Howdy folks! Sloan, DEV Moderator and mascot, coming back at ya with another question submitted by a DEV community member. 🦥
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's on the docket for this week...
Today's question is:
How would you go about preparing to be hired as a newbie dev? Aside from improving my resume and searching around the web for a position that is open to first-career devs, I'm not entirely sure what to do. Does anybody have any guidance or specific steps to suggest?
Share your thoughts and let's help a fellow DEV member out! Remember to keep kind and stay classy. 💚
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Top comments (5)
0) resumes are mostly useless. Have one but don't count on it.
1) start a portfolio now. It could be a notion page, github repo, website whatever that will later be your portfolio. Companies don't expect you to be productive for a while when they hire you, but they do some kind of resinsurance that you have some level of competency at building simple stuff. The best way to give that reinsurance is to show what you have already done.
2) connect with people in real life (LinkedIn connections doesn't count) that looks like possible colleagues, prepare a list of open questions, invite them for coffee, real café or virtual, and ask for guidance.
I find that networking with people in the field to be a big plus. You can network by attending tech events around you. Posting useful content online and joining online communities.
Hey! To apply for IT/Tech positions, I leave you the referral link to Outdefine, our job board with several remote job searches open for IT or Tech profiles with different levels of seniority in different areas (marketing/software/development, UX and +), in case anyone is interested or knows someone with a tech profile who needs a job: outdefine.com/r/JulietaCura-4363
You can find many jobs for technical and not so technical, but digital profiles too. And you can also get rewards in tokens on the platform, connect with our community of professionals and companies in the Community section, and it's free to use, of course!
Do not immediately aim for a full-time job if it's too hard to get one. It's easier to gain experience through part-time commissions. It's better to take a small job and earn $500 in a month than just apply for years to no effect.
I would say to learn (and apply in portfolio projects) some underrated skills that are not difficult for a beginner to learn, Accessibility and Performance for a FrontEnd Dev for example.