I asked this question to my local tech community, "What is some advice someone gave you that you can pass on to an aspiring developer looking for their first job in tech?" The following is a curated list of their amazing answers:
Lawrence Lockhart
A helpful mindset I've had for the longest is every job hiring process is a sale. You as the candidate are the product and the employer are the potential customer. You're there to sell yourself. The employer through job descriptions, and the way they market themselves will let you know to some degree what type of product (developer) they're looking for. Your job is to make yourself look as much as that model as possible, provided that's who you are and those activities are the things you want to do.
Dennis Kennetz
Find a job type that you are interested in (say associate web developer). Look at the requirements for the job, and build stuff with those requirements so you can show experience. Practice interviewing, practice talking tech, seek to understand what is going on as you're building.
Anonymous
Apply and interview a LOT. Practice makes perfect, and eventually, you will match with a position. Try to avoid that feeling that it just isn’t going to work out. Interviewing can be hard on your confidence. Don’t give up.
Corey McCarty
If it weren't for users that don't understand things easily, many of us would be without a job. When dealing with support activities and business people it can be frustrating. The people that can be most frustrating are typically the ones that are effectively paying your wage.
James Sweetland
Don't rush — Rome wasn't built in a day and you won't acquire the skills you need in a day either and that's totally OK! I spoke more about this in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuuuQ4nsLHQ
JC Smiley
Advice a mentor gave me was to do what inspired you to get into tech which for me was building small apps. The meaning of his advice was if you focus on what you enjoy you will become an expert. Somewhere between your expertise and the job market there is an intercession of where you will shine. I have built over 30 projects and can vouch that I have something to talk about in an interview.
Advice I heard from high performers is the importance of the prep work you do before you apply for a job. Work hard at standing out so interviewers have heard about you or have a strong idea of your capability before the interview. This can be blog posts on building something, videos teaching something, leadership skills from leading a volunteer organization, open source contributions, or winning a hackathon.
Code Connector is a non-profit that's organized tech meetups to help people start their journey into tech. You can join our daily conversations by clicking this link: Code Connector slack channel.
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