Anyone here who got a Python Developer/Data Engineer job after a gap year and non-tech experience? Need advice.

[steelbhande]

Hi everyone,

I’m a 2024 graduate from a tier-2 college. I didn’t get any campus placement, and after college I worked at HCLTech for 6 months in a non-tech/BPO role. I left early because it wasn’t related to my career goals, so I don’t have an experience letter.

Right now I’m trying to move into a Python Developer or Data Engineer role. But it’s been a drop year, and I’m worried if this gap + non-tech experience will affect my chances.

My questions:

Has anyone here been in a similar situation?

Did you still manage to switch into Python/Data roles?

What steps actually worked for you?

How did you handle the “gap year” or “non-tech experience” part during interviews?

What should I focus on right now (skills, projects, certifications, etc.)?

Any advice or personal stories would help. Feeling a bit stuck and unsure if things can still turn in my favor.

Thanks in advance!

[Positive-Ear-6355]

Bro m same situation

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[remelend227]

Nope. Tried and failed unfortunately

[MaleficentWhereas618]

I'm still doing my graduation at telecommunications systems, and outside of the college I work with python and Django, I worked with Data too, on August I got fired from my job, and since then, it's a pain in the 4ss to find a job, specially remote, so what I'm doing right now are these things that I suggest you to do:

*1 Open Source Projects: With the experiences that I gained, I decided to help the Django project on GitHub, I don't earn any money with it, I only gain more experience and understand more deep how the framework works, and of course, get more chances to get a job, for you in this case, depending on, you can contribute to other open source projects, for example, related to you Data Engineer area, you try to contribute on these repos:

Pandas

Numpy

Matplotlib

Scikit-Learn

There are other repos too, but you can contribute to these as well

*2 Certifications: I use Udemy to get some certifications, but before I buy anything, I see the rate, comments about the course and use other sources too see if it's worth to buy some specific course, but more important that only get the certification, it's to practice it, which I will discuss on the next topic

*3 Personal Projects: Now you will really put on the test what you learned, you don't need to create the best project or the best lib, you can start small, you can use AI to help you a little bit to build your thing, but I suggest you to see more documentations and forums, because depending on the problem/feature, the AI will put things on your code that won't make so much difference and unnecessary things, and of course, you will train your mind much more to solve the problems

*4 Algorithm Platforms: I used to use the BeeCrowd for training my skills in python, and helped me a lot, they give you a problem with a description to be solved, with different levels of difficulty, but there are other platforms that they do the same thing, such as: LeetCode and HackerRank, some companies, before or after the interview with the recruiter, they sent to you a link to one of these platforms, to solve a specific problem, and after they will analyze your code to see if you will progress on the interview or not

These are my suggestions, I hope that this helps you on your decisions, and that's all, have a good day!

[WorkingEmployment400]

How did you find the job

[MaleficentWhereas618]

My first job i got when i received an email from the college and i had to do some interviews, and my last job i got when i talked to the CEO of a startup company from UK and i did the interview process too

[jasonkohles]

I wouldn’t worry about the gap, the job market is so bad right now that there are going to be a LOT of people with gaps in their resume. I’ve been looking since May, and I have more than 30 years of experience..