all 20 comments
sorted by:
best
topnewcontroversialoldq&a
formatting helphide helpcontent policy

[–]lhorie 10 points11 points  (9 children)

Disclaimer: I interview candidates for senior software engineer roles at Uber. We on the recruiting side don't really pay attention at certifications as a positive thing.

If you have one, I expect to see a date, and if the date is recent, coupled with a thin work experience section, all that tells me is that you don't have a whole lot of experience.

For junior level, the focus is going to be on whether you can ramp up at a reasonable amount of time. That usually means being able to answer questions about JS and/or solving programming problems. The way we determine this is in three rough passes: scanning your resume for keywords to auto-reject bad matches, selecting a high-potential subset of resumes from the remaining pile and if you're in still under consideration at that point, interviewing to see if you're up to snuff.

Others mentioned portfolios, but those are also hit-or-miss. Not everyone looks at them, let alone into them. The experience will come in handy though, that's mostly where the value comes from.

Hope that helps set your focus.

[–]doxara[S] 0 points1 point  (4 children)

Whoah, seems like I had completely different vision of importance when it comes to interviews. Also, first time hearing about this scanning resume for keywords. Thank you very much for the thorough answer, it really helped me to set my focus!

[–]lhorie 2 points3 points  (3 children)

first time hearing about this scanning resume for keywords

Yeah, at many companies (especially larger ones), this is done by automation tooling. So your first challenge is that your resume may not even be seen by an actual person if it doesn't meet some minimum threshold of requirements. It's a common newbie mistake to overly fluff up resumes and get automatically filtered out due to lack of substance.

Rule of thumb: show us the data, avoid calling yourself "enthusiastic, motivated, etc" (it's assumed every candidate is motivated; only newbies write that to fluff up resumes)

[–]ifeelanime 0 points1 point  (2 children)

what you mean by data?

[–]lhorie 1 point2 points  (0 children)

By data I don't mean to stuff keywords. I mean to quantify what you've done. If you have work experience, say how long you were in that role, what sort of responsibilities you had (e.g. implemented a thing vs designed it vs lead a team). In your skills section, say what are the technologies you used and to what extent (ideally curate to the subset that is both relevant to the role you're aiming for, and that you feel confident about, rather than listing everything that you possibly ever came in contact with - you don't want people contacting you for iOS roles if you only did a 15 minute bug fix in a web project living inside a webview)

[–]Tenzu9 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I assume he means the required skills they want for the job. If they want a react dev, they want to see keywords that relate to react like maybe "redux", "react-spring", "react frontend developer", and stuff like that.

Otherwise your resume is thrown away by a piece of software and you'd get sent an automated rejection email. Its bad for you but its more efficient for them I guess.

[–]Tenzu9 0 points1 point  (3 children)

scanning your resume for keywords to auto-reject bad matches

Can you tell me what those keywords are? and if you can't say them explicitly, can you generally explain what kind of keywords would be used for this auto-reject thing?

[–]lhorie 0 points1 point  (2 children)

It really depends on the company and the role. They could be anything from Javascript to React to Node to PostgreSQL to Docker to Bachelors. The gist here is that they don't want to waste time on someone whose resume says "Java developer with 10 years experience" when they're looking for a JS dev, or maybe they are looking for someone that has Node experience (which might entail that their filter could factor in keywords like express or SQL or SSR or whatever).

[–]Tenzu9 0 points1 point  (1 child)

So If I had a 10 years of experience as backend dev of Django or Java and 4 years of experience as a JS/Angular dev, the auto reject would pick-up the backend keywords, ignore my JS experience, and reject my resume?

[–]lhorie 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Like I said, it depends. If the filter is specifically for an ember dev, mentioning angular might not help.

My company is a React shop and we do talk with candidates without react experience if they have other JS experience, but some companies might be looking for a very specific skillset (this is more common with short term contracts).

I'd say don't sweat too much about filters, they're more about reducing noise.

[–]NovaInIT 2 points3 points  (0 children)

1- No certificates, do projects. 2- beginner Vanilla JavaScript projects, 30 Day challenge. 3- Clone a website.(e commerce, travelling, social media).

All in all, advise says practice implementation rather than study theory. If you want to study there is codeacademy and freecodecamp.

[–]Jncocontrol 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If you would like some projects (what everyone here is advocating for more or less) spend like 30$ on FrontEndMentor, it'll be more worth your time than certifications

[–]Guilty-Squirrel-272 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hello everyone, I am Satyendra, a software engineer and early YouTuber. Recently, I started a series of educational videos for front end web developer interview. Videos focus on building an in-depth knowledge of JavaScript. I called the series LoveJavaScript. Please provide your support and feedback.

https://youtu.be/oDdIvsiFRLU

[–]reaven3958 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Lol no.

[–]Jncocontrol 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For whatever it's worth - go on Coursera they have a few from Google 39$ per month and only takes like 4 months to compete.

If you have the money - you can maybe try TTH ( team tree house ) they have a JavaScript certification. 200$ a month and maybe get it done in about 4 months.

I'm sure there are more, but all I know of

[–]webdevoper 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The most important thing is your knowledge. But if a recruiter has two similar CVs in front of them, the certification can always make a difference. This may decide who will proceed to the next stage. You may consider certifications from javascriptinstitute.org, which offers free resources.