How did I find a job as junior developer?

Top three tips that helped me find a job as fresh graduate from Ironhack.

I started working in Recruitment in 2014, after some years I felt stuck and unmotivated. I came across freecodecamp.org and started to do some exercises, fell in love with programming and at the end of 2020 I decided to quit my job and start a full time bootcamp with Ironhack that would begin in January 2021. Finished the bootcamp and found a job at an amazing startup in April 2021.

I decided to write this article to gather in one place the best tips (even thought they might seem obvious) that helped me to find a job as a freshly graduated from a bootcamp.

1.Have a nice portfolio before even start applying!

In my case, I took a couple days before actually start applying, to build a basic portfolio to showcase my projects and skills.

The reason why I decided to not apply till that was done was that, back in 2017 I hired a few javascript developers, and we were looking for a junior profile. As always that you post a junior role you get so many applications that the reality is that you cannot interview everyone. How did we decided to who invite to an interview? The candidates that could show some sort of portfolio. And the reason was quite simple, since it was a junior role most of the application were unexperienced, and with very similar tech stack, so the only way to filter was checking what they have done in the past.

You don’t need anything fancy, something simple and clean will do. This is what I think you should focus on:

• Responsive.
• Simple and clean.
• Easy to navigate.
• Don’t go crazy with animations and effects, should be easy to read.

2. Apply, even if your profile does not match all the requirements.

On this point I want to give a disclaimer, if you don’t match one or two requirements apply, but if you only match one or none, then don’t apply, you might be wasting your time.

As you know the job descriptions often are a wishlist, and this list sometimes evolves as the recruitment process moves on, meaning, some of the requirements might be hard requirements at the beginning of the process, and they might become non-hard requirements if they cannot find the right person that would tick all the boxes on their wishlist (which in my opinion, happens quite often).

• If the company is looking for someone with one or two years of experience in Javascript, and you just did a bootcamp, apply.
• If they are looking for someone with over five years of experience and you just finished the bootcamp, then perhaps, you should NOT apply.

It is difficult to draw the line, but as you go you might be able to find that thin line between hard requirement and non-hard requirement.

3. Read in detail the job description and the website of the company before applying AND before an interview or a call.

It is quite often that people would should show up at interviews or apply without knowing what the company is doing, or not even knowing the name of the company at all.

When I used to work as a recruiter I would see applications addressed to other companies, or that would mention that they are interested in fields that have nothing to do with the company at all.

I strongly encourage you to check the company’s website, read the job description a few times and write down the key points that got your attention from them. Try to mention those on your application and during the interview to prove your interest, and ask relevant questions.

I know we all work for money, but things such as tech stack, size of the team, working methodology, all of those things are key and very important for you to take a decision, and will show the person who is interviewing you that you are not only a money driven person, and that your really thought about joining their team.

And last but not least, finding a job as a fresh graduated from a Bootcamp is possible!

I know that it is scary when you are just trying to change your whole career, but it is possible.

I had planned up to four months to find a job, and it took me less than two weeks to get an offer from my number one company of all the processes I was involved.

Obviously, let’s be realistic, luck is a factor that was involved, sometimes finding a job means applying to the right position at the right time, and of course, checking LinkedIN, Xing, Indeed or AngelList at the right time to actually see that job offering. For that, I would also strongly encourage you to create alerts and check them on a regular basis,

finding a job is also a full time job, and you need to take it very seriously and invest a lot of time on it.

So, if this is your true passion, keep trying, working hard and don’t give up! :)