TLDR Alert: Skip to the tips at the bottom
I can work from anywhere?
That's what I asked myself two years ago, and ultimately changed m...
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Wooh. This is really helpful and inspiring to follow. Thanks Carl
I'm happy if I could help and inspire you, Thanks for reading John 😁
When I don't know how to become a software engineer, I saw your post. What a coincidence! Thanks for sharing
There's only one way to be, and that is to do!
Thanks for reading 😁
Totally!
I find problems when I actually do it. But I can learn from solving problems.
Solving problems you encounter is the main way you learn programming, so you are on a good path! Take care!
This post has inspired me to continue my development journey. Thank you for pointing out how important it is to break out of tutorial hell by creating own projects. I believe that community is everything and we all thrive working together!
Have a great day!
I'm happy if I could help you 😄
I think you are right, within a group we can accomplish more than on our own! We just need to be cautious: watch your energy levels closely. If you notice that there are certain interactions online that takes more energy than what they give, steer clear from it. Especially from any gatekeeping type of crowd or people who try to one up one another constantly. Pin-point the things that lifts you up instead of draining you.
I made a conscious decision to cut out everything possible that gave me bad energy, still do, and it's become a very important practice to me. Time is too scarce.
Common man, this is great post. Keep writing and informing us. We're thirsty of your knowledge. Thank you
Thank you! 😆 I will keep writing, what would you like to know more about?
Thank you so much dear Carl,
I'd like to know more about
Minimum technical skills needed for starting job search?
How can I survive and find a remote job in China? (or actually anywhere else, as I see most of employers don't trust juniors for remote jobs and they're more inclined to senior for remote positions)
9 months is not a huge time and would like to know how you progressed and what you learned in this period?
A roadmap would be great
Thank you so much
great post. it was very useful for me. big thanks.
Awesome! Thank you for your comment, it makes me happy that I was able to bring you some value 🤓
'Your biggest supporter is a stranger' - how true that is!
Totally agree on that
It's exceptional and a tragedy at the same time! Initially I reached out to anyone in my original network. Nothing, not much belief in that I could make it either.
But complete strangers, whom I've never met, helped me more than I ever could have thought.
Thanks for reading 😁
I've come across a variation of this idea lately - that most opportunities lie in your extended network, not the people who are closest to you, because they all know the same people and have access to the same opportunities. (I got this idea from Kelly Diels, to give credit where it is due.) This is an interesting twist: that they also might have the same (stale) ideas about what is possible for you.
Great post - thank you.
Glad you liked the post!
Thank you for you input, I've also been thinking on the topic for a while. It could be also that there's jealousy at play as well. My thinking is that original networks will be making comparisons to each other, who's the more successful, who's making more money and the list goes on. If someone is taking a risk with a high reward, no one can say for sure if that person is going to be successful in that pursuit or not. But, if they are successful it might "put them ahead" in the competition, and people are much less likely to lend a hand. It will help the enemy so to say. Maybe we are keeping our enemies closest after all 🤔
In comparison if it's not someone in your direct network looking for help it does not impact you at all if they are successful. It does not infringe on your position in your current "pack". Also further, there's a slight chance of new opportunity if they do succeed.
One small tip to add for juniors re: getting out of tutorial hell... You could participate in #100daysofcode, which is a challenge taking place mostly on Twitter. To do it, you need to pledge that you'll code 100 days straight, every day, and update the community on your progress (every day if possible). There is a lot of encouragement from new and veteran coders, which is nice. Good luck to all the new coders out there! Remember, everyone started somewhere... :)
~AD
+1 !
Great post!
You mentioned online communities that you joined... I'd love to hear more about your experience with that and online mentors. I find as a self taught dev in a non-tech city - community and mentorship are some of the most difficult things to find.
Thank you!
I can really relate to not having local meet-ups or irl dev community so here's the communities I joined at the time and had the most impact:
Awesome! Thanks for sharing this.
Awesome read
Thank you !
This one had me crying. Great story, its compelling.
Oh! I never wanted to make someone cry
Thank you for reading 😁
I love reading inspiring posts like this. I've just got into web dev for 2 months and aimed to work remotely in near future. Many said it's nearly impossible to land a remote junior position because companies can't provide proper training. That's why most jobs require at least 2 yrs of experience. Could you give me some insight into this issue. Thanks a lot.
It's definitely not impossible to do and go remote as a junior, you are just going to need to work way hard for it. You will be competing for the same spot with the whole world, and if a company advertise that they are looking for a junior, oh boy.. They are going to get flooded with applications.
So here's how I would think about it:
Don't go in with the mindset that you need training when you start. Go in with the mindset that you want to contribute, and you can learn on your own what you need to know. It's tough I know, but that's the most valuable skill of a software developer. I have to learn new things everyday and no-one is there to hold my hand.
Make a set of requirements on the company you want to work for. My tip is that you want to work for a company that has some remote workers already, and they are not called "the remote developers", because chances are it's going to be extremely lonely and crushing to work there. I say that because they often won't have any processes in place to engage with the people who are not in the office, especially as a junior when you are filled with self-doubt. One such thing that I can think about is that there is no real documentation, people are used to go over to the other team and ask for the information they need, when you go virtual with that practice it's hell. Because you will need to ask every little thing in Chat and you'll be bouncing around and waiting for others. Other things might include that the remote workers are expected to always be available to answer questions or to be working around the clock. It's just not a good experience and in the long run for yourself it will be so much better if have a bottom line set of requirements. (maybe I should write a post about that🤔)
Don't go after junior positions, apply to all jobs. They will write 2,3,5 years in the advert as mandatory, filter that out and ask yourself the question: Can I work with the technologies they are mentioning. If I cannot then go learn them, and then figure out a way to showcase that to potential employers. If you can make sure to include some example of you using it. Show them you can be productive in the project fast, because that's what matters
Don't wait to apply, any feedback you can get is of great value. Even if they don't have time to say why they rejected you, you know that you got rejected. Many people seem to have a hard time handling rejection, but the sooner you get comfortable with that the better. And if they did not reject you go celebrate! Even getting through to the coding test was a victory for me.
Getting a job is not a numbers game, it's a peoples game. The hiring side want's to make sure you are reliable, and showing some "official" experience in the field communicates that you are reliable and you won't run out the door 2 months down the line and they will have to go out and try to hire someone again. So as a remote junior how do you mitigate that doubt? I think the best way is to show that consistency online, you push code for months on end, have projects to show for it and have started working up a developer brand.
Build real apps / projects and try to include the things the type of position normally would look for. Some things I can think of for webdev would be: Responsive design, Forms (login/registration etc.) , authentication, dynamic routing, calling APIs, aggregating data etc.
Find something that normal developers neglect, and become good at it, it will make you stand out as you bring skills to the table they might not have. Take accessibility problems for example, it's widely neglected. Point some problems out tell them how you would fix them with their current product. They won't get mad. If they do, move on and think yourself lucky that you dodged that bullet.
As I mentioned in my post I did a thought experiment where I said:
Ok how can I get real experience without a job?
And I started to think about startup founders. They just started building something they thought was missing, and in that process they built real competency by solving the problems ahead. Do the same. Build something that's close to a real app, and if you go really really full in on that track you could even put founder / ceo on your CV and say yeah I had this idea and I worked full time on it, unfortunately it failed, but here's the code and I think many of the things I encountered in that project can be applied in this job
Maybe it's a stupid example but let's do it for the sake of science:
say Mark Zuckerberg built the early version of Facebook and it never took off. Would you consider him a junior developer just because he did not get payed to build it? (or insert other random founder)
What does it mean when a company says 3 years experience minimum? I stopped completely thinking about that I need x years of experience, and started thinking in terms of I need x amount of skills. Because that's what matters to the company and the team.
Even if you are the best, so many times you have to put faith in that the other side likes you or sees something personal in you that they like, it's proven time and time again that it's your soft skills more than anything that pushes you over the edge towards success. So apply to everything, start already and try to get as much feedback as you can from it.
I can't appreciate it enough for your prompt and detailed response. I'm working on my personal project at the moment and your idea of "founder" is brilliant. I also agree that I should get rid of the 'junior' mindset by focusing on what I can contribute to companies. I'd love to read more posts about your remote working experience as your focus on soft skills is valuable.
I was in your position 1.5 years ago, people helped me and I'm really happy that I can help others and pay it forward. Sometimes it's just that small thing someone wrote || said that sticks to you and pushes you forward. Reach out any time, I'm a stranger but I'll support anyone as much as I have time with.
I will write more when I think I have something to say so stay around for that 🤓
As a junior "Go in with that mindset that you want to contribute."
And if it's a company that actually does mentor you, you will be much more receptive to that training 💪🏻
I don't know how to network(as dumb as that sounds), I have been a dot net developer for years and got a job doing style sheets in XML remote for 2 years and loved it. I have been studying HTML/CSS because of the style-sheet(XML) job. But no support or any networking...
I want to be a front end developer.
Great article best regards!
I'm really bad at networking as well, it's never felt natural to reach out to someone out of the blue and strike up conversation. I always try to make it as mutually beneficially as I can. If there's something I can offer to the other side to make engaging with me more interesting?
The web developer community has been extremely welcoming and been filled with positive energy, much recommended!
Thanks for reading, glad you liked the post! 😁
Being a digital nomad (which I think is the fancy term for who works from anywhere) I think it's really a popular option right now, a lot of ppl discover that working from home was more productive these days.
In your post besides the great tips for junior devs there are some good tips for anyone who wants to start to work remote, because it seems to be straightforward but working remote needs special attention to comunication skills for example.
Great post, thanks for sharing!
Yeah that's probably the buzz-word people are using XD As you say companies are challenging old mind-sets. Offices are expensive!
I don't think remote work needs any extra tools that a tech organisation already has today, but the way everyone agrees to use them needs to be aligned across the board. Communication needs to be more inherently async. Instantly answering chat messages for instance should not disturb anyone to the degree that they are not getting any work done.
The result of that is for instance that decisions needs to be fully transparent for all the teams to see, because it's not possible for the news to travel to others. It's rather fascinating how information can spread in an office setting, somehow word get's around automatically. In the remote world there's no magical way for information to spread. It needs to be available or it's going to become frustrating fast, when PM "keeps things agile" in the project and many hours go to waste because the devs were not kept in the loop of what the product managers decided half a day ago. Or there's no notice to anyone when the backend team is deploying breaking changes.
Open-source projects are perfect example what remote teams can achieve and how well information can be spread to many developers.
Thanks for the great feedback 😁
Maybe being an open-source contributor will be more valuable in no time by recuirters of all company sizes (included the old-fashioned) as a proof of good work remote practices :)
I hope so! It's also the best proof that a software engineer knows the workflow of daily coding. sending PRs, making issues, discussing, getting feedback in code reviews etc.
Great post! After reading it I just wanted to add a couple things from my own experience:
1) Forget tutorials like you said but get good at reading documentation. It might seem like the 2 are related but reading docs effectively can be a difference maker.
2) Sign up for weekly newsletters in your preferred dev area. Can't stress how important this was for me. Js Weekly, Node Weekly, React Weekly, Smash magazine, etc. You get so many amazing things in a concise package every week.
3) Leverage, leverage, leverage. Leverage the immense reusability of the modern web dev world. Don't forget to learn things from scratch that are important to you but after that, leverage.
Yes for sure, how to read docs is very important. If one notice that the docs are thin in some places it's a great place to start contributing to open-source!
I've never actually signed up for any newsletters other than the ones I get automatically from places like this Dev / Medium it's interesting that those helped you
Also very good tip, I think it's more close to how software engineers work, services like Contentful, firebase, aws got so much pre-built so leveraging those can be really productive. It's just as good to mention to future employers as some library.
Thanks for reading and your input! 😁
What an amazing read, you have literarily lived the struggle of every developer....the switch of career path, the rejection and frustration and then the fulfillment... There is always going to be a way, no matter what level you are ....keep doing... you will become ,that's what I have learnt from your article. Thank you for writing
Glad I could help 😁
Really useful tips. I'm in the same position now. Open to junior remote dev role. From the checklist, I have to work on the following:
Good luck with your search! Keep improving everything you can think of to get ahead of other applicants. You never know when it's your turn, that's why everything counts as a step forward and every day counts to keep moving.
Thank you and yes, so true! 💯
May your internet connection always be stable! I lived in Hangzhou from 2012 to 2014 and connecting to the "outside" internet was a big issue, entrepreneurship for non-Chinese also a bit tricky. From what I've heard this is much better now, so I hope you'll get some sparks from the local dev/entrepreneur community and keep on experimenting ;) - I've never met so many people experimenting with their business ideas than in my time there!
Hey! I was here during that time too! 2012 - 2013 that's so interesting, were you part of a startup community? I have been looking for that XD
The bandwidth these days are quite good, 150/150Mbit fiber line into most apartments but yeah, cross border website access is still very annoying. VPN providers do their best to keep us connected but it's still not good.
My job VPN got blocked by the government and I had to "unblock" it by myself actually, I wrote down my method here Split Internet Tunneling with SSH proxy so at least I can continue working T__T
Really Great! Yes still i believe strange is my biggest supporter.
I am on second step according to your story. Worked almost 3years in some small company/freelancing without any team. So after that i realised i just wasted time. But now i can realise i am not only guy who has bad luck. Everyone is getting up with struggle. So i started to adopt some new skills from last months. Hope one day will come and i will growup again
Thanks for your post! It will help me to motivate
Thank you very much for your comment!
I'm very happy that I could motivate you, Best of luck in your journey 🥳
That's what I needed for today's motivation I am in kind of a similar place as you were when you stopped the tutorial hell. Today was my day 1, I made a simple React tic-tac-toe app but I am confident I'll be doing much better and complex projects in the coming months.
"Keep moving forward, no matter how small" I still say to myself every day. Happy I could help :)
Thanks for the post, It helps a lot when you realize what you are going through is actually the path that everybody else in your shoes is traversing along.
It does feel way more palpable, best of luck !
Thanks for reading 😁
This article looks a good one for lazy ass devs like me.
Good way of controlling thinking. laziness will haunt you down otherwise xd. Life actually really depends on it.
That's real inspiration. Thanks for the write
Great article!
Thanks for sharing.
Great, thank You for sharing.
Sharing is caring
Thank you for reading 😁
Great But I was expecting more about the "how" of your journey.
Hi! Sure! What would you like to know? 🤓
加油！This is inspiring
Glad you liked the post!
nice article! I'm in the same situation now.. tutorials hell.. I'll follow your advice for sure :)
Best of luck!
Thanks for reading 😁
Thank you for reading ! 😁
Awesome post - personal and practical!
This is a great article. Many thanks for sharing!!
So for the first time, it means all about portofolio website ?