I’m a 33-year-old entry-level developer with over a decade of tangential work-experience (just not in development) . . . yes, you read that right. Let’s chat!

Alexandre Dohrmann
Sep 7, 2018 · 5 min read

Personally, having worked the past 13 years in AdTech in various capacities (Sales, Planning, Account Management, Management), I can finally say that I’ve “found my calling”. I had always wanted to do something with math or computers while at the same time feeding the creative side of my brain. However, I was always too self-doubtful to think that I could do what those magical unicorns do that we see on shows like Silicon Valley. You know, creating unimaginable compression algorithms and making wizards look like children? Well, as we all know, TV has a way of inflating things, and we are our own worst critics/self-doubt is our best friend. Thus, it took me about 6 years to muster up the strength to allow myself the courage (because I knew I had it in there somewhere) to learn web development and I finally did. While I may not be one of the geniuses of “Pied Piper”, I pulled the trigger, went back to school, and put myself through 3-months of gruelling insanity — and I loved every minute of it.

Now, as a recent graduate of General Assembly’s “Web Development Immersive” program, I am more eager than ever to continue my education, both on my own (now that I have the tools and foundation to do so!), but also with a company who will take a chance on this new developer. As we all know — landing that first gig and getting “real life” experience under your belt is crucial to moving forward in your career and earning that needed proof to gain future employers’ votes of confidence that you can do the job! Plus, you know — an income, health insurance, etc., are also top-of-mind for survival.

Please give me a job.

In all seriousness, however, I’m in the early stages of the job hunt for my first job as a developer, and I can already tell this journey will be a bit of a doozy. Of the multitude of jobs I’ve already thrown my hat in the ring for, I’ve had conversations with two separate recruiters, who turned me away 2-minutes-in because I did not have the 3-years experience required for the “junior developer” role. I wasn’t at all able to get a word in edge-wise about the other things I could bring to the table or the additional soft-skills that a junior developer otherwise, might not be able to bring with them to this position. For example:

  1. My 13-years navigating the corporate, start-up, and contract worlds of AdTech.
  2. The experience I have in managing cross-functional teams, workflow, and technical communications between in-house parties and clients.
  3. The fact that while I’m certainly new to development, I’m no stranger to hard work, long days, and the due-diligence needed to succeed and earn respect.

I’ve often seen the funny memes, .gif’s, etc. in today’s job market for newbies, but I’m finding it so true.

While the above isn’t exactly my situation, it does ring true that it has become quite the norm to write candidates off if they don’t fit an exact job description — completely overlooking other qualities that might make them an even better fit than just the angle in which the job posting employs.

Now, I’m not saying I was a perfect fit for these jobs — there were languages needed (C#, PHP) that I’m not too familiar with (but I now know I can learn given my knowledge of JavaScript, etc.), but I do know that the soft-skills and foundation far-exceeded their requirements and those weren’t even addressed.

For anyone who reads this who is a recruiter or is in-charge of hiring in general — please, please, please take the time to hear candidates out! I, for one, know that my peers in General Assembly — WDI-8 (whose median age, by the way, is probably around 30), is full of career-switchers from all backgrounds — all with different skills and talents that make them unique. Yes, we all have only been doing this for 3-months, but take just that — the fact that we’ve learned and created utilizing: HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, JavaScript, jQuery, Node, React, Mongo, Mongoose, Django, Python, & MORE —

IN JUST 3-MONTHS!

(That is crazy cool, not normal, and only people with a real passion to do this, would put themselves through this — trust me!)

I’ve had the pleasure of learning alongside some of the brightest minds I’ve ever met, and myself aside, the thought of these amazing peers being turned away without a second-glance, really knocks the wind out of my sails!

So, in closing (and in a nod to my peers who are also undoubtedly running into these same roadblocks), PLEASE — recruiters, hiring managers, and the already talented, amazing, web-devs out there . . . hear us out and give us a chance! If you see any of these names on resumes in your inbox or have the pleasure of having one of these individuals walk-through your door:

  1. Alex Olsen
  2. Amanda Molde
  3. Ben Kaplan
  4. Cameron Binion
  5. David Epps
  6. Eric Todd
  7. Erica Bruenton
  8. James Morris
  9. Kate Turner
  10. Laurie Carano
  11. Michael Richards
  12. Nate Pappenhagen
  13. Patrick Gray
  14. Sergio Souza
  15. And yes, myself (Alexandre Dohrmann)

Please, give them a chance and invest. They are the future of this crazy cool thing we call web development. Sure, they’ve just sprouted roots, but those roots grow deep and in directions, you may have yet to also explore. The bounty of these future web development trees will be sweet and well worth the investment!

Thanks for the read and wreck-on,

Alex

wreck.body

The constant learnings, tribulations, and successes of a 30-something full-stack web developer.

Alexandre Dohrmann

Written by

wreck.body

The constant learnings, tribulations, and successes of a 30-something full-stack web developer.

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