Most junior candidates drown in noise because they follow outdated advice. Cut the fluff. Align to what hiring pipelines actually value now.
Strip your portfolio to three pieces: one production-style service, one front-end build with clean UI discipline, one system-level or infra-touching project. Each must have a README that explains architecture, tradeoffs, and constraints. No tutorials. No clones. Demonstrate judgment, not syntax.
Rewrite your Git history on each project until it resembles a disciplined engineer. Recruiters skim commit logs for signal. Chaotic diffs get discarded instantly.
Publish implementation notes weekly. Not “learning logs.” Post breakdowns of decisions, failures, constraints you hit, and what you cut to ship. It frames you as an operator, not a student.
Optimize for verifiable competence. Run all work through automated checks: formatting, static analysis, containerized local dev, reproducible builds. This mirrors how real teams operate and removes doubt about your baseline.
Make your presence legible. LinkedIn headline: tech stack + role target + proof in one line. Pin repositories that match job descriptions. Hide everything else.
Treat every application as an engineering task: gather requirements, ship artifacts that address them, cut non-essentials. Consistency beats volume.
Stop waiting for permission. Produce evidence. Publish it. Reduce ambiguity. That’s the 2025–2026 hiring filter.
Title: Stop Getting Ignored: The 2025–2026 Junior Dev Playbook That Actually Gets You Hired
Most junior candidates drown in noise because they follow outdated advice. Cut the fluff. Align to what hiring pipelines actually value now.
Strip your portfolio to three pieces: one production-style service, one front-end build with clean UI discipline, one system-level or infra-touching project. Each must have a README that explains architecture, tradeoffs, and constraints. No tutorials. No clones. Demonstrate judgment, not syntax.
Rewrite your Git history on each project until it resembles a disciplined engineer. Recruiters skim commit logs for signal. Chaotic diffs get discarded instantly.
Publish implementation notes weekly. Not “learning logs.” Post breakdowns of decisions, failures, constraints you hit, and what you cut to ship. It frames you as an operator, not a student.
Optimize for verifiable competence. Run all work through automated checks: formatting, static analysis, containerized local dev, reproducible builds. This mirrors how real teams operate and removes doubt about your baseline.
Make your presence legible. LinkedIn headline: tech stack + role target + proof in one line. Pin repositories that match job descriptions. Hide everything else.
Treat every application as an engineering task: gather requirements, ship artifacts that address them, cut non-essentials. Consistency beats volume.
Stop waiting for permission. Produce evidence. Publish it. Reduce ambiguity. That’s the 2026 hiring filter.
Top comments (11)
Thanks mate!
Sorry wrong article. That’s awkward…
would you use TG?
TG?
Telegram
No I would not use telegram.
Hi Brandon, I think we have to reduce portfolio to three projects, rewrite Git history until it looks like an engineer wrote it.
Why is that?
Reducing your portfolio to three well-chosen projects forces focus on quality over quantity, showing clear engineering judgment. Rewriting Git history to look disciplined demonstrates how you think like a professional: logical commits, meaningful messages, and a readable development narrative. Recruiters and engineers instantly get a sense of your skill, rather than wading through chaotic logs.
Is this not what i wrote? I'm not sure what point you're trying to make