5 Tools For Landing Your First Dev Job
I, like many others, know the feeling of finishing school and being eager to get my start in tech! With that being said, the process has numbed me to any crumb of heartache when faced with rejection. The job search is difficult for most developers and shouldn’t discourage anyone from pursuing this as a career. You quickly realize that it’s all a numbers game; the more contacts you make, applications you submit or interviews you partake in, the quicker you will find success. We’re going to go through 5 resources that have absolutely put my job search efficiency into overdrive.
1 — LinkedIn
In this day and age, your social presence represents your digital net-worth and it’s proven that you’re more willing to trust someone with virtual ‘street-cred’ than someone who’s seemingly non-existent. Not only can you connect with employees at potential employers, but there’s also a wide variety of opportunities such as internships, Junior Developer jobs and much more! LinkedIn is a crucial step to any tech job search and you’d be making a huge mistake underestimating the power of it.
2 — Glassdoor
Glassdoor is another crucial website for an aspiring Engineer’s job hunt. The main focus of Glassdoor is to advertise jobs which is an obvious plus, however there is a much better purpose for using them. In fact, I don’t often submit applications through Glassdoor (just a preference, plenty of good opportunities), I use them for researching companies I plan to pursue a career with. You can find countless reviews from employees, information about salaries and plenty of other details that become priceless when attacking an application.
3 — Angel.co
AngelList is potentially my favorite of this list, and it will probably be yours soon as well! This site focuses on startups rather than large-scale, corporate-esque companies which can be a huge plus for Junior Developers. Startups and the people running them are much more likely to give you a shot than a billion dollar company might which really brings the retention rate of your applications up tenfold. Prior to AngelList, I felt tremendously lucky to get one interview every 2 weeks. Once I started using it religiously, I consistently managed to land 2+ interviews per week! Last but not least, you have the opportunity to pair with a company in its infancy which could potentially lead to something you’d never imagined. Picture getting into apple from the very beginning?
4 — VentureLoop
VentureLoop is a platform that was actually recommended to me by a Career Coach and it is similar to AngelList but somewhat more exclusive. This site also focuses on startup companies, though they are all Venture backed therefore run little-to-no risk of running out of capital. This means that the job offerings you’ll find there offer a bit more security than certain startups you might find yourself working for. In addition to that, they have a paid membership which grants you access to exclusive opportunities making it that much easier for you to be noticed, and eventually hired.
5— Hunter.io
This last one is a hidden gem that was also suggested to me from my Career Coach and I can’t believe I’d never heard of it before. While this isn’t like the previous resources in the sense that Hunter.io doesn’t hold job listings, it arguable provides something more valuable. Using their email search tool, you can almost instantly find the email address of any individual you want to get in contact with. All you have to do is fill in as little as a company name and you will have access to exactly who you’re looking for! Direct communication will always get you further than being a needle in a haystack of applications yet to be glazed over by an underpaid recruiter.
