Good afternoon to all who are thumbing through this. I’ll try and make this post terce as possible but I’m not going to promise anything. I have been on the outside looking in for my first development job for what seems to be an eon now. I’m a self taught polyglot developer who has written an app, built several web applications, and contributed to open source projects where I know how. I’ve uploaded resumes to job boards, been solicited by recruiters, and I reach out to them, and for whatever reason I either can’t seem to get an interview, let alone a position as a software developer / engineer. Now I know I’m not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but are companies only hiring drop-in rockstars who hit the ground running? I mean is the junior developer position still a thing?
The important things to me aren’t even related to finances of being software developer, but at some point I genuinely had a passion for software development, and learning new technology. However, I can’t help but feel discouraged because of the outcome of the job search. What’s important to me is that I work around people where each other’s company is welcome.
As someone who has struggled with mental health, I can’t help but think that is why a company would not want to hire me. Do companies hire people with disabilities in a software development position? I’ve seen success stories posted on this forum, so I can only hope fellow campers can lend a hand. Thanks for reading through my rant, and I hope everyone has a great weekend.
Well, first of all, I’d say that there are a lot of threads on this topic with a lot of advice - I might check all of those. linklinklinklinklinklinklink
Read these, do some google searches. This subject comes up a lot and it’s always the same advice. There are a lot of great articles on the internet.
I know it’s frustrating, but there is no magic formula. You just gotta learn to code. Be a voracious learner and addicted to coding. Then it’s perseverance. You have to accept that you will get rejected a lot.
It reminds me of the old joke:
Two guys are walking down the street and a beautiful girl is walking the other way. The first guy says, “Hey baby, let’s have sex.” She slaps him hard on the face. The guys keep walking. The second guy asks the first guy, “Man, you say that to all the women you meet? You must get slapped a lot.” The second guy replies, “Yeah, but every now and then I have sex.”
It’s a numbers game. You don’t get penalized for failed interviews. All you need to win the game is one job. And the way to raise your odds is to keep going at it until you get it.
That and working your ass off to become a great coder.
@ksjazzguitar You say there is a lot of advice on the topic, but you don’t even mention any advice first hand in your reply. The takeaway I get from your reply is to apply at as many places as possible, and hope someone hires. …Great advice.
@ksjazzguitar did link to a lot of good advice. You can’t expect all that to be rehashed when this question has been asked so many times on here.
And the suggestion that finding a job is a numbers game is totally sound. There’s no “magic bullet” for getting a job. It’s completely dependent on the quality of your portfolio, the job market in your area, your soft skills, luck, and plenty of other variables. The best you can do is build the best portfolio you can and keep applying. See this thread for an example of how someone can succeed with perseverance, even while struggling with mental health.
Actually, if you’re as adversarial toward people trying to help you in real life as you are in this thread, it hints as to why you may be passed over by HR.
I’m sorry if my reply came off as flippant. That was not my intent. You are asking an important question, but one that has been asked many times. A basic rule of forum etiquette is to search for the answer before asking it. Yeas, I suppose we could all come in here and retype the paragraphs of answers that we’ve already written on the subject. Or maybe some searching could be in order. I did provide links. I apointed out that there are a lot of articles and blog posts on the web. I assume you know how to use Google. A basic rule of thumb here is Read-Search-Ask.
My “just keep trying” bit was meant as encoragement. I apologize if it came off as flippant.
My original post was more or less me just ranting because I have been trying to land a developer role for a long time now. Please forgive me if you found my reply as a low blow or offensive. I do appreciate the links you shared, and I’ll do my best to try and sort through all the information provided in the links you shared.
And in a positive note, I applied for several developer positions this morning in my local area heeding to your advice. One of the positions was described as Junior, so I can only hope that will contact me. Thanks again for the links, and replying to the thread.
No, I wasn’t offended. I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt because it is so easy to misunderstand tone on a forum.
I’m glad you’re keeping at it. Just remember to embrace rejection. Rejection means you’re trying. People that never get rejected are people that have set their goals too low.
