Top 3 habits to develop to get a software engineering job
And how exactly to approach each of them
No matter the current state of the economy, there are three main things you can do to increase your chances of getting a developer job.
Let’s take a look at what they are, and how to approach each of them here.
1. Work on projects & build in public
Working on projects is the best way to build skills as a software engineer.
Reading books and going through courses to build up theoretical knowledge is nice, but you really need to put it into practice to be able to use it, as well as showcase it to potential employers.
When you combine this with building in public, it will become extra effective.
This means that as you work on your projects, you share your progress on platforms like:
Twitter
Twitch
YouTube
LinkedIn
There are several advantages of building in public instead of in private:
You’ll get some exposure to potential employers
You’ll get feedback on your projects right away
You might be able to get your initial users/customers
In short, by working on projects and building them in public, you’ll be able to build your skills, portfolio, and your network at the same time. This leads to the next section:
2. Network, network, network
On top of building in public, I highly, highly recommend spending some time every day to expand your network.
This may include:
Making posts on Twitter and/or LinkedIn
Otherwise connecting with people on Twitter and/or LinkedIn
Coffee chats - where you reach out to specific people to ask for a short video call
Using Discord groups to get to know people
Offline meetups and conferences
Contribute to open source
When it comes to networking, I have a few pieces of advice:
Be genuine
Don’t just take value. Try to be helpful whenever you can
Respect people’s time
If you’ve done a coffee chat with someone, make sure to follow up
The last point is particularly important.
If someone spends 15-30 mins of their time for free, giving you advice, make sure to follow up with them to show that you’re willing to put in the work.
Also, some people don’t like the term networking, which I totally understand.
Whatever you call this process, know that this won’t be something that will happen overnight.
It’s all about consistently showing up, being genuine and helpful, and getting to know people over time.
3. Keep working on your general problem-solving skills
Through 1 and 2 (working on projects in public & networking), chances are, you will start to land job interviews.
Once this happens, you may need to go through coding interviews.
This may take the form of:
Take-home coding challenges
Data structures & algorithms problem solving
Pair programming sessions
Whichever it happens to be, it will generally be helpful to continuously work on your general problem-solving skills so you’ll be ready for it.
I recommend getting started with Codewars, then once you’re comfortable with it, move on to HackerRank or Leetcode.
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Also I forgot about the main thing that I'm watching your video on youtube from the time when I joined my institute.
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Thankyou sir for everything 😊
It's a nice job to subscribe to the newsletters of experienced developers like you, this one is so great. We also talked on twitter spaces sir , you give some advice on resume building and collaborating with communities well because of those advice I'm now a GDSC team co-lead of my institute.