How to Find Your First Job in Tech? (in 2022)
Even if you have no experience
Finding an entry-level job in the tech industry can be difficult because you probably have no experience and most companies don’t want to take risks by hiring inexperienced workers.
So what are the ways of finding your first job?
As a software developer with 7 years of experience, I learned some ways to solve this issue and in this post, I will give you some tips based on my own experiences and knowledge.
Let’s begin!
Referrals
This one was the way how I found my first job. Through a referral.
Do you have a relative, a friend, maybe a neighbor working in the tech industry? If yes, then they can help you a lot by handing over your Resume to HR from inside, especially if they have a good reputation in their company.
I had a friend from college who started to work in a company before me. After a year or so he told me that their company is looking for a junior dev, which was suitable for me. He handed over my Resume from inside to the HR department and the very next day I got a call from them.
I also had other interviews in the meantime, but since my friend was working there and the interview process was successful, I decided to join the company where my friend was working.
This can be the same for you as well. If you know somebody in person, who is working in tech, don’t be afraid to ask for their help. They can be extremely helpful to find your first job.
Internships
Another way to find your first job is through internships. If you’re a student, internship opportunities can be a great way for finding your first job.
Internships are also a great opportunity to actually see some important things like:
- how real-life projects are being developed & managed
- how developers work as a team
- which technologies are being used
and more. You will not only gain real-life working experience but also your potential employer can offer you a full-time position in the company later.
As an intern, you should focus on learning as much as you can, and build connections and trust within the company you’re working for.
Even if you do everything right, it doesn’t always mean that you will get hired later, but your internship program might give you the necessary entry-level experience you need later in your career.
Things You Must Improve Before Finding A Job
You can still find your first job if the ways I’ve mentioned above don’t work for you. In this case, there are 3 things you need to improve:
- Dealing with Rejections
- Technical Interviews
- Showing What You Know
Dealing with Rejections
To increase your chance you need to increase the number of applications.
Apply for as many jobs as possible.
This way however brings a demoralizing outcome: rejections.
Before you find your first job, you will probably receive rejections a couple of times and this can be demotivating.
You need to know that rejections are a part of the job search and everybody has to deal with it sooner or later. Getting rejected can be caused by many reasons which might have nothing to do with you or your skills.
If you understand that rejections are part of this process and keep doing job interviews, you will eventually find a job.
I always try to see each job interview as a learning process. After I get rejected, I try to understand what went wrong and improve it in the next interview.
Even if I do sometimes everything right, even if I pass technical interviews, I still receive rejections which I believe have nothing to do with me.
I don’t see it as a big deal and keep applying for new jobs, and keep moving on with my life.
What About Technical Interviews?
Let’s talk about technical interviews. Each company has a different method. I’ve seen the following methods during my interview processes:
- Assignments
- Code Quality
- Verbal Technical Interviews
The most common one is assignments. They give you a task and ask you to write code. If you achieve to solve the assignment, you’ll very likely get the job.
The second method is code quality. Sometimes they just want to see how good your code quality is. Even if you solve the assignment, they care about more how the quality of your code is.
The third one I’ve experienced was verbal interviews. They don’t always give you an assignment but they ask you verbally some technical terms or questions and you answer them verbally.
So each company has its own method and the more interviews you make, the more experiences you gain. There is also one more tip I would like to give:
Show Your Work Online
Some companies want to see how you write code and they will ask you whether you have a Github profile, or maybe an example project that you can show the source code.
I didn’t have this one and that’s why I missed some opportunities. Later, I decided to start a YouTube channel and show my work there.
But having a YouTube channel is not for everyone so developers use Github or Gitlab to show how they write code, which technologies they know, and their code quality.
At the beginning of your career, finding a job won’t be easy but don’t get demotivated. If you keep learning, keep trying, and keep working, you will succeed. Good luck!
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