Latest / DevQuestions with Tim Corey / 046 What Are Some Career Tips For Self-Taught Developers?

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046 What Are Some Career Tips For Self-Taught Developers? · DevQuestions with Tim Corey

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Dev Questions Podcast with Tim Corey.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Join us each episode as we tackle the questions you are asking about a career in software development, understanding the industry, and new technology.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: If you're just starting out or you want to grow stronger as a developer, this is the place to get your questions answered.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's your host, expert developer and online educator, Tim Corey.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: What are some career tips for self-taught developers?
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: What extra should I do if I don't have a computer science degree?
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: This is a question that Josh asked me, and it's one that I want to touch on because it kind of hits kind of close to home since I don't have my computer science degree either.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: Let's start off with how do you present yourself if you don't have a computer science degree?
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: What I would do is focus on your experience.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: Now, you may say, well, Tim, I don't have any yet.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'm still trying to get a job.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: You do have experience, whether it is experience in building practice applications, or whether it's life experience.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: I had a realtor that came to me and said, Tim, I'm switching from being a realtor to being a software developer, but I feel like I'm just getting started at age 40.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: What do I do?
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the things I told them was focus on your experience as a realtor.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: Because that life experience is something that other developers don't have.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe even apply to jobs that are realtor adjacent, where that you have to be a software developer, but for a company that maybe develops realtor software or that works with banks, or that you know, all these different areas that touch on what you used to do that you can have a lot of experience working with.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: I used to work in an insurance company.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: So part of my time in the early at the beginning was spent on learning about insurance.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I tell you what, that is not a fun thing to learn about.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: It was it was dry, it was boring, it was stuff I had to memorize, and I still remember a lot of it to this day.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: It gave me some extra experience.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: But I tell you what, if you were an insurance agent and then you came to that company and said, I'm a newer C Sharp developer, but I've got 10 years working with insurance, that's a big bonus.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: That's something that overcomes a lot of the downsides of not knowing a ton about C because you have the experience to know when you're building an application.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: You might say, you know what, that doesn't sound right.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's not how insurance agents do it.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: And you can throw that flag and say, wait, let's talk to the people who are using this because that area there doesn't sound quite right.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: Or you might be building the software and you speak up at a meeting and say, wait, stop for a minute.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: I think it'd be better if we did this for the software because this is how insurance agents use it, or this is how realtors would use it, or this is something that realtors are missing and they want out of their software.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: That experience can be a huge bonus because every other developer in the room, they don't know realty or insurance or whatever to the same level that you do.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so you come in with a senior level experience in something that isn't C sharp, but that you can add to your portfolio.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: So focus on your experience, what you do have.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: If you're switching careers, that's great.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: Use that experience.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: Don't just say, oh, well, you know, I've been doing other things, but now I am.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: Pick jobs, pick careers, pick uh opportunities that where you can maximize that other experience.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: If you um if you used to work in the construction industry and now you're applying for jobs, apply for jobs where you're gonna work with the construction industry, possibly, or work adjacent to it.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: Because by doing so, you will give yourself a leg up against everybody else.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: So if you don't have any experience, you need to get some.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: And that may seem like it's pretty flippant, and you may say, yeah, I've I've heard that they're looking for this many years experience, and I'm just starting out.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: What do I do?
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: Well, don't worry.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: You can get experience without getting a job.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: And the key area here is focus on your portfolio.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: The the thing that you show employers and say, this is what I can do.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: If you don't have one, make one.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't have to be fancy and don't spend a lot of time on this.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: But have something, have links to your your GitHub profile, or to a little website that you built, or to just PDFs that you have that show off a little bit of code that you do, talk about a project that you've done, and talk about why it's important.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: So those are the big pieces of information.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: What it does, why it does it, what the tricky bits were that you overcame, and maybe show off a little bit of code.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: Even if it's a closed source, you can show off code bits.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: So by doing that, you're saying, this is my experience, this is my level of experience.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: When an employer is looking to hire someone, it's a really hard process.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: There are no clear-cut things to ask for.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, they ask for some clear-cut things.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: 10 years work experience.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: What does 10 years work experience mean?
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: If you've bounced around from job to job to job as a junior level developer and have done that 10 times for a year apiece, that's 10 years experience, even though you've been a junior developer in every one of those positions.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: If you've fixed help desk tickets the past 10 years and done just the the bare minimum, that's still 10 years experience.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: So asking for 10 years experience isn't getting a person who has um has gone deep in area for 10 years, gone deeper and deeper.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: You may get that, and that's what they're looking for, but they're really hoping for someone that just has five years going deeper because they say, well, 10 years, hopefully they've gone deeper a couple of times.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's how it's hard on the the uh the asker side.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: Now, on your side, what you can do to make that easier for them is to show them what you can do, because at the end of the day, that's what they're hiring.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: They want to hire someone who can do the job.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's it.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: In a lot of cases, they don't care about anything else.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: They may have a ton of requirements, but the reality is all they really care about is can you do the job?
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: So if you show them your portfolio and say, here's how I can do the job, that's brilliant.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: That shows them what they need to see, it allows them to make a better decision.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: Does that mean you get into every job?
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: No, it doesn't.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: And you'll be rejected from a lot because everybody is.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's amazing how many jobs reject good employees.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: I've been rejected tons of times.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: That's okay.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's hard to figure out how to filter candidates, so they filter some the wrong way sometimes.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's okay, don't take it personally.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: But when you have a portfolio, you will be able to present yourself in such a way that you show you can get the job done.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: And really, the reality is a computer science degree, it sounds good, and some companies still require it, but the reality is it doesn't give you what you need to succeed in the real world.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: And most companies know that.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: So there'll be some companies that just gatekeep and say, nope, you have to have that for your degree because it's easy to filter.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: Even though it's not a good filter, it's some kind of filter.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: So you may not get those.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: That's okay.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of jobs out there that don't require that.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: And even some that do, they'll bypass it for the right candidate.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: So focus first on your life experience, then focus on having a good portfolio that you keep updating as you practice.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: So this comes back to are you going deeper into let's say C sharp?
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: Are you going deeper into that on your own?
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: Are you practicing?
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: Are you learning new things and then practicing them by creating test projects?
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: And then are you putting some of those into your portfolio as showing off what you can do and refreshing that and showing how you can go deeper?
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: But then the last thing is just be confident in what you can do.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: Just being confident makes up a lot of ground.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: Walking in there and not saying, Well, I don't really have a C sharp degree, but I can kind of do stuff, that's not gonna cut it.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: Be confident in yourself.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: Say, you know what?
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: No, I don't have a C sharp degree, but or a CS degree.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: But what I do have is a lot of work experience.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: And what you need me to do is to get the job done.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I can do that.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: And here's how I can prove that I can get the job done.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: That shows confidence.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: Don't be arrogant, but show confidence in yourself.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for the question, Josh.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: If you found this question answer helpful, I'd appreciate it if you would share it on your social network of choice.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: If you have a question, either leave it down below the YouTube video or on my I amtimcorey.com page.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: There's a form to fill out to ask your question and hopefully get it answered here on DevQuestions.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for listening.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: And as always, I am Tim Corey.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us for this episode of DevQuesti.com.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, remember, you are too smart and your time too valuable to waste it making all the mistakes Tim did.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: When you're ready to learn to think and code like a professional developer, head over to imtimcorey.com and enroll in a course.