DEV Community: Scott

How to get experience to get your first job as a dev

Scott — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 16:20:49 +0000

Ahhhhhh...the age old question of the chicken and the egg.

One of the most frustrating things you're told when getting a job is you need experience.

But how do you get experience when NO ONE WILL GIVE YOU EXPERIENCE?!

Well, in most industries youre SOL.

But in software development there are a few really good options.

Because you are getting better at a skill that allows you to build things, you can do exactly that.

However...

Building a todo list or portfolio will only get you so far.

So how do we get experience?

With open source....

Contributing to open source is the CLOSEST thing to getting actual work experience that will impress your hiring managers and fellow engineers.

Contributing to open source was the main thing that propelled my success after i graduated from a bootcamp.

So GO CONTRIBUTE!

If you want more:

Come join our Facebook group to help you get your first job as a software engineer, career development, and so much more!

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the command line command that saves me hours per week

Scott — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 22:20:42 +0000

The command that saves me hours per week

Knowing your tools can make or break your productivity.

But let’s talk about the command line first.

It’s FOUN-DA-TIONAL to your success as a developer or engineer.

Why?

This is your way to interface with your computer, run files, test stuff out, push your code to git, and so on.

Ya sure you can use an abstraction for these things like an IDE or git user interface like GitTower.

But…it really stunts your growth as a developer if you can’t use the terminal.

You’re gonna see this everywhere in your day to day.

Not only are you using it to build something small. But if you need to connect to a server and investigate. You’re gonna want to know how to figure out where you are and how to navigate to get your job done.

There’s nothing like SSH’ing(connecting) into a server and feeling shid outta luck because you dont know what to do.

Anyways…

Back to the command that saves me hours per week…probably more.

It’s called "grep".

This is just a fancy way of saying…

Hey!!! Computer!!! Filter out a bunch of stuff and show me
what I care about.

I use this when listing files…a lot. Or checking the contents of a file. So I don’t need to manually use my eyeballs to go read stuff I don’t have the time or patience for.

Work smarter not harder....amiright? 😉

Something I use in the wild looks like:

> ls | grep thatthingicareabout

This will list all of the files in my directory and then filter all folders or files that contain the title “thingthaticareabout”.

With all of that being said…

I literally just finished my first offer Mastering the Command Line Basics in Under 20 minutes to set YOU up for success no matter where your career takes you.

This offer includes the most important commands I use on a daily basis and HOW to use them.

So…

If you want to save hours per week so you can focus on solving actual problems and get your engineering career off on the
right foot…

>>> Check it out!!!!

If you want more:

Come join our Facebook group to help you get your first job as a software engineer, career development, and so much more!

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How mastering your tools can make or break you as a dev

Scott — Mon, 15 Nov 2021 17:06:37 +0000

I was working on my first offer on how to make your first contribution to open source.

But then...I realized that a huge blocker in devs with experience across the board is not mastering their tools

And...if you cant use the command line, you probably wont be able to make your first contribution to open source.

When Im talking about tools, I am talking about the tools we use on a daily basis to get our job done.

Like.....

...using the command line

...using git

....using our text editor

....etc etc

Now, why is this so important?

Glad you asked ;)

Being a developer is so mentally intense your tools need to be second nature.

Like a brush to an artist, or a sword to a samurai.

If youre struggling with your tools you cannot free your mind to solve the hard problems that exist in engineering.

So...

With all that being said...I thought it would be valuable to put together a quick resource on Mastering the Command Line in Under 30 Minutes.

I put the commands in there that I use most often on a daily basis to help you learn almost all of the commands you need to be a working developer or engineer.

Mastering the command line is E-SSENTIAL to being a developer. I probably spend most of my time in the terminal.

I see new developers scared to dive in to the world of the command line...

But I promise....its simple as long as you know what youre supposed to do and it will make your life as a developer so much easier.

Comment below if this is something you would be interested in :)

If you want more:

Come join our Facebook group to help you get your first job as a software engineer, career development, and so much more!

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Here is a link to get my top 10 interview resources for FREE

Fastest way get your first developer job

Scott — Thu, 11 Nov 2021 19:07:44 +0000

Do you know the shortest path between two points?

...its a straight line.

When trying to get your first job as a software developer theres a lot of stuff you dont know.

It might seem like a good idea to learn python, and ruby, and javascript, and java (because java kinda sounds like javascript)

Well...when money is tight and you need to get a job its crucial to reflect on your goal (getting a job) and how you can get there from your current situation.

I recommend focusing on basic frontend technologies using HTML, CSS, and Javascript to build a simple game.

Idk something simple like every time you click a die it rolls a new number 1-6.

Simple and fun.

Then deploy it.....

Thats valuable.

Whats not valuable is...going through ANOTHER tutorial on something youll never use in your career.

Anywhoooooo...

Its not about how hard you work its about how hard you work doing the RIGHT things.

If you want more:

Come join our Facebook group to help you get your first job as a software engineer, career development, and so much more!

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Here is a link to top 10 interview resources

Whats your biggest blocker getting your first software engineering job?

Scott — Wed, 10 Nov 2021 16:08:56 +0000

Getting your first job out of a bootcamp or being self taught is no easy task...but its possible.

What is your biggest blocker making that next step?

-Scott

Want more?

Come join our Facebook group to help you get your first job as a software engineer, career development, and so much more!

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Here is a link to top 10 interview resources

My top resources for interviewing

Scott — Sun, 17 Oct 2021 00:01:25 +0000

This week I finally got my shid together and sat down to compile a list of things I thought were valuable when interviewing.

Resources and some mindset stuff...like how to get yo'self unstuck in an interview, should you apply to engineer or developer roles, etc etc

So, my gift to you...

>>> LINK HERE

Talk soon

Scott

Its october...should you be applying to jobs right now?

Scott — Thu, 07 Oct 2021 00:22:34 +0000

Its October...you know what that means.

Pumpkin spiced latte season!

As we start heading into the end of the year, it gets harder and harder to interview for jobs because companies usually punt to start interviewing at the beginning of the year when their budget renews.

This doesn't mean you should stop interviewing and lose hope.

Im telling you this to set expectations and adjust accordingly

Happy job hunting!

P.S. Want more? Come join our Facebook group to help you get your first job as a software engineer, career development, and so much more!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/310120400851953

My top interviewing resources for new engineers.

Scott — Thu, 23 Sep 2021 17:00:30 +0000

Ive been thinking a lot lately about what were my favorite resources to get going when I was job hunting...especially when I first got into software development.

There is so much information on the best way to prep for a job search.

Algorithms, portfolio, blah blah blah.

The catch is it all works and it all doesnt work at the same time.

You bring your own set of skills to the table and need more help in one area more than others.

So...theres no one size fits all.

With all of this being said...

Ive been thinking about putting a list together of my favorite interview resources and some things to think about when prepping for your next job search.

If youd be interested in this please comment below :)

P.S. Want more? Come join our Facebook group to help you get your first job as a software engineer, career development, and so much more!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/310120400851953

We just reached our first 100 members!!!!

Scott — Tue, 07 Sep 2021 00:50:05 +0000

I started a Facebook group a few months ago...the intention was to help people with interviews and share my knowledge and experience to help people grow in their craft.

Ya know, stuff like resources I think are important, what languages to prioritize, how to get into open source, how to get your first job as an engineer, etc etc.

Well on September 1 we hit our first 100 members!

I honestly couldnt be more excited, we have such a great group of supportive people growing and learning together.

So...if youd like to join

Its as easy as clicking on the link below.

Talk soon!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/310120400851953

Scott

were never done

Scott — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 17:58:23 +0000

I have friends, my mom, significant others ask me all of the time if I'm done..

Lol....we're never done as engineers.

What we have are priorities, we do them and we move forward.
Getting comfortable knowing that we are "never done" is huge.

Its important to assess what you have to do, prioritize the top few things and get them done.

How you prioritize depends on the situation.

However, when I first started this gave me SO MUCH ANXIETY!

I have so much to do! I don't have enough time!

I wish someone told me that feeling would never go away. And to be honest, the technology industry moves so fast I feel the same way about learning new technologies, buzz words etc (ill cover this in another post)

So learn to be comfortable knowing that its never over.

Its important to have a goal, and reverse engineer your way to where you are.

Want to get a job? Ok what kind of job? Where are my knowledge gaps? How have my interviews been going? What feedback have I been getting?

Now, one foot in front of the other march forward.

Want more? Come join our Facebook group to help you get your first job as a software engineer, career development, and so much more!

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How to get someone to give you feedback on code you wrote.

Scott — Sun, 29 Aug 2021 01:11:11 +0000

Do not copy and paste it and send it to them on email, iMessage, whatever....it's a pain in the a$$ to read and give feedback.

Github has this thing called Gists. Use them, love them, share them.

https://gist.github.com/

Next time you want someone to give you feedback, copy your code into a gist and send it ovahhhhh.

This way they can comment on the code and reference specific lines.

Dont forget to leave some context on what youre trying to accomplish...they might see a better way to solve the problem.

Want more? Come join our Facebook group to help you get your first job as a software engineer, career development, and so much more!

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Scott

Breadth vs depth in the job search

Scott — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 03:52:49 +0000

Breadth vs Depth when getting a job in the first 3 years of your career....

It's really important to be good at something. In the beginning I tried learning everything..which was nice and all and gave me a good wholistic picture. But if you NEED to get a job ASAP, it was the opposite thing to do.

I had spent a bunch of time, kind of playing around in rails, kind of playing around with frontend, kind of playing around with database stuff, learning algorithms. Didnt know how they all fit together but i was going to interviews and getting my a$$ handed to me.

It took me a while to figure this out. I needed to focus on one thing. That was frontend development.

Why?

You have very limited shot at impressing these people. You need to KNOW you shite.

If you dont have professional experience, youre already at a disadvantage.

So...you need to give them a reason to hire you....crush that interview.

Short story long....in the beginning of your career, focus focus focus on ONE thing. Sure sprinkle in some other stuff here and there to grow, but until you're sure you can get a job in a short amount of time doing your craft. Keep getting better at the one thing.

Want more? Come join our Facebook group to help you get your first job as a software engineer, career development, and so much more!

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