic free portfolio template. Create it from scratch, use your imagination, and stand out, or build upon a free one. ๐๐จ
Oh, this should be the second one. ๐ Very important. ๐
Lastly, think big. Cheerio. ๐
Experience. But you need a job for that right? ๐ Well there are ways to get ahead of the game before your first solid gig...
As far as I've seen said, being in dev is more than the tech stack: it's continually keeping your knowledge fresh and communicating/working well with others. Demonstrating how you do those will go some good ways to put you ahead
A side project you work on a couple hours a week, ideally one you use regularly. Could be a small game mod, or some tooling for a website/deployment chain you use...
A dev/tech meetup you attend on a regular basis, write about what you learned on your blog, try to write-up your thoughts clearly for the benefit of others.
Volunteering for an IT literacy group at a local library or charity.
Put those on your CV - "Developing SideProject in (tech stack)" , "Regular attendee at CityDevMeetup" , "Tech writing on Dev.to/myname" , "Volunteer teacher at ComputerClub"
In cover letters and applications, don't focus on your tech stack - talk about your principles, and how these worked for you during your studies, internships, or volunteering: always making sure information is shareable/searchable in the team wiki on your projects, making sure your teammates are heard, insisting on clean code/architecture/solutions.
As soon as you have a basic technical foundation, focus on Collaboration, Sharing, and Building. Let's break this down:
Collaboration exposes you to concepts that are hard to learn alone, but more importantly it shows companies that you can work with others. Collabs allow you to build bigger and more complex projects that have more value, thus standing out in resume/interviews. Even better, most interviews have some form of behavior question that now you have a perfect answer to (I experienced XYZ problems with Bob while building this tech project). You can think of collaborations as mini-internships. You are working with others on a specific goal to learn, build, and provide value.
Sharing gives you the power to control how others view your communication skills and how they think of you. It allows you to stand out as an expert or explorer in whatever you're passionate about. A great way to share is learning/building in public. Again, you are showing others your ability in a way that makes them remember you.
Real talk, there is a hidden job market. Not every job position is posted. You need others to be advocating for you and opening those hidden doors. You give them something to talk about by sharing your wins, projects, and teachable moments.
With that said, you can't cure cancer but if no one knows its value is less. Whatever you build, be able to talk about it. If possible, find users for your project (even a user of 1) and be able to talk about the value they got from it. Make sure your project is packaged well as something that looks like dirt is considered dirt, not gold.
Last thing, don't wait until you are 3 years deep into learning to code to do these things. As soon as you have that basic foundation, start building & sharing. You don't know what you don't know, doing this early on will help you figure out those next steps. Even more importantly, you will learn how to deploy, present, and talk about better from practice doing these things.