Just finished my daily scrum meeting… I LOVE BEING A DEV
This is a follow up to my last post - Just had my First Interview - I actually just started my first developer job a few days ago! Building all of the freeCodeCamp projects definitely gave me the skills to do a mid-level developer job. FCC teaches you how to think critically and work situations out in your mind, which is exactly what defines a good developer, and something that tutorials and videos can’t teach.
-I Started freeCodeCamp in May 2016
-Finished all three certifications two weeks ago
-I was in communication with Michael about starting a nonprofit project to help my resume but it turns out I didn’t even need it!
Last month, I left my IT support job and moved to a tech hub city thinking it would be easy to get a dev job there. I was wrong. So many jrs are moving here and so many bootcamp grads are flooding the market with jrs. After applying for at least 300 jobs online through indeed, going to tech fairs, and communicating with recruiters, I had no success. I landed a few phone screens and interviews, but never got an offer. I realized applying via indeed was a wasted effort. But then…
Out of the desperation of running out of money, I posted an ad in the “resumes” section on craigslist, and just wrote a brief bio and linked to my portfolio. Within 24 hours a Software Architect contacted me and asked me to come in, and he gave me the project details on the spot - not even a coding interview, we just discussed the high level details of the project.
I am now working on contract for an IT solutions company, building an application for a large international phone / communications company, making (alot - for me - rhymes with 35) per hour. This week I’ve been working closely with the Scrum Master to talk with the client, understand the requirements, make mockups/user stories, and list the apis… I will be working with the front end team, doing more facilitating than actual coding (at least so far). I’ve been told by my managers I’m doing really great work, and my coworkers think that I’m a very experienced dev - and in a way I am because freeCodeCamp hands-down produces the best quality students to those who put in the effort and stick with it to the end!
You can probably start applying way earlier than I did in most cities, and land a jr dev job. In the tech hubs there’s a lot of competition amongst jrs, so jr. dev jobs are hard to get. I was excited to do a non-profit project for FCC but Michael encouraged me to focus on my full-time job now, as I have a lot of techs to learn.
The biggest things that I want you to know are:
- You can become a solid developer, and you don’t even need to finish FCC to do it
- Unfortunately, a freeCodeCamp education on your resume won’t be able to prove to recruiters or HR people that you know your stuff, so applying to jobs online is completely worthless
- Do some remote freelance work - I did a few projects on upwork, which I was able to add to my resume
- Again - recruiters and HR are not interested in freeCodeCamp students in the least, even though they are missing out on a world class catch (you!). Find a way to bypass them to get your dream job.
Things that are a waste of time:
indeed, ziprecruiter, indeed, monster, indeed, any other job board site, indeed, direct online applications with companies, indeed, etc.
Things that got me a good ratio of phone screens/interviews (maybe 15%):
AngelList (angel.co) - the platform built for startups
Craigslist Jobs
Other things to consider: hired.com - I know one fcc student was able to get a job through hired, but you would definitely need to supplement freeCodeCamp with other projects or classes and usually years of experience to qualify. I tried twice and didn’t make it past their screening