Hey there junior dev who wishes to remain anonymous!

This one is hard to answer because every interviewer and company looks for and care about different things.

Some care heavily about what school you went to, others couldn’t care less. Some would only consider a candidate who knows or has worked with X, and yet others realize a decade of experience with C++ is still software development experience and is useful to a team using Python, Go, or Rust.

But here is some advice I can give you.

Getting in the door

This applies generally to getting hired, but is especially important earlier in your career and when the tech job market is tight. Your first step is getting the interview, perhaps the first of several steps the company will put you through.

Of course you need a decent looking, readable resume. A hand written cover letter, completely tailored to the company and role you’re applying for, certainly doesn’t hurt. All the usual job hunting advice still applies.

However, what you need to do is stand out a little bit.

You need something the interviewer sees that sets you apart from the other candidates.

You need something like one or two of these:

• Regular contributor to an Open Source project
• A blog, newsletter, or social media account where you talk tech and build in public
• A memorable side project, hobby or non-tech life skill
• Include a fun photo in your cover letter to give them something visual to remember

You built an entirely off grid, 100% automated, chicken coup in your backyard that carries the eggs into your house on a Lego train? Awesome.

On the weekends I teach the elderly basic tech skills or maybe you’re an extreme skier. Anything interesting and memorable that you do outside or in addition to regular “work”.

If there are seven stock standard generic white dudes named Bob applying for the job,
be the Bob that was a Navy SEAL or juggles cats for money.

Not only does standing out help people simply REMEMBER you over the other 14 people they have talked to during the process, it makes you seem more interesting. Who do you want to work with? Bob #3, Bob #6, or Bob that automated his freakin’ chickens?

In the interview

This again is hard because people interview differently. I’ve been told I “interview weird” because I don’t have a real set of questions I put people through. I have a couple of conversation starter type questions to get the candidate talking about themselves, their recent work experience, etc. I find it far more useful see it as a conversation rather than a quiz.

So, take this advice in context of how the interviewer is wanting to run things. But again, you want to stand out a little bit.

In fact, you need to think of the entirely hiring process from two angles. Theirs and yours.

From their perspective, think about the fears they have in hiring the wrong candidate. Anticipate what they might be worried about for the role and in particular YOUR experience and how that relates to the role. Mention things that will help alleviate those fears.

It’s far better to say, “I don’t have a ton of experience with that directly, but I’ve read up on it and I’m very interested in deep diving on that subject given the opportunity.” than to try to hide or gloss over your inexperience.

Try to show off your systems thinking skills. How A relates to B and eventually flows into C. How because X can happen in the process here, we need Y safe guard. Why doing X leads to a better Y outcome when Z exists in the world.

Be interested in what tools and processes they use internally. Ask questions!

From your perspective, you’re interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you. Obviously getting a job is important, but you won’t last long in a job entirely not suited to you.

I would make a terrible cat juggler for example.

Do a bit of research on the company and the team. Scour their social media maybe to look for them discussing a tech topic. Maybe they hate their ticket system or just switched to uv from pip are loving it. Commiserate with them or ask if they’re using uv as you’ve recently migrated your personal projects to it and are loving it.

In short…

Be interested and interesting.

If you’re still having trouble, keep working on expanding your skills and doing something interesting in public. Don’t complete a 7th Python tutorial project just to make your Github look “bigger”. Build something even mildly interesting for yourself, or a friend, or your community that not another “Build a Django Blog in 4 hours” project.

And for god’s sake network.

To paraphrase Chris Rock, “90% of people in this room got their job because a friend recommended them.”

Don’t have any tech friends? Start making some. Best case one of them gets you in the door at their company, worst case new friend! 😀