[toexitthedonut]

>Whether engineers are self-taught or not, is that networking and personal connections really matter.

As someone who has no good network, is there any other good way? I tend to read "X really matters" as "X is essential" in that without X you're nothing. I don't believe in essential ingredients- I believe that, as professional life is very open-ended, there is a multitude of good recipes for success in which there is no common ingredient.

[lithos]

If "you're creating value" there is going to be some sort of network. It can eventually get to the point where you'd wish everyone would just shut up (a pretty common open source Dev complaint).

[twblalock]

Few people start out with a good network. You need to meet people. If you live in an area with a lot of software companies, there are probably going to be meetups, clubs, and that sort of thing.

I got into the field by working at a startup in a nontechnical role and transitioning into the engineering department after demonstrating that I could code and helping with some minor projects. I know several other people who went that route, and I think it's viable at startups, but not at large companies.

[toexitthedonut]

I already have held four different jobs as a web developer and still have no good network. See my reply to "developer2" for more details.

[developer2]

I got my first developer job the old fashioned way: sent in a résumé, went in for an interview, and was hired. I did not know anyone at the company, and was not referred in any way. I got very lucky in that this process worked on my first try. It was, and can be, that simple. The trick is to have realistic expectations. You're not looking to impress anyone with the name of the company or your salary. You're looking for someone to open an initial door for you that will lead to future opportunities.

First: the company. Aim for small companies with fewer than 30 employees. Avoid larger companies, who have faceless HR departments and rigid hiring processes. You want a tiny company where interviews and hiring decisions are performed by your peers - senior developers and team leads, rather than managers. You want the person who holds the hiring power to have a chance to put themselves in your shoes, and see your future potential rather than what you can bring to the company. You're hoping they take a risk with you, and to a certain extent you're trying to provoke a pity hire.

Second: the interview. When asked technical questions, answer to the best of your ability. Be willing to admit you don't know, instead of spewing nonsense. Hint: "Hrm, I don't know that one... yet." Know beforehand what programming language the company uses, and have a basic working knowledge. If asked to do a coding test, you must be able to give it your best shot. I didn't finish the test I was given, but the logic I had put down was sensible and headed in the right direction. It was enough to give the impression I had a technical mind and, more importantly, that I was able to begin working on a task.

Third: salary. Prepare to be disappointed. My first job's salary was ~40% the market rate of a junior developer. You could say the company was "taking advantage of me", but they were a) taking a risk hiring someone without experience, b) paying me three times what I made working as a Walmart cashier, c) giving me my first step into my preferred industry, and d) giving me experience to put on my résumé.

Fourth: once hired, stay with the company for a minimum of two years. Do everything in your power not to duck out earlier. You really need your résumé, with its single entry as a developer, to hold some weight. Once you have this, the number of doors that open up will give you a choice of where to head next. You may never have a realistic shot at a company like Google, but you will be paid market rate.

tldr; Start with small companies, where you will be interviewed and hired by senior developers and team leads instead of managers and an HR department. Be willing to start at low salary. Your first company is about gaining experience for your craft and your résumé, not to make money.

[toexitthedonut]

First things first: You talk as if I am just starting out my career. I don't know how you arrived to that conclusion about my job experience from my my last comment- I didn't even state my experience there. I simply stated that my network is lackluster.

I have worked in multiple small (~20 employee) companies, most for over a year and a half. I have 8 years of total experience as a web developer. During that time I have not made any reliable long term contacts that can refer me to any relevant work.

Second, ALL of my past jobs have paid 40-50% of the local market rate. Each one I have earned more money, but it's still well below average for the large Midwest city that I'm in.

Every few months I return to Facebook, post to my feed so friends can see, announcing that I'm still looking for work and if anyone knows someone looking for a web developer. Usually I get no replies.

So you see, even with my years of experience, I have been unable to rely on a network for jobs, and recruiters have also been ineffective.

Now, with this new information I have given you, I am more curious to see what you would suggest, as something more tailor-made to my career experience.

[davidbanham]

Have you tried getting out and focusing on building your professional network? Go to meetups and meet people. Contribute to existing OSS projects and earn respect from the other maintainers. Reach out to people in your local industry and ask to buy them a coffee.

It takes work and time, but that's how you get a network.

[HeyLaughingBoy]

I'm going out on a limb here, but perhaps it's your attitude. It comes through very clearly in your post, and likely a lot more so in person.

I've interviewed dozens of people over the years and the easiest way to be disqualified is to come across as being difficult to work with.

I understand your position, and your frustration, but I'm sure you could have found a more pleasant way to phrase what you said above.

[developer2]

I definitely took the OP's article as the baseline to fill the context gap in others' comments. OP is 17 years old and just starting out with their professional career. I combined with your "as someone who has no good network" to mean "As someone who is starting out, who has no good network, ...". I apologize for the assumption. The advice still stands for others who are looking to get a foot in the door of their first company. :)

Have all of your jobs been contract-based? That really sucks, I cannot imagine having to worry about contracts not being renewed. Fixed-term employment contracts almost don't exist in our industry where I am. I'm sorry you have such a hard time finding companies looking for stable long-term employees. Random tip that might be helpful with your next job hunt if you're not doing it already: never answer the question "how much were you making at your previous employer?". Tell them how much you want to make NOW (+ $5-10k/yr padding) and negotiate down from there. You're instantly setting an artificial cap in their minds once you admit to how little you were willing to settle for previously.

As for climbing the salary ladder if it doesn't happen naturally over time, I'm not entirely sure. There is one truth I can extract from your comment, based on discussions with coworkers over the past decade: frontend devs have a tougher go at things, and me being a primarily backend dev looking at the work frontend devs do, I don't understand why that is. Backend devs seem to be appreciated more, and I agree that it's nonsense.

One loosely composed answer is that backend devs form a circle jerk of touting our profession and work as important, and we demand proper compensation to match. The personality traits of the frontend devs I've met are less aggressive on the whole. As in, on a personal and professional level, frontend devs are much nicer people. Perhaps the industry translates this to mean "pushover", and is taking advantage?

A better analysis would be that the industry hasn't caught up to what it means to be a frontend dev today. 15-20 years ago, learning HTML, CSS, and early JavaScript was not a difficult task. Every backend dev was also doing everything for the frontend, so a "frontend-only developer" would have been seen as someone worth less than a "full-stack developer".

As of 7-10 years ago, this has all changed. There are very few devs who are truly "full-stack" anymore, to the point where the ones who claim to be are mostly liars, carrying their outdated knowledge of HTML and CSS from 1995 as if they are marketable skills. Today's seasoned backend devs are rarely well-versed in everything CSS3+ and HTML5, let alone ES6, Canvas, WebGL, and all the tooling (css preprocessors, grunt, gulp, webpack, frameworks with build processes, etc.).

In the distant past, frontend work was a nice-to-have addon for backend devs to have in their toolkit. Today, they're completely separate disciplines, and the pay should reflect that fact with equal pay for both roles. An expert frontend dev today is absolutely worth the same as a backend dev. The industry needs to realize this truth and fix the salary gap. A developer is a developer, is a developer.