Why is it Hard to Find a Job? Tips to Find a Job

In our modern world of information technology, there is a huge demand for IT specialists. However, despite this, many people still find it extremely difficult to secure a job in the IT industry. This raises the question: why is it so challenging, and how to finally find a job?

Causes

1. With the emergence of new technologies and the constant development of the industry, the requirements for IT specialists are becoming increasingly high. This means that candidates must constantly update and enhance their skills to meet the demands of the job market.

2. The competition in the IT job market is fierce. With each passing year, the number of graduates in IT-related fields is increasing, and they all aspire to secure a position in this prestigious domain. This means that individuals need to stand out from the crowd and showcase their unique qualities and advantages.

3. Crisis. Many IT companies, including Google, Amazon, Meta, etc., have laid off numerous specialists because they can't afford or don't need the amount of developers they had. A lot of vacancies appeared at the beginning of 2020, when COVID appeared. But now many companies that hired a huge amount of developers don't need these large staffs.

However, despite the challenges of finding a job in the IT field, there are certain key strategies that can help individuals in their job search. In this article, we will explore several effective approaches and provide advice to help you overcome the difficulties of finding a job in the IT industry and, ultimately, land your dream position.

Tips

The key is to be a good and "unique" specialist that always learning and creating and to convey this to the employer, this is going to maximize your chances of passing a job interview.

Let's consider the tips that personally helped me find a job and, hopefully, will help you quickly find your dream job.

Don’t forget about open-source

Open-source contributions are respected in the IT field. As for many, their first ever open-source contributions are documentation editing, adding tests, or good first issue.

good first issue is a commonly used label on the GitHub Issues tab in open-source projects that used to mark tasks that suits for a beginner open-source developer.

You don’t have to be a Senior developer to contribute. Often, even in an open-source project on GitHub with more than 60k stars, you can find that developers made many mistakes in the documentation, such as writing teh instead of the or something like that. And it can be you to fix that!

Open source contributions are highly appreciated in the IT community, and the employer pays attention to this.

Understand the full cycle of project development

Speaking as a frontend developer, I can say that employers appreciate it when a candidate understands the full development cycle of a product. For example, understanding the logic of the backend component of a project, even if you can't write it yourself, means understanding its essence and being able to maintain the overall architecture and structure of each service of the project separately.

I am a frontend developer, but I have experience in backend development as well. I know how to test and work with CI/CD and DevOps. Furthermore, I enjoy learning and implementing architectural methodologies. Although much of this experience has been gained only through personal projects, it not only helps me understand colleagues in related areas of development but also allows me to assist them when necessary by offering potential bug-fix solutions, expressing my opinion, and providing an outsider's perspective.

Set the rules for finding a job

Rules can describe the number of applications you need to achieve, the days on which you allocate time for job searching, the amount of time you dedicate, and so on.

For example, you can set aside time during the weekdays, Monday through Thursday, during lunchtime to send out 30–40 applications each day.

If you're not getting invited to interviews, try changing your resume. If something is missing, make the necessary additions.

It's normal if you don't receive invitations for a long time. Not everyone has a perfect resume that showcases all their skills.

However, if you do get invited to an interview but don't receive an offer, don't despair. Ask for feedback and focus more on improving your weak points.

Do not respond to all vacancies in a row

Do not apply to every vacancy without studying it. It is not only incorrect, but you may also end up on the blacklist of certain HR professionals. It is better to apply 30 times to positions that you have researched and that are suitable for you than to apply 300 times to unfamiliar ones and have no understanding of the job requirements.

Networking

You can attend conferences and meetups where you can interact with colleagues, make useful connections, and maybe even find a friend to work with. Networking is beneficial for developing soft skills, which are equally important as hard skills.

Ideally, you can also give a presentation yourself. This will make your resume stand out to employers, as giving a presentation serves as one of many cool confirmations of your expertise and competence.

Listen back to your interviews

Record your job interview and listen back to it. Pay attention not only to the answers to the questions, but mostly to the way you talk. It's also playing a role in deciding whether to make an offer to you or not. Many people speak like robots on job interviews, but don't forget that you are talking to a human.

Do not hesitate to talk to a person like you usually do, of course, keeping the bounds of decency.

Conclusion

Job searching is a challenging process. It takes time, especially now in a period of crisis and very high competition. But it's not impossible to get the offer of your dreams!

The key to getting the job of your dreams is learning and creating.

I managed to get new offers often by following these tips, and I hope the article is helpful for you.

Good luck!