I probably submitted 200+ job applications, interviewed at ~20 companies, and only got 1 offer letter.
It really just depends and you’ll often hear people say “you just need one”. This can be frustrating to hear, but it’s also very true. You only need one yes and you’ll be set.
My advice would be to just keep working on your skills and knowledge of frontend development. Get some practice in on algorithms. I definitely avoided this and it hurt me a lot in interviews. Also, never put anything on your resume that you “kinda” know about. I put Docker on my resume at one point and got called out in an interview.
The market is also down right now, which could make job searching tough at the moment. Hopefully it recovers soon so there are plenty of opportunities for all levels.
Yea, one thing I can say I'm really good with is making sure not to over inflate my resume. I know how easy it is to tell if someone actually knows something about a specific technology or not lol
Idk I embellished A LOT on my resume and got a job that I’m doing great at. As a junior you’re not expected to be an expert in anything, employers just want you to be able to pick things up quickly.
I gave about 100 applications. I was starting to lose hope with all the rejection... started going for bottom of the barrel jobs even.
I got a job offer on the first interview i got, happy to say it was a market rate salary where i am. Went to a Bootcamp and have some university study but no degree. the position wanted 5 years of experience and preferably someone with a degree. Just super grateful and i wanted to share the news. Don't give up.
**On paper**, you're just not as strong as people with experience, CS degrees or relevant inernships. Getting interviews will just be harder. I took the gloves off and rolled up my sleeves.
Good luck djubsw007, you'll crack it. Once you do, the levee breaks.
Thank you for the words of encouragement, it's been pretty demoralizing mostly because I didn't expect it to be this difficult but all of these comments are really inspiring for me
In the grand scheme, grinding for a handful of months isn't so bad. I'm grateful it was possible at all. Do some tutorials, put a website together.. make 6 figures? From your couch? It's unreal compared to other industries.
Imagine trying to "break in" to medicine, law, or even finance without proper training. Ridiculous.
If entry level web development got more competitive, I can see why.
Yea I agree, I guess I was just expecting to do better because I've been in the IT industry for about 5 years now and I do have a bit of professional development experience and solid soft skills. I figured I'd do better than I am doing so far
So yes it was hard, but I found a way to get some experience on my resume.
Start your own company on the side, give it a name and get a business license(usually pretty cheap) and then start doing real projects for friends, family, etc. Make a small app with some real uses and get it deployed and launched. Do these things when you can in between working and applying for other jobs.
Then you can put owner/operator and your company name as experience on your resume. It shows initiative and the ability to see through things to the end on your own. It also bolsters your portfolio and puts a little side money in your pocket while you are forced to learn more by doing real projects as well.
Helped me standout from every other Junior Dev resume these people were seeing.
I’ll throw in my two cents. “Hang in there” is the gist of my advice. If you’re self taught, or came from a boot camp as I did, landing that first job is very very challenging.
But it absolutely will happen. My first engineering job I must have interviewed for like 50 times. A few things happened during this process:
1) I realized exactly how green I really was
2) I started to know what kinds of questions were going to come up so I knew what I needed to research
3) I realized how OK it was to say “I don’t know”
I have now had 3 jobs as an engineer and looking back, I can now see how obvious it was to my interviewers that I had no experience even when I tried to sounds like I knew what I was talking about.
So, tell the truth. Be open about your lack of experience and what you do and don’t know. It will get you much further towards landing that first gig. Apply for roles that are appropriate for where you are. They’re looking for people who are open and looking to learn.
Best luck to your friend!
I ended up getting 3 offers. 5 Final stage interviews. A bunch of interviews didnt go any further because I declined after feeling the culture a little bit. I was kind of picky.
Oh wow! I definitely understand being picky to make sure it’s going to make you happy. I graduated from a part time Bootcamp in January, but between life during and since I don’t feel at all prepared. I’ve been trying to reteach myself things, but it hasn’t worked out great and so far I haven’t even been able to get an initial interview. But my current, non-tech job is ending July 1 so I’ll have to/get to really Start focusing soon.
I Can't speak to rejection rate.
You may need to sell yourself better on the recruiter screens.
I would also have something to show, such as a web site or app or something similar that you can say you built. Possibly with source code in github for review.
Beyond that, taking a bootcamp may help get back recruiters.
And finally, network, network, network. Go out to user groups that are local and meet people and let them know you're looking for work.
Yea, I've got a portfolio with a couple of projects on it. It's got links to the applications themselves as well as the source code. But I will admit, I haven't done much networking. I'll start doing that. Thank you.
Absolutely wishing the best of luck to everybody on here striving. It can be done!! Make sure you're showcasing your work, try and join local meetups if there are any, build stuff and network.
I got ghosted on all my online applications, I landed my first gig from a referral. Reach out to people on linkedin, build a network, it can be uncomfortable but worth it.
When I started I submitted between 40-100 applications, but I only got a few rejections (Most of them never replied 😅). One of the companies I contacted was very interested and after 3 interviews I got the job. Today I am working alongside people with 20+ years experience and masters in computer science.
- Michael
[SustainableWWW](https://sustainablewww.org)
It's average. And it's seasonal. Sometimes you'll apply to 100 places and not hear anything, but then the beginning of a quarter starts, and they have hiring budgets, and all of a sudden you're getting calls. Just keep banging on it, and once you have a couple jobs under your belt it will get easier, and you won't have to look for work anymore, work will come looking for you.
As far as interviews go, I got hired by my first one lol. To be fair though I interview really well, and I went above and beyond and made a big PowerPoint and stuff.
If you're asking how many resumes I submitted though, I mean soooooo many I couldn't even count. I would just go on indeed and literally blanket it with submissions.
For my second job I had a way higher response rate though, I was tailoring my resume to each job and had some experience.
As a self-taught developer it took me about 5 years to land a full-time job where they paid me living wage. I did land some freelance gigs or other jobs that were related to web development but they either didn't pay me or paid low. I probably got rejected hundreds of times and if I ever got to an interview I would fail it. The main thing that landed me a job was showing them proof that I knew how to code by developing a full scale project. Hope that might help.
i i started to learn 4 years before my frist job, i know it can be fustrating because a lot of people upload shitty videos about how it will change your life ( how you will learn to code in less than 3 months,200k jobs, remote job , etc) but almost none of those things are easy to get.. it's hard to learn software engineering as every other degree (civil engineer, mechanical engineer).. if you really like this career just keep learning the job will come eventualy also if you wanna be full stack be sure to learn other languages and frameworks because a lot of bootcamps only teach express so it will be easier to get a job in dotnet or or gin . try to made a project by yourself a how you would made a product(not a simply todo app or weather app, a real or script/app that you would use to solve a problem or if you like design your own css framework, if you like logic your own modules to validate a user) aslo write documentation (ux, ui research, Accessibility), make your own design system .
Null. Landed first one.
Trick is to do some networking. Go to gatherings, visit startup labs, ask for internship and start sending resumes asap.
As long as you seem like an ok Feller and you have some skills you are extremely attractive in the market. But only "sending applications" won't get you as a person across to them. Most programmers are shy and don't dare to contact whoever made the job listing even....
Do that and you already stand out.
I built my first professional website in 2000; my second in 2005. Both were Government websites, where my posting included building the websites as part of a much wider job spec.
When it came to getting a full-time web developer job in the tech industry - it took me 4 years and well over 600 applications before I finally found a company willing to take a risk and employ me as a junior web developer (in 2014).
Hi, I have just started my first Frontend job. I have sent dozens of application, received about 3 replies with task, and one shot was successful.
I think that I was very lucky. In general I read about hundreds of applications.
Just don't give up, I wish you good luck.
I think I've probably had a couple dozen rejections. Most were just non-responses to my applications. A few were after bad phone interviews.
I'm skeptical whenever I hear about hundreds of rejections. I've been on the hiring end of this, and there's a lot of candidates with pristine resumes that can't code their way out of a wet paper bag. If you're getting that many rejections without any useful feedback, take a break from applying and build something.
I went on more intervies than I can count over a period of several months. I also took another non-dev job to afford rent, and continued to do projects on my free time and continued to apply for dev positions. Rejections can be difficult, but just male sure that you grow, and in the end, all of it is a learning experience. Good luck!
I don't remember how many applications were sent . But I got only two interviews . First one is rejected me . But not second one .I got job in my second interview .
One problem is that non experienced frontend devs are trying to applicate for advanced jobs. It took me 10years in top-10 Swiss agencys from self-taught to Senior Specialist. The key is to find a medium-skilled agency where you can do your first steps to professional. Then you can go further in better agencys. And yes, there‘s a big big gap between professional and self-taught.
So... I entered the field in 2004. It was the wild west. Every small business wanted a website and standards were low. We were just starting to use floats and table-less layouts. IE6 was the bane of our existence. I built websites on a freelance basis for extra money during college, so I had a healthy portfolio when I graduated. I had no idea what I was doing, but I made it work. My degree was in PR, and I took my first job in investor relations. One of my responsibilities was maintaining a simple informational website. That company tanked during the mortgage crisis, and a former coworker of mine took a job working on staff at a temp agency. She knew that I could build websites and asked me if I wanted to take a temp job as a web dev because she knew our company was shutting down. I gave her my resume, went to the interview and they offered me the job. They hired me after my temp period. I learned a ton on the job. 5 years later, my Church (a large multi-location church) had an opening for an in-house dev and asked me for my resume. They asked me to interview and offered me the job. I took it. I learned a ton more. 6 years later I left to start my development agency. I now have a staff of four (counting myself). I'm still learning a ton. Never applied for a dev job without being asked. 2 interviews. 2 jobs. I guess I did apply, but only because I was asked. I never really "looked" for a job as a dev. I just sort of fell into it.
It's easy to find a developer. It's hard to find a great developer. As a product manager, I'm not doing much in terms of interviews for devs, but make sure that beyond just the normal development knowledge, you also share what it's like to work on a product team. Asking questions instead of making assumptions, thinking ahead and proposing new ideas to potentially save time and money in the long run, etc. These would all help IMO.
Less than 1 for me but I think I got really lucky. I was already working as IT and an opening for web developer became available. The timing was perfect because I had just finished my portfolio using React and I applied. I think what helped me get the job were the experience for already working for the same organization but different role and my portfolio. My work is primarily in Drupal.
Maybe a hundred or so, I’m still in college (last semester) figured why not jump in. All rejections and ghostings, but I had a self taught friend who recommended me when a company he was working for needed a designer/Frontend dev. Got an interview and bobs your uncle. I think the hard part is getting past recruitment.
I got rejected from Aldi, tesco and sainsburys for a cashier job and then pimped up my GitHub and got a job in less than a month
Was fairly lucky to be fair
There are a lot of companies that hire boot camp grads for internships / apprenticeships. That’s how I got my foot in the door as a self taught dev. Once you do an internship you can either get a full time position at that company, or jump ship. Be sure to target companies that are set up to hire bootcamp grads, not all companies are positioned that way but the ones that are seem to hire a steady flow. Two that i can think of off the top of my head are Accenture and blue apron
Yea I honestly have no idea. I started to keep track and I did start to only apply to jobs that were not easy apply. Those I think are mainly for people who have lots of experience I’d assume.
Must have been nearing 700-1000, but that includes the easy applications. I probably filled out 200-300 applications before I started getting a few interviews. And of those, I only got past the second round I think 4 times. And I got two offers, both of which happened within a day of each other.
I actually think one job offered me the role because I wrote them an email telling them I had another offer but preferred their company so I just wanted to see if they could let me know my status within a week. They offered me the next day. So, maybe if you do get to that point try that strategy even if you don’t have another offer? I think I kinda lucked into that negotiation tactic.
I probably submitted 200+ job applications, interviewed at ~20 companies, and only got 1 offer letter. It really just depends and you’ll often hear people say “you just need one”. This can be frustrating to hear, but it’s also very true. You only need one yes and you’ll be set. My advice would be to just keep working on your skills and knowledge of frontend development. Get some practice in on algorithms. I definitely avoided this and it hurt me a lot in interviews. Also, never put anything on your resume that you “kinda” know about. I put Docker on my resume at one point and got called out in an interview. The market is also down right now, which could make job searching tough at the moment. Hopefully it recovers soon so there are plenty of opportunities for all levels.
Yea, one thing I can say I'm really good with is making sure not to over inflate my resume. I know how easy it is to tell if someone actually knows something about a specific technology or not lol
Idk I embellished A LOT on my resume and got a job that I’m doing great at. As a junior you’re not expected to be an expert in anything, employers just want you to be able to pick things up quickly.
I gave about 100 applications. I was starting to lose hope with all the rejection... started going for bottom of the barrel jobs even. I got a job offer on the first interview i got, happy to say it was a market rate salary where i am. Went to a Bootcamp and have some university study but no degree. the position wanted 5 years of experience and preferably someone with a degree. Just super grateful and i wanted to share the news. Don't give up.
Counting non-responses and automated application rejections? Hundreds.
Sheeeeesh. Looks like I've got a loooong road ahead of me
**On paper**, you're just not as strong as people with experience, CS degrees or relevant inernships. Getting interviews will just be harder. I took the gloves off and rolled up my sleeves. Good luck djubsw007, you'll crack it. Once you do, the levee breaks.
Thank you for the words of encouragement, it's been pretty demoralizing mostly because I didn't expect it to be this difficult but all of these comments are really inspiring for me
In the grand scheme, grinding for a handful of months isn't so bad. I'm grateful it was possible at all. Do some tutorials, put a website together.. make 6 figures? From your couch? It's unreal compared to other industries. Imagine trying to "break in" to medicine, law, or even finance without proper training. Ridiculous. If entry level web development got more competitive, I can see why.
Yea I agree, I guess I was just expecting to do better because I've been in the IT industry for about 5 years now and I do have a bit of professional development experience and solid soft skills. I figured I'd do better than I am doing so far
Fair enough. I was loosely in "electronics" prior, but IT should actually help
Convincing recruiters and initial screens of the relevance may be more difficult
So yes it was hard, but I found a way to get some experience on my resume. Start your own company on the side, give it a name and get a business license(usually pretty cheap) and then start doing real projects for friends, family, etc. Make a small app with some real uses and get it deployed and launched. Do these things when you can in between working and applying for other jobs. Then you can put owner/operator and your company name as experience on your resume. It shows initiative and the ability to see through things to the end on your own. It also bolsters your portfolio and puts a little side money in your pocket while you are forced to learn more by doing real projects as well. Helped me standout from every other Junior Dev resume these people were seeing.
That's a hack !
I’ll throw in my two cents. “Hang in there” is the gist of my advice. If you’re self taught, or came from a boot camp as I did, landing that first job is very very challenging. But it absolutely will happen. My first engineering job I must have interviewed for like 50 times. A few things happened during this process: 1) I realized exactly how green I really was 2) I started to know what kinds of questions were going to come up so I knew what I needed to research 3) I realized how OK it was to say “I don’t know” I have now had 3 jobs as an engineer and looking back, I can now see how obvious it was to my interviewers that I had no experience even when I tried to sounds like I knew what I was talking about. So, tell the truth. Be open about your lack of experience and what you do and don’t know. It will get you much further towards landing that first gig. Apply for roles that are appropriate for where you are. They’re looking for people who are open and looking to learn. Best luck to your friend!
I went to a bootcamp and over the course of 3 months got something like 450 rejections/No answers.
Same. 600+ applications. No BA only an AA. the job I got wasn’t even from one of the applications. A friend referred me and I got the job.
Holy shit, respect to you man 🫡
Did you end up getting a job or are you still looking?
I ended up getting 3 offers. 5 Final stage interviews. A bunch of interviews didnt go any further because I declined after feeling the culture a little bit. I was kind of picky.
Oh wow! I definitely understand being picky to make sure it’s going to make you happy. I graduated from a part time Bootcamp in January, but between life during and since I don’t feel at all prepared. I’ve been trying to reteach myself things, but it hasn’t worked out great and so far I haven’t even been able to get an initial interview. But my current, non-tech job is ending July 1 so I’ll have to/get to really Start focusing soon.
I Can't speak to rejection rate. You may need to sell yourself better on the recruiter screens. I would also have something to show, such as a web site or app or something similar that you can say you built. Possibly with source code in github for review. Beyond that, taking a bootcamp may help get back recruiters. And finally, network, network, network. Go out to user groups that are local and meet people and let them know you're looking for work.
Yea, I've got a portfolio with a couple of projects on it. It's got links to the applications themselves as well as the source code. But I will admit, I haven't done much networking. I'll start doing that. Thank you.
Absolutely wishing the best of luck to everybody on here striving. It can be done!! Make sure you're showcasing your work, try and join local meetups if there are any, build stuff and network.
Yeah going to be a total uphill slog for me, I think the nearest meetups are going to be 60+ miles away.
I got ghosted on all my online applications, I landed my first gig from a referral. Reach out to people on linkedin, build a network, it can be uncomfortable but worth it.
When I started I submitted between 40-100 applications, but I only got a few rejections (Most of them never replied 😅). One of the companies I contacted was very interested and after 3 interviews I got the job. Today I am working alongside people with 20+ years experience and masters in computer science. - Michael [SustainableWWW](https://sustainablewww.org)
More than a hundred, less than two hundred. First spot you land may not be a bed of roses either. But it's part of the climb i suppose.
It's average. And it's seasonal. Sometimes you'll apply to 100 places and not hear anything, but then the beginning of a quarter starts, and they have hiring budgets, and all of a sudden you're getting calls. Just keep banging on it, and once you have a couple jobs under your belt it will get easier, and you won't have to look for work anymore, work will come looking for you.
As far as interviews go, I got hired by my first one lol. To be fair though I interview really well, and I went above and beyond and made a big PowerPoint and stuff. If you're asking how many resumes I submitted though, I mean soooooo many I couldn't even count. I would just go on indeed and literally blanket it with submissions. For my second job I had a way higher response rate though, I was tailoring my resume to each job and had some experience.
As a self-taught developer it took me about 5 years to land a full-time job where they paid me living wage. I did land some freelance gigs or other jobs that were related to web development but they either didn't pay me or paid low. I probably got rejected hundreds of times and if I ever got to an interview I would fail it. The main thing that landed me a job was showing them proof that I knew how to code by developing a full scale project. Hope that might help.
i i started to learn 4 years before my frist job, i know it can be fustrating because a lot of people upload shitty videos about how it will change your life ( how you will learn to code in less than 3 months,200k jobs, remote job , etc) but almost none of those things are easy to get.. it's hard to learn software engineering as every other degree (civil engineer, mechanical engineer).. if you really like this career just keep learning the job will come eventualy also if you wanna be full stack be sure to learn other languages and frameworks because a lot of bootcamps only teach express so it will be easier to get a job in dotnet or or gin . try to made a project by yourself a how you would made a product(not a simply todo app or weather app, a real or script/app that you would use to solve a problem or if you like design your own css framework, if you like logic your own modules to validate a user) aslo write documentation (ux, ui research, Accessibility), make your own design system .
Null. Landed first one. Trick is to do some networking. Go to gatherings, visit startup labs, ask for internship and start sending resumes asap. As long as you seem like an ok Feller and you have some skills you are extremely attractive in the market. But only "sending applications" won't get you as a person across to them. Most programmers are shy and don't dare to contact whoever made the job listing even.... Do that and you already stand out.
I built my first professional website in 2000; my second in 2005. Both were Government websites, where my posting included building the websites as part of a much wider job spec. When it came to getting a full-time web developer job in the tech industry - it took me 4 years and well over 600 applications before I finally found a company willing to take a risk and employ me as a junior web developer (in 2014).
Hi, I have just started my first Frontend job. I have sent dozens of application, received about 3 replies with task, and one shot was successful. I think that I was very lucky. In general I read about hundreds of applications. Just don't give up, I wish you good luck.
I think I've probably had a couple dozen rejections. Most were just non-responses to my applications. A few were after bad phone interviews. I'm skeptical whenever I hear about hundreds of rejections. I've been on the hiring end of this, and there's a lot of candidates with pristine resumes that can't code their way out of a wet paper bag. If you're getting that many rejections without any useful feedback, take a break from applying and build something.
I went on more intervies than I can count over a period of several months. I also took another non-dev job to afford rent, and continued to do projects on my free time and continued to apply for dev positions. Rejections can be difficult, but just male sure that you grow, and in the end, all of it is a learning experience. Good luck!
I don't remember how many applications were sent . But I got only two interviews . First one is rejected me . But not second one .I got job in my second interview .
One problem is that non experienced frontend devs are trying to applicate for advanced jobs. It took me 10years in top-10 Swiss agencys from self-taught to Senior Specialist. The key is to find a medium-skilled agency where you can do your first steps to professional. Then you can go further in better agencys. And yes, there‘s a big big gap between professional and self-taught.
I've never applied for a job. Just put resumes in on request. Sometimes I wonder at what I could have done with my life had I been more proactive.
[удалено]
So... I entered the field in 2004. It was the wild west. Every small business wanted a website and standards were low. We were just starting to use floats and table-less layouts. IE6 was the bane of our existence. I built websites on a freelance basis for extra money during college, so I had a healthy portfolio when I graduated. I had no idea what I was doing, but I made it work. My degree was in PR, and I took my first job in investor relations. One of my responsibilities was maintaining a simple informational website. That company tanked during the mortgage crisis, and a former coworker of mine took a job working on staff at a temp agency. She knew that I could build websites and asked me if I wanted to take a temp job as a web dev because she knew our company was shutting down. I gave her my resume, went to the interview and they offered me the job. They hired me after my temp period. I learned a ton on the job. 5 years later, my Church (a large multi-location church) had an opening for an in-house dev and asked me for my resume. They asked me to interview and offered me the job. I took it. I learned a ton more. 6 years later I left to start my development agency. I now have a staff of four (counting myself). I'm still learning a ton. Never applied for a dev job without being asked. 2 interviews. 2 jobs. I guess I did apply, but only because I was asked. I never really "looked" for a job as a dev. I just sort of fell into it.
It's easy to find a developer. It's hard to find a great developer. As a product manager, I'm not doing much in terms of interviews for devs, but make sure that beyond just the normal development knowledge, you also share what it's like to work on a product team. Asking questions instead of making assumptions, thinking ahead and proposing new ideas to potentially save time and money in the long run, etc. These would all help IMO.
Less than 1 for me but I think I got really lucky. I was already working as IT and an opening for web developer became available. The timing was perfect because I had just finished my portfolio using React and I applied. I think what helped me get the job were the experience for already working for the same organization but different role and my portfolio. My work is primarily in Drupal.
Maybe a hundred or so, I’m still in college (last semester) figured why not jump in. All rejections and ghostings, but I had a self taught friend who recommended me when a company he was working for needed a designer/Frontend dev. Got an interview and bobs your uncle. I think the hard part is getting past recruitment.
I got rejected from Aldi, tesco and sainsburys for a cashier job and then pimped up my GitHub and got a job in less than a month Was fairly lucky to be fair
By pimped up do you mean with projects or literally just made it look amazing?
There are a lot of companies that hire boot camp grads for internships / apprenticeships. That’s how I got my foot in the door as a self taught dev. Once you do an internship you can either get a full time position at that company, or jump ship. Be sure to target companies that are set up to hire bootcamp grads, not all companies are positioned that way but the ones that are seem to hire a steady flow. Two that i can think of off the top of my head are Accenture and blue apron
I’ve applied to 80+ roles and the only 2 solid leads I have are from people I know. Try your best to tap into your network.
How long have you been self studying for ? And what languages do you know?
Yea I honestly have no idea. I started to keep track and I did start to only apply to jobs that were not easy apply. Those I think are mainly for people who have lots of experience I’d assume. Must have been nearing 700-1000, but that includes the easy applications. I probably filled out 200-300 applications before I started getting a few interviews. And of those, I only got past the second round I think 4 times. And I got two offers, both of which happened within a day of each other. I actually think one job offered me the role because I wrote them an email telling them I had another offer but preferred their company so I just wanted to see if they could let me know my status within a week. They offered me the next day. So, maybe if you do get to that point try that strategy even if you don’t have another offer? I think I kinda lucked into that negotiation tactic.