
I can't seem to land a programming job - omgazwashere
Hello all,<p>I’ve graduated a Bootcamp last year and afterward, I taught myself Javascript and ReactJS. After a couple of months I landed a Contract Position at Calvin Klein and now I am Freelancing at a small company, but as much as I try I can&#x27;t seem to get a Full-time role. I&#x27;ve applied on various sites, utilized recruiters and I&#x27;ve even started doing cold emails but no luck. I consider myself to be a junior but I believe I can code, so I don’t understand why I’ve had no luck. For the first time the other day I really thought about giving up on this profession. Any type of input would be much appreciated.<p>Best
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kjksf
You've left crucial information: at what stage do you get rejected?

If you're not even invited for interviews, then your resume needs work. Have
someone review it and provide feedback.

To improve your resume, do some open source projects, blog about programming
things, have a decent website with portfolio. Do something to stand out from
the crowd.

If you get the interviews but bombing them, then you probably need to improve
your algorithm skills. There are plenty of websites to help with that
([https://www.google.com/search?q=programming+interview+questi...](https://www.google.com/search?q=programming+interview+questions)).

~~~
jamesmp98
Know any good resume review services that are free or really cheap?

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kjksf
I don't think such a thing exists because there's no demand for it.

Ask your colleagues.

If you don't have those, go to any programming meetup, strike up a
conversation and if the conversation flows, ask the person if they would be
willing to give you feedback on your resume. People like to feel important so
they most likely will.

In the worst case, ask strangers on the internet. Do Ask HN or do it on
r/programming. Like I said, people like to feel important so it's likely to
work.

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keithelder
First thing I'd say is keep learning. Be sure you fill in all the gaps to be
able to build something from the front all the way to the back, typically
referred to as a full stack engineer. This will give you more opportunities
and help you widen your job possibilities.

Since you really need experience, try interning somewhere. You won't make your
true potential but you are learning and you have to start somewhere. Very
valuable experience.

And lastly, I work at Quicken Loans and we have 200 openings in technology. I
was Director of Software Engineering for over 12 years before switching roles
and it sounds like you want to learn, get better, and honestly that's a
quality I valued when interviewing. Take a look at our careers site, we have a
great culture,
[http://quickenloanscareers.com](http://quickenloanscareers.com). If you like
what you see, shoot me your resume at keithelder@quickenloans.com and I'll
take a look at get it to our recruiting team directly if it has potential.

All the best!

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blindinglight
Aside from your development skills and portfolio I think you have to work on
your self-esteem. Even if you have great knowledge about js and react if you
act like a junior who had no jobs before they wont hire you. I've gone through
this and when I realized there are many companies in need for developers I
knew I'm valuable. Be a little more confident and don't let them scare you -
they need you as much as you need a job. Of course you have to have knowledge
with this attitude, but it's easier to gain knowledge than gaining confidence.
Just be optimistic, don't give up and I'm pretty sure you'll find jor full-
time job.

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jfv
I would build some cool side projects. Not a ton of them (like not 50 CRUD
websites), but a few good ones. Things that showcase interest and ability to
pick up on new things.

Remember, you're taking a shortcut into a well-paying profession. People that
study other engineering disciplines for 4 years still have to search for jobs
for months, often chasing lower salaries. If you have to invest even a couple
more years building your portfolio and gaining what experience you can, and
you land a job, your ROI is still better than the majority of technical
college graduates.

Just try to make yourself stand out from other bootcamp graduates by building
something cool. And you'll develop better skills in the process.

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RUG3Y
There are a lot of responses here about resumes, self-confidence, etc, so I
won't reiterate those things. What type of companies are you applying for? My
background is a lot like yours (minus the boot camp), and I've had much better
luck applying for smaller companies that are off the beaten path. I think if
you find a small company that needs an in-house developer, could find a
position to cut your teeth on and build experience.

~~~
jakobegger
I really have to agree on this.

I have a small software company looking for developers, and I get close to
zero applications. 95% of people just don't consider applying at a small no-
name shop, hell most of them have probably never even heard of my company (we
are just two people after all).

So everyone applies to the well known companies, who don't even send a reply,
and wonder why noone hires them, while all the small companies that would hire
practically anybody don't even get any applications.

Anyway, that's what it looks like from my perspective.

~~~
RUG3Y
Are you still hiring? If so, I'd like to check your company out and send a
resume over.

~~~
jakobegger
Yes, I'm hiring:
[https://eggerapps.at/jobs.html](https://eggerapps.at/jobs.html)

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vfulco
Off the bat, I wish you the best of luck and diligence will get you there.
That having been said, invest in a good resume preparation service known for
servicing your niche. I am being self-serving here since I run a Shanghai
based English resume editing, LinkedIn profile creation, and interview
coaching service. In most cases, working with the right
mentor/consultant/whatever you want to call it will cost you a few days and a
few hundred dollars max. If the final result is 1) a document that sells you
extremely well, 2) interview skills that are well polished leading to a secure
FT position with perhaps higher salary than you were targeting, isn't that
worth the investment?

Reach out to me with questions at vfulco[@]weisisheng.cn. You were asking
about cheap/free services. We do generalized critical resume reviews for
~15USD and full resumes creation/rewrites for between 150-400USD. This is the
time to consider working with someone who does them day in and day out. Go for
cheap beer (if you want) not cheap professional career services.

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flukus
What did the bootcamp teach?

There aren't a lot of full time front end only, javascript only roles around,
which are the only two skills you've listed.

For employability you need to expand to something more common on the back end
like c#/java and especially sql.

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jamesmp98
There aren't that many junior positions out there to be honest. On top of that
there are way to many junior candidates. Where do you live? Are you getting to
an interview stage?

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omgazwashere
Yes, I do get a couple of interviews. I live in New York City.

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hitsurume
So that means your resume is good enough to get interviews but you're not
passing those? Did you bootcamp go through whiteboarding exercises and prep
you for what to expect for a dev interview?

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gt2
1\. shape your past work at calvin klein and any other projects into a nice
little portfolio.

2\. make a simple, clean resume which states those experiences in text form.

3\. dont call yourself a junior. speak to the experiences you have had, which
are several.

4\. continue learning, make yourself an expert on one or more of the emerging,
most common frameworks and language.

5\. document your finds and solutions on a blog and github

6\. link all this together, send out short emails with a link to your links.

You can't miss. You will get a job.

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meric
Keep doing the freelancing and keep doing contract positions, build up a
portfolio and gain some more work experience in the field, which you can then
talk about more in detail in interviews for full time roles. I think one or
two years of experience doing contracting and freelancing would be a good
idea. Get some more references and testimonials.

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sboselli
Build a side-project about something you're passionate about that you can
showcase, both in production and Github.

I've always done this, and it worked out great for me even to the point of
forgoing the technical part of a couple of interviews (two of which landed me
jobs).

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fergstar
patience & time. have patience and give it some time. I became a developer
late in the game, I was in my late thirties when I decided to go back to
school and study fulltime. I can feel your frustration but eventually you will
get a break and chance to prove yourself.

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toexitthedonut
What kind of job(s) did you hold while you were going to school in your late
30s? I'm single so I pretty much can't rely on someone else's income like I
could when I took college in my 20's.

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redmichsa
There are a lot of websites (mostly full-time home-based coding job) out there
where you can post your Résumé, etc.

Also, while you still have a lot o' free time, do some swing trading in the
stock market to earn some bucks.

At this point (been coding for 4 years) I even consider leaving my full-time
programming job to focus on stocks and just do part-time coding.

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gt2
Swing trading, seriously? The OP mentioned nothing about having a) money to
invest or b) any financial knowledge.

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Jeremy1026
Just throw your money into something and then sell it when it goes up. This
isn't hard! /s

Seriously OP, DO NOT just start buying stocks without having a clue as to what
you're doing.

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akulbe
What kind of skills do you have, OP?

