4 ms·
If a junior candidate made something that fulfills any of the following, I’d be really impressed: * Generates real revenue (either subscription, or one-time)
by wy35 5y ago
If a junior candidate made something that fulfills any of the following, I’d be really impressed:
* Generates real revenue (either subscription, or one-time)
* Regularly used (e.g. a few dozen people who log on every other day)
* Useful enough that its users would be sorely disappointed if you pulled it
* Recommended openly on the internet (e.g. Twitter, Reddit) from people who have no relation to you
- zekenie 5y agoI agree that would be very impressive. I think it’s important to also acknowledge that to be a fantastic junior engineer, you don’t have to be an entrepreneur. A lot of the factors you’re bringing up touch on (tremendously valuable) ancillary skills. My advice: don’t boil the ocean, show you can have really high quality craft. Be playful and engaging. Show the meta work. Have good git hygiene. Write a blog post about why you refactored something and ask for public code review. Show from afar that you’d be great to work with.
- wy35 5y agoI guess my intention is to recommend building something that people would actually use, rather than a toy project or a hello world (e.g., React tic-tac-toe). To actually deploy something to production shows you have "real-world" experience. One example is a Chrome extension I made when I was in college that enhanced my alma mater's course registration page. I didn't have any entrepreneurial skills at all, but quite a few people were disappointed when it was later shut down.
- zekenie 5y agoTotally. Build something real, for sure!