Got another rejection, really really really pissed off

Career Advice
41

At the end of the day, how you present yourself to employers is crucial, and your lack of showing these awesome projects you speak of and a visually appealing, functional and interactive portfolio all adds up to lack of presentation. Employers don’t care about a fancy degree, they care about whether or not you can do the job, and do it well/show the potential to do it well, and to sounds like a broken record; How are you suppose to show said employer that you are capable of doing the work? Portfolio. Projects.

The only person you are doing a disservice to by not having these things is yourself. Having your awesome degree should be the cherry on top. not the absolute way to get a job. Show off those damn awesome projects you have in a nice portfolio - it really isn’t that difficult.

I am fed up with an engineering degree not beeing good enough to be employable as a junior dev. I am fed up with seeing people who did no coding whatsoever on their spare time, who have no portfolio whatsoever get comfy dev jobs because they happen to know the right people.

Why concern yourself with these people? they sound fictional to me, and if they do exist they are doing something you may not be doing to get them here, and you can learn from what they do and there experiences.

Look at the other thread with the person who got a dev job after 8 months. Where are your critiscisms of him not having any original projects on his portfolio?

I am aware of the post you are talking about, this person obviously did some things right.
Firstly - they have a stylish, functional and responsive portfolio. Could it be better? Sure, but the important thing is he has one, and it’s appealing, clear and straight to the point - no real clutter here.

Secondly - His projects do not have to be 100% unique, this idea is kind of ridiculous, but you can tell he put some time, thought and independent thinking into these. His Ez Refill project for example, his previous employment was in pharmacy, so he created something that could potentially solve a problem, and be helpful to people (as well as the authentication, and back-end features he has added.)

Thirdly - I checked his portfolio out when I read this post as well, even his smaller projects like the keyboard and moon sequencer are engaging, and encouraged the user to interact with the projects.

You could absolutely land an awesome job with your background if you just built out some more in-depth projects that have personal interest to you, there is a reason why all these people with far less programming experience are landing jobs. They focus on portfolio, and projects. Don’t do yourself a disservice, display these awesome projects you have on a portfolio man.

I hope you don’t give up, because when you do get a job, it will be an awesome redemption story you can share with all the other campers here.

42

Do you see the contradiction in terms here?
“Doing the best FCC projects in the world doesn’t mean anything, because they are just tutorial projects” and “Ohhh, you don’t need original projects just put some original thought into them”. Putting original thought into projects obviously doesn’t include using canvas, or implementing a proper MVC pattern or doing things like that. It has to be flashy, no matter if it is technically sound or not.

43

Do you see the flaw in your thinking and attitude? If this is present even in the slightest during your interviews, I can’t deny the employers decision I’m afraid. I hope you turn yourself around and open yourself up to peoples constructive criticisms and better yourself as a developer. Best of luck in your job hunt.

44

Do you see the flaw in your thinking and attitude? If this is present even in the slightest during your interviews, I can’t deny the employers decision I’m afraid. I hope you turn yourself around and open yourself up to peoples constructive criticisms and better yourself as a developer. Best of luck in your job hunt.

Like I said, I have had it with this business. Where I am expected to have worked 20 hours/week in addition to doing full-time studies and besides that I am exepcted to have had time to “network”. I am on the verge of leaving it all.

45

Let me ask you this…if you did just leave it all, right now, would you feel relieved? Or would you feel yearning? If it’s relief then maybe this particular line of work (and I don’t mean all programming/web development in general) isn’t your thing. And that’s totally cool. It just means you haven’t found your niche yet in it. This could serve as a chance to delve into new areas of programming you haven’t before.

On the other hand if you’d feel yearning leaving it all behind, then that means you’re in the right place but you’ve got the wrong footing. You can’t scale a mountain if you’re constantly slipping. You gotta find your pace, your strategy, you have to work on your climbing skills. Sometimes you do get lucky and catch a break, but otherwise there’s a lot of sweat, struggle, and cuts you gotta face before you make it up. That’s part of the journey.

My point is, if you can face all that bullshit and still want it (I know, it’s a bit masochistic), then you’re in the right place for you. If not, then it might be time to reconsider your path.

Also, there are a lot of skills that go into this industry, and I’m not just talking about technical ones. Stuff like:

  • Humility/Humbleness
  • Tenacity (or a healthy dose of stubbornness haha)
  • Respect
  • Comradery

There’s more, but skills like those are about as crucial as how well you know one language or another.

You keep mentioning you were rejected after a behavioral interview, have you thought about maybe if it was the way you presented yourself in that interview? Maybe their “looking for someone more senior” was an excuse out of respect for you.

I do agree with the folk advising to work on your portfolio, but maybe there’s some personal skills that you might need to work on too.

46

Let me ask you this…if you did just leave it all, right now, would you feel relieved? Or would you feel yearning? If it’s relief then maybe this particular line of work (and I don’t mean all programming/web development in general) isn’t your thing. And that’s totally cool. It just means you haven’t found your niche yet in it. This could serve as a chance to delve into new areas of programming you haven’t before.

I would miss the challenges. But I wouldn’t miss never beeing “good enough” always beeing expected to understand that whatever I do is worthless.

  • Humility/Humbleness

This means being open to critiscism, not bending over and just accepting everything. Do you think it’s reasonable for a company to drag a process out for 3 months, and then just suddenly out of the blue realize that they have hired to many juniors?
Or drag it out for 2 months and then out of the blue just realize that in January there will be a lot of interns? I still think I am in my right to be enraged by this way of handling things.

You keep mentioning you were rejected after a behavioral interview, have you thought about maybe if it was the way you presented yourself in that interview?

I did a first behavioural interview with an external recruiter who obviously thought I would be able to do the job, otherwise they wouldn’t have refered me.

I do agree with the folk advising to work on your portfolio, but maybe there’s some personal skills that you might need to work on too.

Improving is one thing, beeing told that every single project I have done is worthless and should be scrapped is a totally different thing.

47

Out of curiosity every single interview is how many?

48

The three interviews I have had this fall have all resulted in the same response. “We have too many juniors at this time”. Why do they even send an invite to interview a junior then?

49

3, all different companies in your area?

That’s actually not that uncommon. It could just be the positions or the companies you applied. You could also trip some warning flag in the interview, and they’re just being polite. No way for us to tell. I’d lean toward they’re being honest and maybe use the opportunity to forge a connection with the recruiter to give you another opportunity when it presents itself.

I’ve had emails from past recruiters asking for applications to specific positions, I can’t tell you if it’s because I have some job experience now, but they do remember candidates and ask you to apply again when there is an opportunity. Obviously not always, but it does happen.

Companies are not always efficient or optimized, in fact in my experience, miscommunication happens often, so a recruiter coming back from vacation could suddenly realize that someone put out the wrong job requirements or they have a staffing contract with a consulting firm that starts in 2 weeks.

I don’t know if you’ll encounter a much more different experience in a different business. Most businesses prefer people with senior experience, so you’ll probably run into the same situation

50

3, all different companies in your area?

Yes.

No way for us to tell. I’d lean toward they’re being honest and maybe use the opportunity to forge a connection with the recruiter to give you another opportunity when it presents itself.

First company I honestly told never to contact me again. You don’t make someone wait for 3.5 months and then tell them that you suddenly realized you had hired too many juniors.

I’ve had emails from past recruiters asking for applications to specific positions, I can’t tell you if it’s because I have some job experience now, but they do remember candidates and ask you to apply again when there is an opportunity. Obviously not always, but it does happen.

I highly doubt it.

Companies are not always efficient or optimized, in fact in my experience, miscommunication happens often, so a recruiter coming back from vacation could suddenly realize that someone put out the wrong job requirements or they have a staffing contract with a consulting firm that starts in 2 weeks.

You don’t run a multi-hundred million dollar company with the total lack of foresight that I have experienced. This has been deliberate.

51

Three interviews and you are ready to quit?

52

I have had numerous other interviews. These were just the three latest.

53

Try something else???

54

I’d suggest you not take things like this so personally. You’d be surprised at the level of incompetence that can happen within a multi-hundred million dollar company just because there are too much bureaucracy and company politics. It has nothing really to do with the success of the company, a system that’s sufficiently large and complex will have a certain level of fallout. The people in charge of hiring you may have nothing to do with the company’s success, heck in some cases, they don’t even belong to the company, just an HR firm hired as consultants.

You make your choices. I probably wouldn’t burn bridges when I’m in need of a way in, and I certainly, don’t want to leave any negative lasting impression. Maybe you dodged a bullet with a company. I don’t know if that person I told to never contact me again will work there forever, he or she could move on to a different firm and see my name and application again. I doubt they will remember, but it’s a risk I’d avert.

Technical abilities are not the only thing they evaluate, in fact, many recruiters often emphasize soft skill being just as important, especially in some enterprise setting where the technical demand is not actually very advanced, but communication and ability to collaborate are highly important. I don’t know how you are in your interviews, but you are quite confrontational in some of these forum interactions, which can be construed as a negative trait. If this is happening too often, then the common denominator could be you, but for now, don’t take it too personally.

It sounds like you just need a win to recharge. I’d suggest maybe divert your attention away from the job search in the holiday season since things slow down for companies during this time anyway with people taking vacations and holiday. Focus on your support structure of friends and family, or something other than tech, a hobby maybe, something fulfilling before you get back to the grind.

2 Likes
55

I have glowing reviews on my ability to colaborate and communicate from the jobs I am working at the moment.

but you are quite confrontational in some of these forum interactions, which can be construed as a negative trait. If this is happening too often, then the common denominator could be you, but for now, don’t take it too personally.

Like I said, I have just litteraly been told that nothing I have done is worth anything, despite me spending days on it. That the only things that are worth anything is original projects, that I am expected to have concieved, designed and implemented on my own. This is not support, this is just trashing me.

56

I think the fact that you are getting interviews means your resume is fine. Doesn’t hurt to have some flashier stuff, but totally original is not necessary

Try to build a rapport with your interviewer to get honest feedback from them. They are probably your best source on what you need to work on beyond experience. You’re not going to always make friends in 30 minutes, but sometimes it’s doable.

57

nobody has said nything like that ever here. good feedback is like a shot of the rabies. It may hurt but if you have the heart to take it, u ca make it

58

Jeeeeez. Check your ego out at the door.

Your lack of emotional intelligence and humility about your own situation is crippling you.

Any interviewer can see right through you and what they see is someone overly confident about their abilities === ego which /= team player

I don’t think it’s lack of skill at this point its a behavioral problem.

1 Like
59

Your lack of emotional intelligence and humility about your own situation is crippling you.

So, beeing angry about beeing treated like a coolie, where you are expected to wait for months to get back and then being told that they really wanted someone other than what they were asking for in their wanted ads is lacking emotional intelligence.

Humilty doesn’t mean quietly accepting beeing treated like garbage.

Any interviewer can see right through you and what they see is someone overly confident about their abilities === ego which /= team player

Yes, interviewers are allmighty and infalable with no bias or incompetence whatsoever.

60

I’m taking a dump rn but I’ll try to be succint.

The real reason you don’t have a job rn isn’t that these companies don’t want to hire any juniors. You haven’t been getting enough leads to generate interviews and then generating offers. You can’t be waiting on a company to get back to you and then blaming the company for not hiring you lol.

I mean yeah bad on them for not letting you know earlier but companies have a business to run and you are not the priority. Junior devs are like lowest priority in the hiring process.

Actions to take:
Generate more leads and generate more interviews and generate more offers and until you get that offer in your hand you can’t stop the job seeking process