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Ask HN: Is it the industry or is it me?
Hey all, I wanted to make this thread to hopefully spark a discussion about junior / entry-level developers and starting a career in software engineering (post-Covid).
Here's the problem, and what I wanted to start a discussion about:
After over 300 applications, I haven't even landed a single interview. I know this is a pain that many other new grads have faced and are still facing, and I want to hear other programmers' stories, anecdotes, inputs and opinions on this, whether you're a senior dev with over 10 years' experience, or a new grad like me.
For some context, I've been using computers since as long as I can remember, my parents worked in tech my entire life, and I "started" coding around 12 years ago in highschool. I wrote "started" in quotations because it was about as much as you can learn from a highschool-level program from the year 2012-onwards on the subject of programming; I'm talking pure HTML/CSS/JS, some Java and a bit of C#.
Since then, I've continued to work on projects here and there but I never took programming seriously, that is, until about a year and a half ago. I had originally settled onto a career path I thought I wanted (Audio Engineering), but after graduating, I quickly realized that it was not a path I wanted to follow. Most of my friends are programmers, and I had previous experience with it, so I chose to go with something that had pretty much circled me my entire life: Technology, more specifically, Software Development. I applied to an intensive (1 year) AEC program, and it was during that course that I quickly found out that I love programming. I also found out that I learned the subjects very easily (who knew that learning about things you're passionate about could be so effective!) and so I started studying on my own, and working on personal projects early on in the course.
I graduated with honor role in February of this year, and I now have many personal projects that I've worked on, an artistic portfolio hosted on my domain and honestly, a pretty good Github profile for a junior dev. I've gotten extremely familiar with frontend languages and frameworks, SQL databases and ORMs, and quite familiar with building computer/mobile applications (Java, Kotlin, Swift, etc). Since last year, I likely average around 8-9 hours a day coding projects, practicing on hackerrank and leetcode, or studying programming on my own time.
I feel like despite my lack of experience, I've done so much in just a year that I consider impressive, and I feel unable to express this employers because I can't seem to get a single interview. I've gone to job fairs, applied on every single website there is, and I can't seem to succeed. It feels like all those 10-14 hour coding sessions filled with passion and hope that I destroyed my mental health over in order to land a job after graduating were all for naught, and the weight of that realization is starting to feel absolutely crushing. I tell myself, "at least if I was able to land interviews, the rejections mean there's room for improvement", but since I can't land any, it means the problem is elsewhere and I just can't figure out what. Are my applications even reaching human recruiters, or is it AI rejecting me automatically? Who knows.. When I apply, it feels like I'm just hoping for a miracle that I can even reach somebody I can speak to and get to prove myself as a developer.
To any developers who have ever asked themselves "Is it the industry or is it me?", what are your thoughts on that question? If you're an established developer now, was it the industry, or your mindset, or both? What changed?
- grobgambit 2y agoI am not a dev but there is obviously a supply vs demand problem or you would at least be getting a single interview. There is also a marketing problem in that everyone thinks they have to do the same thing to stand out but if you are doing the same thing as everyone else then you are doing the opposite of standing out. At one point in my career when I was struggling to get interviews, I gave up and decided the jobs available to me are the ones my friends can help me get. You will amaze yourself with how much more effort you put into your network when you take the internet posting jobs off the table. There is also much to be said for being able to program but doing something else besides pure software engineer.
- sandwichukulele 2y ago>I feel like despite my lack of experience, find FOSS projects maintained by Big Tech and find ways to contribute value to those projects, this will get your foot in the door and will overcome the lack of experience and get you immediate attention from those already inside. This is a problem of visibility, not skill. The reality is that it's very difficult to get your message out when you're competing with so much other noise.
- jsyang00 2y agoThis is a hard way to go, unless you are really very confident in your skills. OP, I would recommend trying to reach out directly for referrals on LinkedIn instead if you are not already. That will at least make it likely your resume will get looked at. It is correct that you have a visibility problem, not a skills one.
- casegg 2y agoThank you for the advice. I've done that a few times for jobs i was particularly excited to apply for, but didn't think about it from the perspective you mentioned. I'll definitely do that from now on.
- sandwichukulele 2y agoOP states that they have gone through "After over 300 applications, I haven't even landed a single interview." This may be a "hard" way to go, but it is certainly a way to consider to prove yourself. You can reach out directly for referrals but not just can anyone do that, you have people who game the system with AI which adds to the noise (I can imagine a simple system with Large Language Model and a Large Action Model could be easily setup to repeat the process to request referrals on LinkedIn). Not everyone can create immediate value and this isn't something obvious to consider and why I suggest OP to do so.