Get Your First Developer Job | 8 Essential Steps

After 150 applications, 20 interviews, and 6 assessments, I finally landed my first developer job last January. It was honestly a brutal process that involved submitting applications daily, crying over rejections, and struggling to find motivation. However, the feeling of finally receiving that job acceptance offer is something I’ll never forget. I’ve held many jobs in other fields, but never had I fought so hard to get an offer for that first dev job.

I learned a lot over my months of applying and I hope that my advice can help you land your first developer job. It may not seem like it now, but you will get that job, just keep trying, adjusting, and coding! 💪

Find Your Support System

I put this as the first tip because having a solid support system will set you up for success in every other area. A support system should consist of one or more people that motivate you and support your growth and job hunting journey. Think of someone you can vent to about how long that coding assessment took you just to not receive a call back.

For me, my support system consisted of my family, my boyfriend, and my two friends from the bootcamp I attended. The bootcamp friends may have been some of the most important parts of my support system because we were going through everything together. I had an outlet to vent all my frustrations and to discuss solutions for problems or assessments. We shared job postings with each other and never let each other get discouraged when things seemed bleak. Trust me, a support system can help you from becoming depressed and keep you motivated!

In addition to those closest to you, think about the resources your school or bootcamp offers. My bootcamp offered 1 on 1 career sessions to discuss your resume, job prospects, and a listening ear to let out any frustrations and plan your next steps. If your school has a job posting slack channel, USE IT! You paid for these services, so take advantage of all of them!

Polish Up That Resume

This one goes without saying, but make sure your resume is up-to-date and free of any spelling and grammar mistakes. There is plenty of resume advice floating out there but here are my two cents:

Include links to your portfolio, GitHub, and LinkedIn at the top of your resume.
Pick two or three of your best projects and include links to the hosted site and GitHub.
You don’t need to rewrite your resume for every application, but do customize your introduction (one to three sentences including one highlight of your skills and a brief explanation of what you’re looking for) and your skills sections. For example, if you’re applying for a front-end position, maybe you want to highlight your dev skills but also your Photoshop or design skills. But a back-end position might not care about Photoshop skills as much.

Your past experience in a different field is important and a part of your journey, but don’t let it take over your resume. You might only be able to fit two previous positions in your resume after your projects section, so think about which jobs highlight transferable skills and reflect your journey.

In addition to your resume, create a cover letter template. This should be customized for each application. But if you create a template, you don’t have to start over from scratch. The more cover letters you write, the more you will be able to take bits and pieces from others. So save the different versions of your cover letters, because chances are what you say for one front-end developer job, you might say for another (besides the company-specific points). Knock out that cover template and resume before you start applying.

Stay Organized

I’ve gone into detail before about staying organized during the job hunt, but it’s such an imperative part of landing that first job that it’s worth summarizing again.

You will want to keep track of everywhere you apply, your different cover letters, the status of your applications, and more. Luckily, Notion has great templates already made that can simplify this process. Keeping track of your applications with this template or an Xcel sheet can help you easily locate job descriptions and know when you might need to follow up with a company. You can also easily update your application status and organize the view by position, status, and date applied.

Applications template

In addition to keeping your applications in order, it’s imperative that you keep your calendar organized. Since I was already using a Notion template for the applications, I found it easiest to use a calendar template to keep organized for interview times, goals, and side projects. When you’re applying to so many jobs, it can be easy to let a phone interview slip by, but if you make a habit of checking your calendar daily and entering every event, you can stay on track.

Calendar template

Apply for Jobs Even if You Don’t Meet Every Requirement

My current position wanted candidates with three to five years of experience in web development. I had…six months(ish). I applied anyway. What matters more than those years of experience is your problem-solving skills and your interviewing skills. Sure, some companies will filter out resumes that don’t meet that requirement, but you don’t want to work for those companies anyways!

You will get interviews for positions like these, you just need to keep applying. This is where your customized resume and cover letter will come in handy!

Come to the interview ✨Prepared✨

Interview prep can be nerve-wracking and time-consuming, but it is essential. If you’ve landed an interview, (congrats!) they clearly liked something in your portfolio or resume. Now, you just need to win them over, whether that be through skill assessments or people skills. In order to do that, you need to be prepared.

If you’ve ever used Anki flashcards before, I’ve created a deck of junior developer interview questions to run through during your job hunting journey. Anki is a free flashcard program that utilizes spaced repetition to improve fast and long-lasting memorization. So when an interviewer asks you “Explain the box model”, you’ll have an accurate and fast answer. In addition to this Anki deck, check out Google’s Interview Warm-Up for common questions. An AI will also give you a bit of feedback on how to improve your answers!

Before your interview, I also recommend creating a word doc containing answers to one to three common questions customized to that specific company (“Why do you want to work for us?”, “Do you have experience with…?”, “What can you bring to our team?”).

It's also important you have your questions for the interviewer written down. It can be hard to come up with questions on the spot (your brain is still thinking about your answer to the last question!), so having them written down is key. It's a good rule to have at least 3 solid questions ready to go.

Question inspiration:

Reflect

We’ve all had awful interviews and it’s likely you will have a couple on your journey. The key is to not let them weigh you down. Get your sadness and frustration out and then take some time to reflect. It’s important to ask yourself, “What went well?”, “What didn’t go well?”, “Is JavaScript an object-oriented programming language?”, and “How can I improve?”.

To make you feel better about any bad interviews, I’ll share a bit about one of my worst ones. I was probably two months into my job search, tired, and not in the mood for an hour-long interview. Turns out this interview was more of an impromptu knowledge checker. They drilled me with CS and developing questions for 45 minutes straight. My brain was all over the place and I was failing a lot of the questions. Eventually, they asked me if CSS had variables. I had honestly never used CSS variables before then so I said…no. 😂 They continued to ask me three variations of that same question to get the right answer out, but at that time I could've sworn only Sass had variables. 😅

Welp! Lesson learned. I don’t agree with that style of interviewing, but it’s times like that when you will never forget the answer again. So always reflect and grow because some of the worst interviews can teach you the most.

Don’t Stop Coding

I’ll say it again, don’t stop coding! You will need to keep your skills up not only for assessments but also for your mental health. Take a break every now and then from the job hunting grind and just code. Code something you love or start learning a new language. The learning will never stop and it can be a good distraction from the hunt. Of course, short breaks from both job hunting and coding are encouraged so you don’t burn out.

Many bootcamps and schools have open positions for grads to be TAs for upcoming courses. I highly recommend this route, because you can get paid while keeping up with your skills. Plus, it’s a resume builder! This is the route I went and it was a great morale booster to help the students and see how far you’ve come. If this isn’t an option, look into freelancing, because whether you believe it or not, you have the skills!

Don’t Give Up

This is where your support system will come in handy again. Don’t give up! I have been there and so many other developers have too. It’s hard to land that first job, but it will happen.

Reach out to those in your support system or developers online. It can be nice to read the stories of seasoned devs that have made it passed this point. Ask for advice and tips and apply them to your journey. The most important thing to remember is that all of this takes time. Be patient and stick with it!

I and other devs out there are here for support and help. So reach out to us about your job hunting journey! Let me know if you found any tips in this article helpful! 🌻

Sarah