How to get ahead in getting your first Junior Software Developer role
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Roughly a year ago, I graduated from Makers Academy. I decided to leave my career in retail to start on the long road to become a software developer. The journey itself was no mean feat. The thing that drove me in the early stages was getting my dream job and finally leaving retail behind 👋.
The following months were difficult, anyone who has been job hunting knows how stressful it can be. Especially having spent 3 months doing Makers and not getting paid! My hard work paid off and I landed a phone interview with ComparetheMarket.com (CTM).
The intention of this post is to give you a few pointers that you can use to stand out from the crowd during the process 👇
Ways to help you stand out
Before we get into the tips and tricks you can try to help you stand out, I need to emphasise one thing. Companies tend to hire juniors based on their passion for technology and desire to learn. You’ll be expected to hit the ground running and develop your technical skill on the job rather than it being already polished. This means that you can focus on the non-technical aspect of being a developer and work on your technical skills as you go along.
Right, let’s begin with the interesting stuff…
Meetups
If you are fortunate enough to live in a big city like I do, there will be plenty of meetups held on a weekday. The best advice I can give is to find a technology you’re interested in and pluck up the courage to attend one of these events. Meetup is a great place to find interesting meetups in a whole variety of topics and subject matters.
Who’s terrified of the idea of meetups? ✋
If you’re like me, you’ll find the idea of going to meetups on your own terrifying! If you’re anxious about attending a meetup, drag a friend along with you. This might make you feel more confident in breaking the ice with strangers. You’ll be able to chat, eat pizza 🍕 and drink all the free 🍺 (other drinks are usually available) to your heart’s content.
Attending meetups is a great way to get involved in the community. Some talks may make you feel out of your depth, but that’s alright, you won’t be the only ones! Embrace the opportunity to learn more about the technology and the community, and run with it!
I was recently a coach at a CTM hosted Codebar event a few weeks ago. The thought of finally being found out that I’m not a real developer filled me with anxiety and dread. At the end of the event (and a few 🍻 later), having helped a prospective developer working on her React project, I felt great. The lesson I took from the event was no matter how scary signing up for something like that may be, once you sign up you’re stuck with it (stuck in a good way)! Why wouldn’t you want to be stuck doing something that petrifies you 😅?
Read loads of articles
A member of the Makers team gave me great advice at the end of my time there. They had realised that candidates were being rejected because they weren’t able to talk about their passions in the industry. They challenged me to find a technology/aspect of the industry I was passionate about and explore it. I was asked regularly what that interest was, and what I had learned about it. Knowing I was going to be asked about this, I made a real push to find a topic I enjoyed reading about.
I started to read Javascript posts on Medium and lurk on the javascript subreddit. This is a habit I have continued, and one that I think is important in the world of software development as it moves quickly. It helped me understand concepts during my early stages of employment and does to this day.
Knowing where my passions were within the industry helped me stand out during the phone interview stage with CTM. This was my opportunity to talk about those passions with the interviewer. It enabled the interviewer and me to have a natural conversation rather than a forced Q&A session.
There are, of course, other forms of media to help you discover your topic of interest. A lot of people I know listen to podcasts, follow people on Twitter and watch videos online. The important part is to find the right form for you and get into that routine.
Open Source contribution
Now, before I start on open source contribution, I need to come clean. It is not something I have done yet or did when I was seeking employment 😅. It is something I want to get into and I have been reading a lot about it recently. Now that I’ve got that off my chest, let me give you some tips on what I’ve found out recently.
There was a time when open source to me seemed like a scary place but, like the industry it is becoming more and more inclusive. I recently found a couple of really good resources to help get involved an open source project as a newbie.
The first is an open source guide that talks about how to get involved in contributing to a project. Some of the sections include “Why contribute to open source”, “Finding a project to contribute to” and “How to submit a contribution”. This guide is a great starting point for anyone that wants to get involved in a project but not sure where to start.
Another great resource is First Timers Only. They link to various resources to help you make that first contribution. My favourite was Up For Grabs which aggregates all open source projects and shows labels like “good first issue” and “help-wanted”. This is a great way to figure out where and how you can contribute.
So, you may be wondering why I’m talking about Open Source and what’s so great about contributing to a project. One of the main advantages of contributing is that it looks great on your CV to a potential employer. It tells the reader that you like to get involved in the community and that you’re not afraid to try. It’s a great way to get a name for yourself in that project and could open doors for you in the future!
To conclude
The points I’ve mentioned are a great way to get ahead when finding your first development role. They will give you a talking point with recruiters and will show how passionate you are about learning and the industry. The important thing is to find the right way for you and stick with it. If you don’t enjoy it, don’t worry about it.
I intend on writing a second part of this article. It will revolve around the actual recruitment process with some tips and tricks. Bear with me on that and one day it will come 😃.
Did you enjoy the article/find it useful?
If you did, please share it with your friends and give it a 👏
Also feel free to comment below with any advice you would give a potential junior developer. I will also commented a few of my favourite resources below for any further reading.
Thank you for reading and happy job hunting 😄!
You can find comparethemarket jobs here by visiting joinus.comparethemarket.com
