How do you not get discouraged?

How do you not get discouraged?
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#61

A few questions:

  1. Are you on LinkedIn? Have you filled everything out for it and let everyone know you are looking?

  2. Do you have any coding projects on GitHub?

  3. Are you going to any programming user groups? E.g., go to MeetUp.com and search for things like Javascript, Python, Perl, etc, and see what user groups near where you live. Join them and start going to their meetings. Make connections.

  4. Do you have your own personal business cards? You need to make some for when you talk to people at the user group meetings because you can’t just hand out resumes without it being awkward.

  5. Do you have an account on Fiverr or UpWork? You could start offering your services there for cheap and put it on your resume as freelance work.

  6. Are you posting to places like Reddit, especially their job sub-reddits?

https://old.reddit.com/r/forhire/

Just some ideas to get you started. People networking is what you need to do at this point.

1 Like
#62

I really wonder how useful these are or would be. I have a small stack of them but they’re likely wasted now ever since I completed bootcamp and moving more towards web dev if I can even though mainframe jobs are still possible. Seems that most people will just take the card, look at it once, toss it in their briefcase, backpack, purse, desk drawer, pocket etc and forget about it. Or it goes into File 13* . There are some still I’m sure that will remember and/or find the card days or months later.

But… me… I pick up cards- many eventually wound up in File 13 or in recycling… or some are sitting in my dresser drawer lol.

*File 13 === trash bin.

1 Like
#63

I often wondered about the usefulness of cards myself. I think (at least in my personal experience) that memorable encounter + card = stronger connection. I feel like you can’t just throw out your card to everyone you meet, the card should be icing on a already great/memorable conversation. Like a “Hey remember that awesome encounter you had with that person you met? Well here’s some contact info so you can keep having awesome encounters”. Basically if you play your cards right (pun totally intended) you should make them want your card. Even better, is if they personally ask for it.

A good friend of mine runs a youtube channel where he does comic book reviews, now he’s a natural at having an engaging conversation so I’ve able to observe this tactic firsthand. But it’s all about the delivery, tact, and finesse. You learn to gauge when it’s a good opportunity to pull the card. Granted, there’s no guarantee they’ll actually use it, but at least you’ve set yourself up with the best chances that they will.

#64

Having business cards has always been useful to me. I trade business card, look them up on LinkedIn, and then connect with them. LinkedIn has been great in helping me find jobs over the years. And again, it’s easier to hand out a business card than it is a resume. My business cards tell people what I can do immediately.

#65

Right here.

Look, there has been a lot of great advice given to you. I’m going to go a step further. Nothing, is a waste.

You are shooting yourself in the foot by not doing anything and only coming with excuses. You don’t want to pay for more learning, fine. Then make friends at these events. Get to know people. Build up your portfolio. You’re not even getting to the stage where they test your knowledge because by your portfolio and resume it looks like you don’t. If you actually have those skills LIST them. It’s not a lie to know all of those things. Then build projects using the ones you like working with.

And if you don’t like working with any of them…maybe you need a different career.

References: No one cares what line of work your references are in, only that you have them and they are at a manager level. SO USE THAT ONE YOU HAVE.

You are assuming a lot with out doing the work. I promise you, if you follow the advice others have given you here you will succeed but it is work.

1 Like
#66

You seem to have identified your challenges, doing everything all at once without mastering anything not sure if will help you, I agree with Joseph I looked at your profile maybe have attention to detail for your projects.
Applying to lot of of places rather than few places up your chances 100%.
Positive attitude helps as well as beyond skills companies are looking for someone who takes responsibility and has great outlook towards their job and show passion. Good luck and all the best , can’t wait to hear your first day at work story.

#67

I don’t wish to sound cruel, but you have a computer science degree and yet your projects are hosted on Codepen. If you are not ready, don’t apply for jobs. It will only discourage you.

#68

You speak ignorance, assuming “if x person hosts some front end projects on codepen they are incapable of doing it elsewhere, x person therefore is incompetent” is ludicrous. I used heroku before and their free hosting has a start up time so for static hosting just using git pages or codepen makes the most sense. Are there more places I could look? Yes, but there is no value gained by hosting somewhere else just because a presumptuous employer could think “oh it looks bad this person has stuff on codepen they must not know how to Google some other hosting service, read the docs, and use it”. I don’t think I would want to give that opinion credit and would rather not work for someone with that shallow of thinking. It’s simply pragmatic. Where you choose to host is irrelevant to the function of side project simple web pages unless enough people actually visit it and you hit some serving limit and need to go with another hosting solution.

What value does saying “if you have a cs degree and have something hosted on codepen then you are not ready for a job” provide? It’s baseline untrue, presumptuous, arrogant, and generally unhelpful, and anyone who would make an assumption that if someone has things on codepen that that indicates they they are an incompetent programmer/developer/engineer is making a very shallow judgement that shouldn’t be valued.

If there is some “cool kids” hosting site that somehow makes someone look better then the way to phrase what you said would be “host your projects there, I know it seems silly but if you host things there it looks better to employers”. Not smugly commenting “you have things on Codepen! Theres no hope for you you know nothing!” I didn’t think FCC was the type of place to run into that sort of smug, unhelpful attitude. I know unhelpful elitism when I see it, i’ve dealt with it in other communities.

I’m absolutely ready and will not let silly comments like yours get in my way.

#69

Just got done reading and skimming through this…phew. Everyone has given some great advice so far.

I think you just need to do a personal reset. Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Forget the mistakes or what you should have done and all that. Focus on what you want to do now. It sounds like you have the education. You have the degree, finished 3 FCC certs, read books and listened to podcasts. Looks like you are doing some work on the portfolio now which is good. When you are done with that start the projects that were suggested earlier.

I can take courses all day and read books, but I don’t really learn or retain unless I’m doing. Employer’s look for indications of what you can do for them. Projects with source code give them the best indications. Some places may hire you flat out just for having interesting projects in your portfolio. Find something you do multiple times that you could build an application for. Look at successful projects and clone your own version, even better add a new spin on it.

The next thing I would recommend with this reset is confidence. Doing the projects will help with this. When you do a phone interview you need to project confidence. You are the man for this job and here is why. When you get the interview you need that confidence. Remember, the interview goes both ways. You might not want the job. Not arrogance, just a quiet internal confidence.

Recenter yourself, start coding and target the positions you want. You don’t need validation from others. Constructive criticism is good, everything else can be let go. You will find your path in time, just keep doing the work.

1 Like
#70

Fair enough, but do you want to get a job or do you just want to let off steam? If you reject advice from people who have walked the same road, you won’t get far.

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#71

I’ve spent four years looking and still no work.I’ve had my CV rewritten for practically every job posting and in between I do odd jobs if I’m lucky so I wouldn’t fret some have it worse.

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#72

I have a one-year old and an almost three-year old. Thank Thor my wife takes care of them very well. I work full-time and some odd jobs. I don’t really have enough time to study as much as I need to so I just figure if I endure and don’t quit I will get there eventually. My son gets a sticker when he poops or pees in the toilet. I was struggling to keep up with coding and work/life so now I give myself a shiny dinosaur sticker on my calendar for every hour that I study in the evenings. If I beat my high score every month: Step 3: ??? Step 4: === Profit?

2 Likes
#73

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This kind of screams at me in my web browser firefox developer edition. I’m not one to talk because I am not a professional developer but you can start with fixing that portfolio alignment.

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#74

Do you have any ideas on how to find states that are less competitive or more in need of junior devs? It’s always been my assumption that since junior devs are pretty low skill companies wouldn’t have much desire to offer relocation or hire out of state.

#75

Check out indeed. Or Glassdoor. Read cscareeerquestions on reddit. Read online where is the biggest growth. I did that last year and picked Austin, TX. Relocated here in summer and got my first job couple months ago. It is easier than East Coast.