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🗓 07/02/2021
In October 2020, I landed my first Junior Developer role. This is a part-time role, because I'm a final year BSc Computer Science student, so my studies are still my main priority.
The technologies I've been working with so far is all JavaScript based: React, Gatsby, TypeScript, Netlify. I've recently started working with React Native too.
So, how did I actually land this sort of role? 🤔 I hope to share the process in this article, along with tips for aspiring developers who are looking to land their first role.
I found the role using LinkedIn. Here's what I did on there:
My call with Tom lasted around twenty minutes, where we talked about the following:
As we ended the call, I was asked to send over some code. I was thankful that I had been utilising GitHub to document my learning of different technologies - I just sent a link to this.
After a couple of days, Tom got back to me and offered me the role of Junior Developer. I was pretty shocked to say the least, but was super grateful to have been offered a job with them. 😊
My call with the CEO could've gone badly. So what did I do up until this point in my developer journey to actually get hired as a developer? I've written a few points below which I think all helped me leading up to this point in my developer career.
For the past three years, I've been heavily active on Instagram, where I'd share my journey as a Computer Science student and aspiring developer. What I gained from this is making some solid connections in the industry, including with James Bedford (who shared my LinkedIn post that helped me get my job!).
A little later in my journey, I started using GitHub, where I was able to share any code and notes I've been writing to help me learn various technologies such as JavaScript and PHP. This was handy when I was asked to send some code before being hired - I already had a portfolio to show for myself by simply being active on GitHub.
As a BSc Computer Science student, I wanted to learn a little more. My degree gave me some foundations across the tech industry in general, but I wanted to focus on certain technologies. One in particular was JavaScript.
Between October 2019 and August 2020, I spent time learning JavaScript and React. This was really out of interest because I knew how popular they were. In doing so, I was able to match the basic requirements of my Junior Developer role in being able to use both JavaScript and React.
As you will now know, I found this role on LinkedIn. If I didn't use LinkedIn, I wouldn't have known of the company that I now work for, Morrow, and they wouldn't know who I am. For this reason, I think using social media platforms to your advantage will certainly benefit you in the long run.
Ultimately, there's a couple of things I hope other developers can take from this post:
If you want to find out more about where I work, come and visit our website 👋