Seeking Recent College Grad with 42 Years Experience

K Surratt — Fri, 22 Nov 2024 00:58:38 +0000

How many times have we seen a post for a job for a Junior Program Developer with qualifications of freshly obtaining Bachelor's, 10 years of professional experience, three Senior level tech jobs prior, and offering a pay of $50k annually?

For me?

Any time I look at LinkedIn or Glassdoor or literally the Internet.

I have been dabbling in and out of the game since Myspace first had me doing a six-figure job for free just to make friends fight to be my top 8 and make my page strobe to the beat of the songs I attached to the page. However, as much of a brag that is, that isn't the experience these jobs are looking for. Between that and somehow being able to take base code of a tutorial and refactor it into something much more grand isn't a flex either.

So, what is?

I'm currently in school, fighting for my life between that and work because boy how my brain does not care for structured learning, for an associates degree that may or may not tell someone that I am qualified for the job that I know I'm qualified for. A job that I know I can learn the skills on the fly for if given the chance, but I can't even get my foot in the door for an interview, much less prove my talent. So I ask, how do I get there?

I've taken the time to post to several groups on LinkedIn who are supposed to be full of community and support, but only managed to get a whopping two reactions. So now I turn here. In hopes of getting some feedback that may help me on my uphill battle with putting my best foot forward without over exaggerating my talents.

For myself, and all of those like me, how does one get a junior developer job with simply a boot camp, a couple of certificates, and a few semesters of an associate's degree under their belt?

How does someone pivot from having no professional tech experience, but is completely able to tell you what is causing a glitch in an app that you're using because you absorb knowledge like a sponge?

And how does someone who parses the web and seeks out the most current skills, teach themselves three coding languages at a time, and still manage to have room for growth get a foot in the door to begin to tell someone that "hey, I'm pretty damn great and you should invest in me and see because I'm worth more than a piece of paper!"?

Hopefully someone here could provide that answer for those who've invested so much time in "the future" only to be met with bleak outcomes. Hopefully a little light can be shed to give us a chance and determination to keep trying.

I know, every battle isn't easily won, and they all come with their downfalls, but 0 out of 100 interviews shouldn't be one of them.

Thank you to anyone who provides help, and to the seekers, I hope I helped you find your 42 years experience!

DEV Community: K Surratt

Seeking Recent College Grad with 42 Years Experience