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Discussion on: Were you ever fired as a junior developer?

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sebastienkb profile image
Sébastien Kalb • Edited

I have, about 10 years ago. I was hired as junior Java Developer in a small company.
I had learned "vanilla" Java and JavaBeans at school but didn't know any big frameworks like Spring. I knew basic stuff like web requests and XML but I was missing other pieces like what exactly is an API, what is RESTful, what is JSON, etc. They knew this but they wanted to give it a try, hoping I'd learn on the spot. It was overwhelming to not know so many things so I felt like a failure that should quit programming altogether, so it made me freeze and not dare follow the tutorials feeling like I should have known already. When I got fired I felt like I had proof that I should give up.

I eventually got a similar job with the same stack, and things went much better, even though I didn't learn more than I already did.
This made me realise that not every job is entirely related to my skills or personality, it's also compatibility with the company and colleagues. Some relationships are bound to work better than others. Looking back, I did feel a bit off with the culture of the first job. It felt cold, hostile, and a bit competitive. At the next job I didn't feel overwhelmed at all and it went much more naturally. It's like dating, it's not because things don't work out that you're a terrible person.

On top of that, one needs to know that the version management will tell you when they fire you will not necessarily be the truth because they don't want to end up in hot waters legally. They can't just say "I'm firing you because I hate your guts", so they have to justify with performance which is, at best, arbitrary.

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adam_cyclones profile image
Adam Crockett 🌀

Well said

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damilolaai1 profile image
damilola-AI1

How were you able to get, cause have been trying to get a junior frontend react developer job but I don't know how to construct a CV for myself, cause am self taught and I don't hang cert at all

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nandollo profile image
Nicholas Andollo

Kindly get one certification or completion certificate

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sebastienkb profile image
Sébastien Kalb • Edited

I have a bachelor in computer science which helped, but even then I got many, many rejections before landing a job.
Don't worry, rejections are often more frequent than acceptance. My success sits on a mountain of failures!

Look for tips online to make a good CV, never lie, try to find what techs are hot and learn those so you can add them on the CV.
React is a good choice, if possible try to learn other JS variants like VueJS, Angular or ReactNative. Add to your CV your Github link with some frontend projects, don't forget each time a README and a GIF to show what each project does so the recruiter can see what you can do without installing software. Make a lot of projects on your Github, even if they differ just a little bit, but enough to showcase you know many aspects of your tech.
Add something personal to your CV, like some non-IT hobby or sports or something unique about you.

If you are self taught and cannot spend the time in a proper school/training in a (physical) center, you could look for training websites with certifications. I don't know which ones are worth it but you could create a topic here in dev.to and ask which ones are most valuable to recruiters.
Most certifications cost some money, but it's often much less than tuition and commuting to school.