I applied to a ton of jobs, had about 25 interviews. Was turned down for all of them.

Finally I got a job offer, they told me I would have to cut my hair in order to work for them. I told them to bugger off, had about another 10 interviews and rejections before I finally had an interview with a tech company where the guy interviewing me was an even bigger hippie than I was.

I landed the job.

Nepotism

I luckily had a family member who lived next door to an employee at the company who had a lot of clout. They interviewed me and I got the job.

But I switched careers to programming after about 2.5 years, so I kind of had to look for a first job twice since I’d never worked in IT. Went to a coding bootcamp and when I graduated I applied to a bunch of places and didn’t get hired for 3 months.

I’m not good with interviews either. I don’t know what your situation is but you have to remember that it’s probably not the end of the world if you don’t get an offer. You’ll get another interview in the future. Hunting for jobs fucking sucks, but we all have to do it from time to time.

Hey so I’ve had a lot of help in life and this is one step I’ve mastered with my friends. I can tell you how to do it, but not everyone has the motivation to follow this. If you don’t, I’m sorry but this won’t work for you.

THE MINDSET

Landing your first job comes from several steps:

1. You need a good resume
2. You need a lot of applications
3. You need to get a lot of interviews
4. You need to be good at interviews

(Note that 4 is after 3 because your first bunch of interviews will be about practice, not getting the job. It’s free practice!)

THE RESUME

The resume is not a one step process. It’s something that you should redesign and iterate on as time goes by. I personally wrote my resume in LaTeX since it stands out more than the black on white ones. If you to do this, create an account on Overleaf.com and ping me your username, I’ll share you a copy of mine that you can just fill out with your info.

THE APPLICATIONS

This is the most crucial step, and the one people screw up. This is the step that you must listen to what I have to say, and you will get a job.

1. REGISTER to Indeed.com
2. FILL OUT your profile
3. Search “Software Engineer”
4. ONLY CLICK THE ONES THAT SAY QUICK APPLY

You should be able to apply to a posting in LESS THAN 30 seconds. If you are taking more than 30 seconds, you are doing it wrong.

Why?

• It’s up to the company to decide if you’re qualified, not you. So don’t read the job posting
• With ZERO experience, it will take 60-90 applications per interview. At 110 applications an hour, that’s just over 1 interview an hour. You don’t have time to read the posting.
• If you’re actually good at computers (you’re on c/Linux afterall), this efficiency level shouldn’t be a problem for you

Once you master this step, you’ve almost got your foot in the door and are ready to start your life. If you can’t do this step, I can’t help you.

Note: If you don’t see “Quick Apply” on anything, get a free VPN and change your location to North America. It’s not there for some countries.

THE INTERVIEWS

The interviews are about 2 things:

• Can this guy communicate?
• Can this guy code?

THE ORDER OF IMPORTANCE IS AS LISTED. When I ask someone to write an algorithm to find all the prime numbers less than some N and they start making typos in the editor while not talking, I’m not hiring them. If someone writes a brute force O(n^2) solution but talks me through it as they go, they still have a chance.

Let me be clear: If you cannot communicate, I will not hire you even if you have the most optimal solutions.

So how do you communicate?

• When solving a problem, legit just explain your thought process. The interviewer will know where you are and give you hints too when you do this ;)
• When answering a behavioural question, tell a story
  • i.e “Tell me about a time you had a successful project, but still weren’t satisfied with the results” you should explain everything from what made you want to start/contribute on the project, to the crux of the problem, and to what you did to make it better in the end
  • Check out this guide on the STAR method if you have a hard time with this (trust me - it works!)

THE OFFERS

When negotiating the offer, note a few things:

• The salary range for the title in that area
• If they ask how much you want, give a RANGE - The lowest being the 60k or the bare minimum you’ll accept (whichever is higher, if you think you’re worth less than 60k you’re just wrong), and the highest being 90-100k for your first position
• Don’t feel pressured to accept your offer right away - you get raises by switching jobs, not doing well; start this early, get multiple offers, and pick the best one

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I’m past the point in my life of getting that “first job”, but I’ve been there. You have to understand something: People don’t like being uncomfortable, but your comfort zone won’t get you a job. Do it. You can do it.

I dropped out of university (I couldn’t stand being one of literally thousands working on the exact same problem, at the same time, that thousands more had solved in prior years, for decades; I wanted to solve new and real problems). I registered as “looking for work” with the appropriate government agency and their first reaction was an exasperated “Oh my! You’ll need a good coach…”. Not the most encouraging reaction… Well, they did send me a bunch of local companies with internships, entry level jobs, etc. I applied for an internship starting next month at a really small shop that did “everything web” and during the interview they asked whether I could start tomorrow 😛 (Obviously they were a coder short for an important project, but they were very happy about my knowledge and skills). I seamlessly transitioned into vocational training with the same company, which was mostly pro-forma given my background (So instead of “university drop-out” I had something to put on my CV). Later I was on loan to another, mid-size, company (which didn’t know I was still, technically, a trainee) and they offered to hire me directly. I came clean about my trainee status, switched companies, finished my training, and was hired by that same company on the spot. Stuck with them a couple of years, until they didn’t promote me from “technical project lead” to “software architect” because they only had one opening and someone else was picked (Looking back I think I would have made the same choice, so I hold no grudge), and given the company’s size that meant there likely wouldn’t be another opportunity for some years, which irked me 😛

I had to do an internship (400 hours) to get my diploma in system/network management + tech support, and the place where I did my internship (large, 50k employees) offered me a position near the end of it. I was lucky in a way. I’ve also been in the military for 5 years before that, so that kinda look good on a resume too.

Worked there for 5 years, got laid off but bounced pretty quickly into another job (I was aware of some other position where some friends were working at. I did an interview, nailed it and impressed with my previous job records), where I’ve been working for 12 years so far.

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Went to a recruiter, had them offer 5 jobs, did 3 interviews and took the 6th job at a friend’s company.

Put keywords in your CV, let recruiters help you brush it up. IT skills are in insane demand worldwide right now.

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Mine was through having to do national service, and I just stayed on and moved to different areas. But just be yourself as you want a job that can accept you for who you are. I’ve seen so many people get jobs too by being in the right place at right time too - sort of seizing opportunities that arise at the time during conversations or with clients. The first job may not be your final job, as it leads you to get into contact with others.

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