Have you been wondering why you can’t find a job as a beginner.. even though you see plenty of jobs around? do you feel lost and there’s nobody to advice you? do you feel like you lack experience? If this is the case go ahead and give this post a read. CAREFULLY.
No, this is NOT another “How to get a job without experience” post. I truly believe there’s real value in what you’re about to read. The advice is practical, it has been used by me personally and I hope it’s useful to you.
Numbers Game is Very Real – FREE VALUABLE ADVICE!
Realistically speaking you will never get a job the first time you apply.
You’re going to have to apply for 100s of jobs before you get anywhere.
This is what I mean..
When you’re applying for a job there’s 100 other candidates doing the same, if not more. Seriously.
So if there’s 100s of candidates doing the same, the chances of you getting that job are are very, very slim. Obviously..
Imagine a world with only 2 applicants per job. You’re one of them. There’s a really good chance you may get that job..
Unfortunately this isn’t reality and we need to stop thinking like this.
Reality is..
A single job gets 100s of applications. All the time.
Then the question is.. what can you do?
The most basic idea is to make sure you’re applying for as many jobs as possible, you’re making sure your CV is everywhere.
The more you apply the more recruiter calls you’re going to get, that means you’re going to be speaking to more employers eventually.
Compare this to a guy who applies for 1 job a week, gets 1 call from recruiter (maybe).. where’s this guy going to be in a year’s time?
NOWHERE.
He’ll keep thinking he’s not good enough or his CV is crap.
There’s a huge demand for developers and making sure you’re out there and constantly applying for anything relevant you can find is going to make a difference.
You will get more recruiter calls, you’ll be dealing with more feedback, you’ll be constantly rewriting your CV and always preparing for your next interview. Even though you may not get a job straight away you’ll be learning many other things.. (soft skills that nobody talks about!)
Don’t be a guy who makes sure everything is perfect, applies 2 jobs a day.. This guy’s going to get buried simply because 1. He’s also a beginner, just like you. 2. He isn’t reaching out to enough people.
To make this work you’re going to have to make sure you’re registered on multiple sites. Not all recruiters or employees post jobs on same job site.
Once you’re registered on a few sites search the market regularly and apply for whatever is relevant.
Remember.. When you’re super skilled and experienced you don’t need to apply for everything you see.. this is because you’ll be pinpointing the job you like and know you’ll bring real value. You’re against top candidates here. (there isn’t that many people at the top)
On the other hand, a beginner doesn’t know what value he/she will bring. Doesn’t have experience, doesn’t have enough skills..
This person is going to have to work much much harder to get anyone’s attention.. This is where applying for as many relevant jobs as you can help.. you’ll eventually apply for something that fits your current skills.
WAIT..
There’s something I haven’t mentioned yet and if you’ve made it so far you deserve to hear this..
When you’re applying for a lot of jobs. You’re getting a lot of feedback too.
You’re heaving a lot of “Oh, this backend position is for someone who knows SQL too”.
GUESS WHAT!?
If you keep hearing this you’ve successfully gained insight into the market! FOR FREE!
Recruiters have basically told you “Hey if you go ahead and learn this skill we will consider you..”.
This is a HUGE thing. Nobody can ever tell you this unless they personally work with you.
Be really really honest! (just kidding :D)
We’ve heard this before. Be honest. Always be honest and things will happen. If you’re going to follow that advice you’ll never find a job as a new developer..
It takes more than being honest. You have to be relevant. Super relevant. Being honest won’t make you relevant. It will make you jobless. Sorry.
Here’s two guys, James and Mark.
James‘ skills are OK he can talk the talk but when it comes to backing it up he’s not that good, but he’s okay. Unexperienced but does have some skills.
He’s going to get interviews only because he can talk. That’s all you need to land an interview with an employer or go past initial recruitment process.
He can talk how relevant he’d be for this job. He may not perform very well during the practical interview or test. But he has put himself in a decent position.
Mark on the other hand is super honest about everything. He doesn’t like to lie, he gives honest answers.
He will even mention about his lack of experience with HTML5 in a PHP interview.., only because he’s an honest guy and he believes telling things how they are is going to help him because companies are after honest people!
Guess what’ll happen to him? He won’t even get past the recruiters!
Choose carefully the type of guy you wanna be.
I’m not asking you to lie, I’m saying that you must balance it. Don’t go for a Frontend interview talking about how you only have 1 year of Javascript experience when job requires 2 years. Say you have close to 2 years under your belt. Balance it. BACK. IT. UP.
Lying is wrong but being super damn honest is just kicking yourself in the balls. Don’t punish yourself. It’s a competitive and nasty market. You think people you’re up against are being 100% honest? don’t you think they want the job as bad as you do?
Doomed for a Silly Reason.
This one is pretty easy to get wrong because you simply don’t know any better when you’re starting off! there’s nobody to guide you.
If you go to a job site and search for “golang developer” you’re going to find jobs paying super crazy salary. This will get anyone excited!
Say you’re one of the guys who decides to learn Golang because of the money it offers (based on someone else’s recommendation).
You’ve basically made a really bad choice as someone who’s just starting out.
The reason salary is so high is because they’re looking for developers with several years of experience. You as a new developer won’t have several years of experience because you’ve never been hired. Even if it’s a Junior Golang developer position paying £50k they’re expecting someone with a solid backgound in writing code.
You should instead learn a language with high demand and low entry barrier.
Getting a language that pays really, really good and requires only few years of experience is way harder than a language that requires few years of experience but way less!
You can find 100s of jobs that require only 2 years of experience.
The goal here is to get hired with as little experience as possible.
As a beginner developer you won’t have years of experience anyways. So make sure if you’re just starting off, you learn something that’s worthwhile. That’s in demand and entry requirements are low. This can a hard thing sometimed. Hit me a message if you need help!
No experience? no job!
Classic one but I still see plenty of people posting projects/code that wouldn’t convince anyone!
So how do you get a job when you have no experience?
Simple question and I’ll try to give a simple answer with intention to really help you here.
You will never get a job that requires 7 years of experience with your 6 months “personal project” experience. You know it’s true if you’ve been in a market.
So what do you do?
Again, first things first, you don’t look for a job that requires 7 years of experience, instead you look for jobs that require 2 years’.
If a company is looking for someone with 2 years of experience they’re more likely to hire someone who’s kind of unexperienced but somewhat competent.
So if you’re searching for a job and all you find is jobs asking for 7 years of experience that means you’re trying to get into wrong market as an entry level developer. You have no chance because there’s no entry for beginners like yourself in that market.
It’s like applying for a CEO job when you’re a receptionist with 3 months of experience.
Practically speaking, the most important thing you will need here is your portfolio.
I’ll say that AGAIN.
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU’LL EVER NEED TO GET HIRED IS YOUR PORTFOLIO.
You need to make sure your portfolio contains sites that are practical, not stupid things that nobody uses. Sites that are solving real issues. If an employer looks at your “cool” site that has no practical use they’ll ignore it.
So what do do you?
Well, you show them something that’s relevant in real world. The experience that you gained without real “job” will suddenly become relevant to them. Why? because you’ve actually worked on real problems, real problems are same everywhere. No matter who’s solving them or where they’re being solved.
So build real applications that solve real world issues. Be able to talk through them. If someone asks you what you’ve worked on or why you built it and what problems you had while building it. You should be able to answer that. Not a one line answers. Go in depth. Show that you’re not just ‘cool projects’ guy, you have put in serious work already.
Final words
Last but not least, if a job requires 2 years of experience, still apply.
Say recruiter/employer asks you if you have 2 years of experience?
Do not say no! Do not.
Say something like:
I’ve been working on few application over the course of years, one of them is ecommerce site build in PHP and utilizes Stripe SDK and Javascript library and another one is a small backend tool that connects with salesforce and syncs data helping the internal team push and manipulate data on Salesforce.
So give and take I do have 2 years worth of experience working with these technologies, I had just not been looking for a jobs. Now I’m in the market. I do believe I have 2 years worth of experience..
SEE HOW QUICKLY 2 YEARS BECOME MEANINGLESS WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT REAL CODE YOU’VE WRITTEN AND USE REAL TECHNICAL TERMS?
Re-emphasizing the points above:
- Make sure you apply for as many jobs as possible. Get yourself everywhere.
- Make sure you’re RELEVANT, there should be a balance between being honest and relevant.
- Make sure you’re in a market with plenty of entry level jobs. Not few high end jobs.
- Make sure you know how to talk the talk.
- Make sure you’ve worked on REAL projects. They don’t have to be work from an employer instead projects solving real live problem. Use it to build portfolio and gain experience.