The Road to Employment: 7 Guiding Principles for Entry-Level Web Developers

Life is hard and so is landing your first job. But it doesn't have to be that hard, follow these 7 steps and you are well on your way to employment. These aren't requirements, just like eating well while actively going to the gym isn't required, it does help in the effort. With that out of the way, let's get you ready for your first job.

1.) Life's too short, have fun

I hear a lot of people wanting to get into code because it "pays well", and while that might be true, I don't think that's a good basis for a direction in life. We can't all love what we do, but at least let's meet half way and say you shouldn't want gauge out your eyes every waking moment of your life. Coding can be frustrating at times, debugging after all is a high stakes game of hide and seek, and if whacking all those moles doesn't bring you euphoria, you should choose a different career. If you're very persistent, you might learn to be content but there are no guarantees.

2.) Get in early! Start working while studying

While yes, this is only applicable if you're actually studying. But if that is the case, you should definitely take advantage of this opportunity. It's easier to get hired as a student worker as expectations are low. If you wait until the end of your studies, then you're in competition with the pros. Then people expect you to know what you're doing. So get in early while expectations are low, become a sponge and soak up all that delicious knowledge. Ask all the dumb questions now, because again, people expect you to know nothing. On top of this, no matter what your studies are, real world experience translates to real world skills and on your resume, that trumps the books. Even if the pay isn't great, getting your foot in the door opens up a world of possibilities later on in your career.

3.) Skills trumps diplomas: The web dev holy trinity ( HTML, CSS & JS)

Oh, so you're not studying? While it might give you a leg up, studying and getting an education isn't the end all be all. In fact you may not need one to begin with. Now that isn't to say it's not useful to get a degree, it most definitely can be and not just because of student jobs. But at the end of the day, an employer is only interested in whether or not you can solve the problems at hand. While a diploma may give you bragging rights around the dinner table at thanks giving, your skills are what determines your worth in the market place.

That's great and all, but how will I know that I'm good enough? Well I'm glad you asked, it's really simple you need to know HTML, CSS & JS at a proficient level. And in combination with each other ( A lot of people are learning them individually but forget that they're supposed to be combined ). And what exactly is proficient? Exactly enough to be able to solve the problem.

In most cases learning a framework will ease that process, you'll also find that most companies build using a framework as well. There are a lot of opinions on which ones to learn, but if you have a company in mind, maybe stalk their Github and learn their tech stack including their framework of choice. And if you're unsure, go with react, for better or worse it is the defacto industry standard.

4.) Leet code, what is that?

Don't you worry this is a lesson for another day. While you may hear it be thrown around a lot, it's more so for the "big bois", in the big league. If you're an average Joe, wanting a job at a company no one has heard of, studying leet code is redundant. Most people who grind it says that they never use the knowledge in every day work. So especially for your first job, it's completely overkill. Better then to practice the previous step. Which leads us very nicely to the next step.

5.) Show, Don't Tell: Portfolio, Please!

You can put anything on your resume, you could even say you're the Queen of England ( Not advised ) but with such high claims, it might help to be able to prove it.

Cue the portfolio website. You probably already knew this was coming and you probably have something that looks like it built out already. That's great, this is your playground and more importantly it's where you walk the walk, to show potential employers that you're the real deal. While the portfolio site itself could be impressive, you should really focus more on the projects you put on it. Despite the impression some people give off online, you don't need a giant catalogue of projects to be impressive. Just one or two that showcases that you know what you're doing. May I recommend a CRUD app? ( Create, Read, Update, Delete ). This really shows you know your way around an API as well as you being able to structure logic.

It doesn't have to be a to do app, it might just be better if it isn't. Ideally it's a project you made because you simply wanted it to exist. And please, don't just copy what some YouTube guru shows you. Tutorials are great for learning, but showcasing, it's better if you made it yourself. Two fold: It not only shows that YOU know what you're doing but it's also a great learning experience.

The knowledge sticks better if you figured it out by yourself, where had you copied your way to the final result, you'll likely not remember a lot of the details.

If you can't think on your own two feet, you might just need a tad more practice. No judgement, just saying.

6.) Mentor you must get

Just like Luke in "The Empire Strikes Back" you should seek out a Mentor. Someone who's wise and old and knows everything, preferably speaks in broken sentences.

Nah of course that wont help, you actually just need someone who knows more than you. Ideally someone who works within the field.

If you can't find a, let's say frontender, to mentor you then even someone who works with backend can be a mentor. You see one of the hardest thing to learn in the beginning is to "Think like a programmer" and this skill exist no matter which developer path one has chosen.

My mentor for example specializes in databases and I'm a frontender. While that gave me some tendencies to write "ugly code" ( like using the old school styled for loop ) it did help me overcome my logic struggles, big time. So thank you Nanex !

Another benefit of having a mentor, is that it isn't only helping you, it will also be beneficial to your mentor as it will help them improve their own knowledge. Teaching someone else after all, is one of the best ways to learn. On top of that, by electing them as your mentor, you are also elevating them, which is a nice ego boost too.

7.) Community is key

Irl friends are great, but they probably can't help you much in your developer endeavors.

Next best thing is to get friends online. Now I know that might not be everyone's cup of tea but at the very least you should go partake in online communities.

Pick your poison, developers are everywhere, LinkedIn, X (Formerly Twitter), Reddit and my favorite pick: Discord.

Everyone and their grandma have their own discord server. Slight exaggeration, but in this day and age, any popular library you use will have their own discord, any framework you use will have a dedicated server and every single youtuber who has north of 2.3k followers will have a discord server for you to take part in.

In these communities you can ask for help if you're stuck, help others with problems they're facing and perhaps even contributing to the codebases of your favorite technologies. Notice how I ranked it from somewhat useful to insanely useful in developing your skills.

Here you also get a chance to find job opportunities that are hidden from the surface, someone knows someone who needs help with something. And even if you're not there to find a job, just existing in these places will help you keep your finger on the pulse on developments in the space and help you stay ahead.

Ending

Thank you so much for reading, I hope it helped, even if just a little. This was my very first attempt at writing a blog article in the space and I do intend to write more. In my next article I'll get into how I used this list to land my first job as a frontend web developer.