I went from eight months and a single interview that failed to five late-stage interviews and two offers—all in just three weeks. Here’s exactly how I turned zero professional experience into real-world cred, and how you can do it too.
The Long Haul: Eight Months of Silence
I’ve got a master’s in computer science, a well made portfolio site, a handful of pretty decent CV projects, and exactly one month of freelance work on my resume. Back in October 2024, I started applying for full-time roles. Over the next six months, I sent out more than 1,000 applications. Every single morning, I opened my inbox to find wave after wave of polite automated rejections. I'm certain 95 percent of my CVs never even reached a human.
Here’s what it felt like:
- Automated rejections at 8 AM: “We appreciate your interest but decided to go with other candidates.”
- Radio silence on LinkedIn and email for high-profile startups.
- Lost confidence, wondering if my master’s degree even meant anything.
In short, the junior hiring process is broken. Companies crave experience they don’t offer you. Everyone’s using AI tools to blast out resumes and cover letters by the hundreds. If you don’t, you just can’t compete on volume.
Why Your Portfolio Project Isn’t Enough
You might think polishing your personal website or building a “To-Do App” in React will get you noticed. In reality, dozens of candidates have built the same tutorial clone. It ends up looking like noise in a sea of nearly identical GitHub repos.
Cold-emailing CTOs sounds bold, but without something standout to lead with, it’s just another message they ignore.
So how do you break through that noise, especially when you’re starting with zero work history?
One Game-Changer: Build a Product, Not a Project
In January 2025, I stumbled on a simple but powerful idea:
Build something end to end. Launch it publicly. Talk to real users. Iterate like crazy.
Here’s what I did step by step to build Chunk:
Find a your product idea
This sounds hard but actually you just need to think of something you would find personally useful. This can be just someone else's vague app idea but with all the changes you wish theirs had. If you wish it then theres probably a niche market for it. In my case I wanted a dedicated time-blocking app that was affordable and removed all the bloated calendar aspects. I already have a calendar and just want a time-blocker.Build an MVP
I coded a minimal version of Chunk in a few weeks and in my spare time watched youtube videos about indie startup stories to keep my inspiration and confidence up. Post about it on reddit whenever you can and reply to every comment and suggestion.Launch on Product Hunt (Fail)
I wrote a quick post, crafted a screenshot, and hit Publish. I got only 10 upvotes. This was mistake number 1. Once you have an MVP spend 50% of your time on marketing and getting an SEO strategy started early so it can build.Gather feedback relentlessly
I thanked every commenter, asked follow-up questions, and logged every feature request. I created a roadmap and prioritised what people wanted not what I wanted. People loved that they would email me something and a week later I would send them an update to say I just release 'their' feature.Iterate and relaunch
A few weeks later, after adding a lot of user requested changes, I triggered a “Product Hunt relaunch.” This time I climbed to #3 Product of the Day, competing with full dev teams and paid hunters.
What Treating It Like a "Product" Means
- You wear all the hats. Product manager, designer, marketer, and support.
- You track metrics. Daily sign-ups, retention, feedback scores.
- You make a roadmap. You plan milestones, manage scope, and hit deadlines.
When you talk about this in an interview, it shows you can ship, learn, and adapt—exactly what startups want.
How to Add This to Your Resume
Right at the top of your “Experience” section, add something like:
Founder & Developer, Chunk
Apr 2025 – Present
- Independently developed and launched a full-stack productivity app
- Achieved #3 Product of the Day on product hunt competing with full dev teams (no paid marketing), 100+ active users in week one.
- Collected and iterated on 30+ user feedback items, released several iterations in 4 weeks.
That bullet list tells hiring managers three big things:
- Ownership. You drove the whole thing from idea to launch.
- Impact. You hit a top rank and attracted users without ads.
- Process. You gathered feedback, prioritized, and shipped updates.
The Interview Confidence Booster
Once you’ve launched a product, interview prep becomes almost fun:
“Tell me about a project you’re proud of.”
You talk through real numbers, real users, and real lessons learned.“Walk us through how you handled user feedback.”
You describe your feedback processed, how you prioritised issues and features, and how you shipped updates fast.“How do you prioritise new features?”
You show them your roadmap and explain your criteria: impact vs. effort.
Compare that to fumbling through a stale GitHub repo that you only updated once. Night and day.
Bonus Tips for Success
- Pick a niche you care about. It shows in your passion and in the final product.
- Document visibly. Post regular updates on Twitter or Dev.to to build a small following.
- Get early testers. Share in relevant Slack channels or subreddits before launch.
- Celebrate small wins. Each new user (free or paid) or upvote is validation. Use it to fuel your momentum.
Will This Work at Big Consultancies?
Probably not. If you’re aiming for Capgemini or Accenture, they expect years of experience, bullet-pointed internships and large project teams. But if you want a role where you can own features, move fast, and see your work in production, startups will be lining up to talk to you.
Your Move
If you’re working on a side product right now, drop a link in the comments. I’d love to check it out, give feedback, and cheer you on.
Build a product. Not a project.
Top comments (4)
Thank you for writing it. I agree with Build a product not a project hope someday i build it.
No better time to start than straight away. Pick something simple and then once it works you can add complexities and details that will claim your more niche user-base.
This is extremely impressive, man. Love the honesty and the focus on actually building something people want
Thanks Nathan! I wish I'd had this mindset from day 1 but it took several projects aimed only for the CV to realise the benefits of building for people to use. It's been a mindset game changer.