So, you have more work to do. You need to be better than your peers who are also applying to similar jobs. You need to "Show, Don't tell".
- Build a project. Put in on Github. A real project, not some copy paste "React Template that everyone has from a bootcamp". If you cannot build one from scratch, contribute to an Open Source project that you really like
- Build a personal website and write about your learning experience. No shortcuts here. Again, how do I know who you are with all the noise ? "Show, don't tell"
- Reach out to people/companies you want to work for ideally. Be focussed and make a list. Imagine if you could work for any company. What company will that be ? Can you make a list of may be 10 ? Then reach out to their founder (if startup), hiring manager (if a bit larger company) etc. Hustle and get their information (linkedin etc).
- The more you can show, the more chances you have.
My 2c: This is the harder but better way to prove your skills. It shows you can learn a new codebase, interact with team members to learn and get things done, and that your code standards are up to code with an established org.
Just don't make my mistake of trying to contribute on your own. Find a mentor, and before you try to make a change, explain your approach to that mentor or anyone to make sure it works. And only then start writing code.
If this gets a ton of upvotes, I'll make a guide for doing this.
Any suggestions on how to find a mentor to help contributing to open source? I've been self-teaching for ~8months and just created a Github account with the desire to push.
* Be prepared for frequent rejection.
* Nobody will look at your code on GitHub. They will spend about 30seconds to see that you have something up there and look at your stats.
* Know what you want because they often won’t provide you an effective elevator pitch. If you want strong leadership be very clear about what that exactly means. Interviewing is like a bad date and they will lead you on and waste your time until they are ready to select someone more eager to do worse work for lower compensation. Know when it’s not going to work and cut them off.
* If instead you just want to be employed be a framework tool monkey that will never be more than a beginner that fears original code. You will be among the first to go at the next round of layoffs because you are easily replaced, but you are also easy to select.
* Learn your audience. I quickly failed out of most my interviews because I wanted to do more senior work, I wanted brutal honesty, and I wasn’t brown nosing people about their weird business ideas.
* You need to understand most startups hiring remote developers are not mature yet they want super extreme talent for peanuts. Read into your audience to see if they are full of shit or have unrealistic expectations. In many cases the interviewers were new to management and were lost at what to do with somebody with 20+ years experience in both code and management.
* Form practical expectation management. There is some risk of remote employment for the employer. Empathize with that.
> In many cases the interviewers were new to management and were lost at what to do with somebody with 20+ years experience in both code and management.
I'm not at 20 years but that one hit really close to home.
1. Have a public portfolio of your projects. It's better to have code examples available, even if they're embarrassing. It's important that a remote job can know what they're getting when they hire you. If you have old vs new projects, mark which ones are newer so a remote hiring team can get a sense of your progress.
2. Be open about your experience level, both in personal projects and professionally. Don't try and puff yourself up, it will make for a very bad experience. That doesn't mean don't make yourself look good, but it means do it as honestly as possible. Remote work can mean you are more on your own with less support, so a company needs to know how much support hiring you actually means.
3. Less about being hired, and more about if you get hired: If possible, have an isolated place in your home where you can work, and only use it for work. When you are there, you are working, and if you're not there, you are not working. It's incredibly important to have a separation between your personal life and work life when you work from home. If you don't have this, your employer, whether intentional or not, will take advantage of you and your time.
4. Ask in your interview what a day at work looks like. Do you have standups? Who do you ask for help? Do you need to work with people in different timezones? How many people will you directly work with? Who is the person that tells you what you should work on?
Pick a specialty like a hobby or field of study and aim most of your projects toward it. Connect with people in that speciality on Twitter or by contributing to their GitHub repos. The ideal niche will have enough people to get you a good number of connections, but few enough people that you're not lost in the noise.
Spend more time building things than applying for jobs. Most people advocate blasting out a wide spread of low-effort applications, but I don't think it works as well for self-taught developers. You need a good portfolio of original, high-quality projects that you can explain in depth, and well-target applications and cover letters.
Any kind of paid work is better than personal projects. Think about people you know and people you knew in the recent past, and ask yourself who might want some kind of freelance work. You don't have to charge a lot - if they pay you, it goes into your "Freelance Experience" resume section and now you have professional experience.
Then look (using, again e.g. LI) for job openings, remote only that suit the kind of work you want to do. Apply for those jobs.
You'll be unsuccessful in a high % but you might bag some interviews which will give you an idea of what demand is like and what £/$ you should be aiming for.
Be honest about your background, if you don't have much development/etc. experience it will show and technical positions generally (but don't always) require a technical test. This might mean accepting a junior or entry-level position.
This was a real job and went on my CV as a real job (C programmer), that was enough to kick off my career.
Perhaps there are places to look for these kind of roles? I'm not sure.
So, yea.. make some cool stuff to show to people and go meet those people. I can only imagine it must be easier to find a remote gig nowadays.
A cover letter gets you very far, it's the battling field you control. With just the CV they "screen you out" and the game is rigged to whoever presents it best. The recruiter has a checklist and decides "flat" on the CV.
However, with a Cover Letter, they see you went an extra mile and can see your communication skills. Given these are good, you improve your chances a lot.
Disclaimer: not a user of that site or any other. i solely use my network to job search. That site may very well be terrible.
create your own side project
volunteer some work to another project to get more experience
1. you have to lean into being "camera on" presentable, and you will need a project portfolio that is better than any bootcamp grad. Riskier, may have to do a ridiculous amount to offset your lack of experience. Likely will take a few months
2. You get an office or hybrid job and demonstrate you can work with people over time. Almost no risk, reliable and gives you control over how you brand yourself. Minimum 6 months.
3. Lie about 2, pretend to, or do a short stint working for family or friend and get them to provide a good reference.