I am from Uzbekistan which is located in Central Asia and I’ve been learning to code over the past several months because I really want to get a front-end web developer job in Europe but the thing is i have neither work experience nor formal education. The highest degree i have is high school certificate but i do have several certificates from online courses on web development and I also have a portfolio with some basic projects.
My questions is this: is it possible for me to get a web dev job in Europe? if so, what do i need to do to increase my chances of getting a job? Do I need to focus on getting more certificates or working on projects that show my skills? Or should I get a job in my country first and after 6 to 12 months apply for a job in Europe?
A woman from South Africa got a remote work position for an American company following Coding Phase"s advice. Assuming you can video chat in english you could too. Your portfolio would have to be “polished” first.
Where can I read about this African woman? If im not mistaken Coding Phase vlogs about coding but can you please share which video advice this woman followed? I’m definitely gonna polish my portfolio. Thank you brother!
He also vlogs about how to get a job without a formal education, just skill. He also does portfolio reviews so one can get hired off their portfolio alone instead of whiteboard programming. To understand his requirements I suggest searching the video page for “review” and watching all of them. The last one was a comparison which is different than his normal review format.
I guess it depends why you want to get one in the first place? Are you looking for a permanent position or you just genuinely like the place and want to be around from time to time?
Visas are hard - I’ve tried to get one myself and although I am qualified (Engineering) this didn’t seem to increase my odds a lot.
As others mentioned, as a web developer you can work remotely, so you should be able to get work from overseas clients, whilst at home, and build references and a relevant portfolio on both local market & possibly competitors or a certain organization, if you really want to increase your odds.
If the reason you want to come to Europe is cultural (actually vising or spending time here), maybe I suggest taking advantage of small Visas issued for visiting purposes. Just to make clear, these are not working Visas - They are issued for visiting purposes, which you can use to see the local culture and maybe make some local friends - but it’s a good way to test the waters. Europe is a big place I
Wish you the best of luck
PS: This post was edited as it was brought to my attention that there was a lack of clearance. As always, with legal matters, please seek advice with the relevant authorities.
I am looking for a permanent position and I genuinely like the place as well. I asked this question b/c I saw lots of junior web dev jobs on stackoverflow and i thought i could give one of them a try but based your information, I’ll have to look for remote jobs instead.
As for testing the waters, i got a lot of friends abroad doing it for me so I don’t have to do it.
Are you from Europe?
Thank you very much for taking the time to respond to my question!
Hey, I hope this will help. https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/working-schengen-visa/
You’ll need to have a signed work contract for that, though.
I would suggest you to start contacting personally the companies you are interested into.
You have a very good level of English (I would be extremely happy if my fellow citizens would have the same) and I don’t think you’ll have problems communicating IF the others know English as well.
It might still be required that you prove you have reached a certain level with that country’s official language though.
I wish you the best of luck.
Mostly with the bureaucracy, especially if you chose Italy (here it is shitty to say the least)
You said “start contacting personally the companies you are interested into”, should i do this via their linkedin accounts or is there any other way to contact a person who actually works there?
I gotta tell you something. The more I use FCC, the more I’m falling in love with it as the people here are so helpful. Thank you for being one of the them. I’ll check the link now!
On that I’m not sure. I haven’t applied to a job yet after leaving my previous one, so I can’t be much of help under that aspect.
I was thinking something like:
Look online for companies in a field you’d like to work with (e.g. law firms, human rights activists, something that sells a specific kind of product, …)
Surely on their website they’ll have a contact or a “work with us” section.
Tailor your request based on them (what are the things they do that you like, why you’d be happy to work with them).
Contacting a person that works there might work in case of a small company that doesn’t have rigid procedures. But honestly idk how that could be done.
Rules vary within Europe, whenever the country is a member of the EU and where your are coming from, so specific advise will vary - I suggest booking an appointment with an immigration specialist to discuss details, because even if someone was successful, their circumstances may be different.
Visas may be granted once you have been offered a job offer. The company may need to deal with expenses and delays in application and immigration experts. They also risk loosing you if you become ineligible for some reason. Your competing with someone already in the country, with a right to work and available immediately.
It is certainly not impossible, but risky for them. If they can test the waters before hand or you have someone referring you, it can make the application much, much more likely, hence local friends and relevant work (maybe remote with them) I would guess would give you a considerably higher chance of success.
Using the UK as example - there are no permanent visas. There are some that you can apply for, but indefinite right to remain will only be issued after a number of years being in the country continuously, under a valid Visa.
Thats a great idea. I have thought about this before but somehow i didn’t focus on it. I think i can get a job much faster if I use my previous job experience as a language teacher to apply for jobs at companies that deal with language education or education in general. Thank you sir!
Thank you circuitguru. I’m gonna try some German companies but if nothing works out, I’ll reach out to my friend in Latvia who’s working for a large company as a java developer. I think he’ll help me. Thank you for your ideas.
hi, i come from a developing country myself and i have tried many times to find a job abroad with no success
here is my advice to you
visa sponsored jobs while not exactly rare they are definitely limited and many experienced workers struggle finding one so let alone someone with no experience. not to make you feel discouraged but as a matter of fact even after gaining experience your chances of getting a job offer from another country is still low, for that you need to be really good and by good i mean better than all the local applicants otherwise how possibly could the employer convince the foreign office to approve your visa, they simply can’t and they won’t even bother in the first place.
my advice to you is to separate your career dreams from your dreams of living in a better place, always strive to be a better developer, never stop learning not for the sake of leaving your country but because you love what you do and you believe one day it will pay off.
as for traveling abroad your best bet is to apply for a skilled worker immigration programs after you gain some experience(as of today Austria has one of those), these are tailored for skilled workers who want to live and work abroad but don’t exactly have a job offer
Thank you very much AndroEhab for your inspirational advice. I would’ve given up already given up coding if it weren’t for my dream of starting my own non-profit free educational website where visitors can learn languages in a friendly environment like FCC, get certificates and somehow give back to the community because I have come to realize that coding is a very serious career where one tiny bug such as a missing coma can crash your entire system. So it takes a ton of patience and perseverance to complete projects, especially at early stages where you have almost no support except for people who are ready to offer a helping hand like you. Thank you sir. I’ll keep learning no matter what happens!
Hi @mbassador, if you are not doing it already, I suggest you to write your code using an IDE (like Visual Studio Code for example). Most IDEs provide something called “linter” for the programming language you use. If they don’t do it natively, most likely there will be a plugin that does it.
A linter is a tool that analyzes your code to identify programming errors, bugs, stylistic errors, and suspicious constructs.
The missing semicolon is one of the most annoying errors, specifically because it’s hard to find, and many of not most linters will certainly help in discovering it.
Btw, I think that in JavaScript it’s not mandatory anymore at the end of the instructions.
After trying a few IDEs* I totally recommend Visual Studio Code (even though I totally don’t like Microsoft )
Unless you have to deal with bidirectional text.
I’m having a lot of trouble with putting Hebrew (right to left) in it in a clear way.
*Eclipse and later Netbeans when I used Java.
Brackets, Atom and now VSC.
Thank you very much for the suggestions. I use Sublime 3 and I have been able to find several versions of ‘linter’ for Sublime. From now on, my code will be error free thanks to SimoneBogni.
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