Have you ever tried to apply for a job and you read what the responsibilities and skills needed for the position, and as you read over the description you think to yourself “Oh yea I know how to do that” or “I can do that” Full of confidence and ready to hit the apply button and then you come across the dreaded words…EXPERIENCE.
Ahhhh crap. It states experience 3-5 years.
What if you just got started doing this a year ago or maybe even less. These few words can deter many away from great positions especially if your trying to make a career transition. You want to make a change but it seems there is a brick wall hindering you from getting to the next level.
Don’t feel bad many have been here especially me. If your a front end developer and you really just began learning code, your excited with the new technologies your learning and you muster up the confidence in your skills to make the steps to apply. You’ve been listening to podcast and heard advice that there are jobs who need developers and are willing to take a chance if your willing to learn.
Then you begin applying and it doesn’t seem to be true. Then you receive an email that says something like “our selection was a competitive process but unfortunately we decided to choose someone else for this role”
You then become discouraged and go grab a bowl of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and cry your sorrows away.
Stop! Put the spoon down, you know I don’t even eat Ben and Jerry’s but some people do eat when they’re sad or frustrated.
Before you continue to wallow in your rejection let me ask a question. How many jobs did you apply for? If that’s your first one or even your tenth, as much as it sucks, you have to keep moving forward. It may take 100 applications, I know thats a lot but its true.
You have to decide what you truly want and then go after it with all you got.
Ok enough of the motivation talk and back to the topic I only say that because I have been here. Here is truth though…
There is a need and demand for developers.
With the advancement of technology and the growth of businesses, developers are in much higher demand than they ever been. So the skills you have been learning are not going to waste. Somebody needs you– you just have to find the right person.
So the question to answer that dreaded experience section on job applications is, how do you do that?
Well this answer is not from the highly qualified doctor and certified expert, but rather from one developer to another. I too have dealt with the denial of job opportunities and rejection letters but after I pick myself up I remind myself what I want and why I am qualified for the work in this industry.
The Difference
So the biggest thing that I believe from my studies and “experience” between myself and a “senior” level developer who has been doing this for years can be summed up into one word…KNOWLEDGE.
The only difference between me and a person who has been coding for years is knowledge. Some may say time too, but I have to disagree with this notion. I’ll give two reasons or examples.
Lets say there is an apprentice who wants to learn the trade of a master who has been doing this craft for years. The master decides to show the apprentice his ways that took him many years to master. This not only speeds up and skips the mistakes the master had to go through, but enables the apprentice to implement. Some may argue it still takes time to get to the level of mastery, which may be true, yet, how much time does the apprentice skip with already knowing some mistakes to avoid and focusing on what is important.
Not only avoiding mistakes but applies a method what I call time reduction. This is when you take what you know and you take action on it repetitively. I believe this will greatly reduce the duration of how long it will take to learn something because the skill becomes engrained in your brain.
Consistency is the key to mastery of any skill. Now will you be as good as the master? For the most part, yes, with a few minor discrepancies. If your not taking the time to hone your craft as the master does you won’t, but you will be able to work along side them.
The second point is time does not equal knowledge or expertise. One downfall of anyone in a field can be complacency. They can be in a field and not develop their skills and continue to do things the same way for years. Now they can be good at that one thing, but they never took the time to develop themselves and push their skills to the next level. That is why I said knowledge.
All masters know that in order to continue growing you must be humble to learn knew things in your area of expertise. Therefore if your taking the time to develop your knowledge in the desired language of your choice in web development you are creating an advantage on others by far.
So I believe knowledge can trump experience in its fullest.
So how do you create experience in a short amount of time. The concepts are really quite simple, again one word…WORK
The Time Reduction Method
Work is the greatest factor in gaining experience when you have none. That is what employers are really looking for when they ask for experience–what work have you done?
So what do you have to do?
Produce work.
How do you produce work–projects.
The greatest thing about web development, especially in today’s time, your work is what speaks of your skills, and most importantly your experience. In web development the best way to display your work is working on projects. If you know how to write HTML, CSS, and Javascript then start building websites. Keep building and building. Go ambitious and strive to make 100 websites.
Learn to use the different languages in different ways to test and grow your skills. Making the same site over and over is great, especially in the speed of site development, but employers want to see if your versatile and know how you can be valuable to their company.
Besides just building your own personal projects, go out and volunteer for small businesses or organizations that can use your services. Do you know what your doing when you do that, yep that’s right– your creating experience.
This can be a highlight on your resume too when they see you’ve built a site for different organizations. So you not only have experience but now recommendations. Who knows, you volunteering your services and networking could lead to paid opportunities or jobs, the very thing you were seeking right.
Another thing that will help with your experience is recording your process and steps along the way. Creating your own portfolio and a blog to talk about your journey and work shows that your dedicated to your craft and with a little marketing of your social media can also lead to more possible opportunities because it shows your experience within the projects you’ve worked on.
For example lets say you gave yourself a year to make the transition from your current position to the tech industry. Your recorded journey can be a full year of articles and work that you produced and the more work means the more experience.
This also builds your confidence of your skills.
Since I started writing my blogs it’s been great to see my progress on a consistent basis and I can attest thats its helped in showing my experience and commitment to my craft.
So produce work in the back room so when you come across those dreaded experience section you can face it with full confidence and truly tell employers your experience as working on your projects and different organizations.
Go out and have fun building projects adding to your knowledge and producing that work.