
Ask HN: Best way for an average developer to make it to Silicon Valley? - conradistry
I see a fair bit of advice for high performing new grads or senior developers but less about us more average developers. I am currently 28 years old and have worked as a developer for almost 2 years. I primarily deal with CRUD apps in the MS Stack. Azure, C#, jQuery and the like. Nothing too exciting technically speaking. But what kept me going is that I got the chance to deliver a well rounded variety of projects as well have an end to end involvement.<p>I live a few hours from Silicon Valley and always had an interest in getting a job there. I&#x27;m losing steam at my current job and I am ready for bigger challenges. I&#x27;m a Management Information Systems major and don&#x27;t currently have the chops to ace the more difficult technical interviews. It seems like something like front end development would give me the best chance. I don&#x27;t mind taking months off to prepare for a new role. What is a path that someone like me, a &quot;business&quot; leaning developer with no current specialty can take?
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newjobseeker
You should seek out startups that have a different hiring process. My
background is a 20 year backend Java developer, and I had a lot of challenges
acing these 'algorithm' interviews as it's not what you do day to day as a
developer. There is a bit of bias out there too wrt to languages even though
they say there isn't, so my lack of Rails and Node was a problem. My success
in landing a job came with a company who only focused their interviewing on
what could be done on the job: you submit a project you've done and then
discuss it, you go onsite for a day to work on a real project.

