"I've applied For 400 Developer Jobs and Only Got 1 Phone Interview. What Do I Do?"
May 27, 2024Season 1Episode 158
Don Hansen
I answered an aspiring developer's question:
"Biggest roadblock is just getting people to talk to me. Almost straight out of bootcamp I landed a junior software engineering role at a small digital product studio. Worked there for 9 months before getting laid off. But now amidst all the layoffs I’m small, tiny fish in an enormous pond. Despite applying to 400+ places (almost anything I’m remotely qualified for) over the past 8 months. I’ve had one, a single, 10 minute phone interview. So the biggest hurdle is how to find and land that next role or even get someone to talk to!! Despite all this I continue to work on “pet” projects, continue to grow my learning and have managed to land a freelance development gig! Keep on keepin’ on. It’ll happen!!"
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"Biggest roadblock is just getting people to talk to me. Almost straight out of bootcamp I landed a junior software engineering role at a small digital product studio. Worked there for 9 months before getting laid off. But now amidst all the layoffs I’m small, tiny fish in an enormous pond. Despite applying to 400+ places (almost anything I’m remotely qualified for) over the past 8 months. I’ve had one, a single, 10 minute phone interview. So the biggest hurdle is how to find and land that next role or even get someone to talk to!! Despite all this I continue to work on “pet” projects, continue to grow my learning and have managed to land a freelance development gig! Keep on keepin’ on. It’ll happen!!"
Disclaimer: The following may contain product affiliate links. I may receive a commission if you make a purchase after clicking on one of these links. I will only ever provide affiliate links for apps that I've used and highly recommend.
Welcome back to a web development podcast episode where we help aspiring developers get jobs and junior developers grow. I'm going to add a new series to my podcast episodes where I'm just answering questions from the community, so I put out a couple questions on where people are getting stuck. So we're going to jump into Mark's from LinkedIn. He says biggest roadblock is just getting people to talk to me. Almost straight out of a boot camp, I landed a junior software engineer role at a small digital product studio, worked there for nine months before getting laid off, but now I miss all the layoffs. I'm small, tiny fish in an enormous pond, despite applying to 400 plus places almost anything I'm remotely qualified for. Over the past eight months I've had one a single 10 minute phone interview. So the biggest hurdle is how to find and land that next role or even get someone to talk to. Despite all of this, I continue to work on pet projects, continue to grow my learning and I managed to land a freelance development gig. Keep on rocking on, it'll happen, all right. So pretty encouraging advice, and I think that was for other people that were asking questions in my thread. But yeah, let's dive into a few stuff that I think is going to be helpful for Mark. So the biggest hurdle is getting people to talk to me.
Don Hansen:
All right, so you, straight out of a bootcamp, landed a junior software engineering role at a small digital product studio. So you spent about nine months. Um, so you have some professional experience. You highlight that that's going to go at the top of your resume and, unless it's just completely irrelevant to what you're trying to apply to, it's going to be very rare that that's the case where you're not going to have skills that will matter to that employer, but what you did at that job matters and you have to think about how it's going to really relate to the jobs that you're actually applying to. And that's the mindset that you have to get when you get that professional experience. It's not just thinking like, hey, okay, I did this, I did this and I did this. No, what did I accomplish at this company? That is going to be relevant is, it is going to be transferable into the development position and the company that I'm applying for, that I'm applying for, and that's why it's really hard to spit out your resume to 400 different companies and expect a response right, when you're putting out that resume to that many companies, you're probably not including a cover letter.
Don Hansen:
And if you are including a cover letter, it's some templated cover letter. Again, with cover letters, they are effective Most aren't, because people do them wrong but they are effective when it reaches the recruiter. You're basically trying to convince them that it's a good cultural fit. You're showing them that you actually did research into the company and potentially into their tech team and you feel like you genuinely feel like you're going to be a good fit. Why, that's what you include in the cover letter. It's short, it's sweet, doesn't go past half a page, just two paragraphs and that's an effective cover letter. And then you're following up with a recruiter or you're following up with a hiring manager on the team that you're going to be working on a few days later and it's just a simple message.
Don Hansen:
And this is where I think people get it wrong too. I think sometimes people send a message like hey, just want to let you know. Like, um, I really want to work here. Um and um, I think I'm qualified, right, like this generic message, like yeah, okay, a lot of people want to work here. A lot of people say they're qualified. But what? What makes you stand out, right? What could make you stand out is a follow-up message of like hey, I actually saw your or I applied for your company and I saw you posted an article around accessibility. I'm like not enough companies care about this thing. Like that's awesome. You know, like I actually want to pick your brain on this one thing, because I actually, you know, found this to be a little bit different when I tested it on my website. But, anyways, I love that you guys care about this. If you want someone else that cares about this, I just want to. You know, just give myself a little bit of a shout out and say I actually do want to work at this company and I'm serious about this. Right, it's a little bit more of a personalized message.
Don Hansen:
You don't have to use that structure or that format, but the goal is to actually do research into the company, into the team, and show that, because so many people are doing what you did and just spitting out resumes to so many different companies and they're just throwing spaghetti at the wall and they're hoping it sticks. That's a really Hard thing to make work in this market. You want to go back to 2021? That could work. We're in 2024. The market is shit. We have to up our game. So it's really about applying for companies, applying for positions where you do see that alignment, and you know there's alignment because you actually did some research. So I think your job search needs to become a little bit more targeted. I'm guessing you want to do a little bit more than just you know land a freelance development gig and if you want to dive deep into freelancing, hey, keep pushing forward with that. It's just an entrepreneurship venture and it's tough, but if you enjoy it, dig into it, explore that. But I think you're probably looking for a more full-time, stable role, and that's what I would probably aim on to get that financial stability.
Don Hansen:
You had mentioned one other thing that you're working on pet projects. You don't have enough professional experience where you shouldn't be building a meaningful project, right. And so pet projects are coding, bootcamp projects, right. They're projects to reinforce skills that don't really matter. You're not trying to gain users. What you should be doing is this this is the mindset I would have. I'm a software engineer. I have nine months of professional experience. I have some really cool skills to literally build almost anything I want. What do I want to build? Right, I'm going to build that thing. I'm going to use a stack that I worked with and I am I'm going to dig into thing. I'm going to use a stack that I worked with and I am, I'm going to dig into this. I'm going to build this thing and I'm going to gain users. I'm going to shut it on on LinkedIn and different websites where you can introduce, like, new products. Maybe I'm going to build a SAS product. Maybe I'm going to build some tool Like I wish the fitness industry had this tool and I'm really passionate about fitness and I want to build a better fitness stopwatch or timer interval trainer or something like that.
Don Hansen:
Or carb tracker. Like what do I want to build that can actually solve a real problem? Solve your own problem other people will have that problem and build that app, put it out in front of people and get that feedback, allow that feedback to come in and keep building on top of that. That is a fantastic application. And so let's say it's like a healthcare app or it is something to do with finances, like you really hate your finance tracker and you build a better one and you keep it simple. Maybe your finance tracker is way too complicated. Like I only need these things Like. So I'm starting freelance projects and I only need to record these numbers for taxes. I don't need all this extra stuff. This is bloat. This is crazy, right? I'm going to build a simple version of this and you know what I'm going to share it.
Don Hansen:
Let's get some users and I gained some confidence that it's actually providing real value. What happens if you charge a little bit? What happens if you charge five bucks a month to use it right? Happens if you charge a little bit. What happens if you charge five bucks a month to use it right Like this is a real professional looking and feeling app. That is way more than these pet projects and I feel like you, with only nine months of professional experience coming from a bootcamp world, you can really make yourself look a lot stronger.
Don Hansen:
If you build a meaningful project and you push that forward and you grow with it, right, you can do the freelance gig and if you get another one, you get another one. Hey, that could even lead into agency work down the road. They would appreciate that type of experience. But I do think you're putting in a lot of time. You're putting in a lot of energy. It needs to be put in the right places. Um, and I think you're. It's really going to serve you well to having a more targeted approach towards your applications at certain companies, which means you're not going to apply to as many companies. There might not be as many job opportunities that pop up and that are available, but you're going to increase your chances even though the number of opportunities are shrinking.
Don Hansen:
The chances of you standing out among all these other aspiring developers that are just throwing spaghetti at the wall. Out among all these other aspiring developers that are just throwing spaghetti at the wall. They hope it sticks. They hope a company just gives a chance or gives them a chance, and 300 other people are doing that. They don't stand out. No one stands out. So how could you stand out?
Don Hansen:
Build meaningful projects, and maybe that's freelancing, maybe that's a personal project. You upgrade from a pet project and you take it seriously. Maybe that's a personal project. You upgrade from a pet project and you take it seriously, but that's what's going to make you stand out. So you have the experience, which is awesome. That's going to work in your favor. Highlight that at the top of your resume. Highlight the project that you're highly focused on building and working on, and your freelance gig. You can mention that on your resume, all great things.
Don Hansen:
But I think you got to switch to more of a targeted approach and build more meaningful projects, get past those pet projects. I think you're really going to stand out there, so good luck. Oh wait, I want to let you guys know that if you guys have any questions and you want me to create a video on it, like I said, I want to do a little bit of a new series with my podcast episodes where I help you out directly Just leave your question in the comments. If you provide more context, that is probably going to increase the chances that I'm going to take a look at it, because I don't think I can give accurate answers to very generic questions. So, questions that you give me with a lot of extra context around it, it is just going to increase the chances that I'm going to answer your question in a video. So if you have a question for me, leave it in the comments below.
