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Four suggestions: 1. Don't obsess over the specifics on an ad. See if the role is in line with what you have to offer, but don't worry if you don't have the ex
by acangiano 9y ago
Four suggestions:
1. Don't obsess over the specifics on an ad. See if the role is in line with what you have to offer, but don't worry if you don't have the exact number of years of experience they request or one of the many skills they added to what it's essentially their wishlist.
2. Provided you have a solid foundation with some standard skills like JavaScript, Python or Ruby, etc, specialize in a relatively new stack. No reasonable employer expects you to have 10 years of experience in Elixir or React.js. Note also that I used the word stack. You want to become competent enough to become useful to a team that adopts the same stack. Depending on where you live, you might go more or less niche in terms of the stack.
3. Start a blog and advertise the fact that you are looking for a junior position. Document your experience, post about what you are learning, what excites you, showcase your pet projects, etc.
4. Attend meetups. Let people know that you're available.
- JustSomeNobody 9y agoRe: #4. I currently live in a city that has virtually no tech scene. I work remote and my office is a thousand miles away. What are some ways to get a similar experience, but online? I don't particularly like social networking online (in person, sure!), so I've never tried looking into tech related social scenes.
- milofeynman 9y agoI found my last job via a meetup but am currently in the same position as you, which is what makes this a little bit harder.
- acangiano 9y agoStart your own tech meetup in said city.
- johndalton 9y agoI've been working remotely for ten years, in a city with a very small but friendly tech scene. A lack of local meetups doesn't always indicate that there's no tech scene, either - when I first started working remotely I was the only person I knew who was doing it, but just by being vocal about it I quickly found others. If there are no meetups in your field then starting one is a brilliant way to tick a bunch of boxes here: - You will bring people out of the woodwork who are in similar positions, but haven't taken the initiative to start such a group themselves. - You'll gain contacts in your scene, both locally and in other cities. - You'll gain experience and profile that will help you in a search for remote work, as you can point to community engagement activities that say a lot more about your dedication than a couple of udemy courses in some particular stack. If you really don't want to start a local group (or if there's no nearby community large enough to support this) then look for user groups with active online communities (mailing lists definitely count) and try to make some occasional trips to other cities for meetups and conferences.
- abstractbeliefs 9y agoIRC: get online and talk to people on freenode, the experience there covers both project related and social aspects. It won't make your city any less dead, but if you get online and help people with what you know, and learn from others, you'll certainly make friends.
- insomniacity 9y agoRe #4: I was rejected for a job. The interview process included take-home work AND pair-programming. One of the specific pieces of feedback I got was that my development style wasn't modern enough - with a recommendation that if 'your current employer isn't exposing you to best practices and new approaches you should attend some relevant meetups in [city]'. My personal negative take on that was that meetups tend to concentrate on the latest fad. The interviewer could have gone to one meetup in a series and seen one talk/library/strategy that resonnated with him. I could have gone to the next one in the series, picked up something completely different, and still failed the interview? Thoughts?
- dabockster 9y ago> My personal negative take on that was that meetups tend to concentrate on the latest fad. Or, in the case here in Seattle anymore, whatever the sponsor company is trying to promote. 2/3 of the meetups here anymore are mostly tech's version of timeshare seminars.