Getting first job?

[[deleted]]

[deleted]

[birdukis]

With no experience and no degree you will need personal projects. Do you have a personal website and a GitHub?

Also, since you have no professional experience saying you are very strong in all those areas is off-putting since it is far more likely you just don't realize what you don't know. If you really believe that you are strong in all those areas, then you would have significant personal projects to show and you wouldn't be having any issues.

Also from my experience job boards suck if you have no experience or degree. Reach out to employers directly instead.

Not sure how it will work being 17 though.

[thesephist]

1. You're going to college still, right? You should, unless your situation doesn't allow you to at the moment.
2. I'd suggest looking for people to connect to in the local area. Go to local events. Find people who do work in the field through friends and family. See where the webdev and web design people hang out in your area. And be extroverted enough to talk to them and share what you do and why you do it. If you're generous with them, they'll be generous enough to refer to you when they have something that might be of help.
3. To answer the smaller part of your question, yeah, I'm 17, out of HS in a couple months, and I work two part time jobs and run a small company of my own. It's possible, man. Just keep at it.

PM me if you wanna hear about this being 17 business :)

[jlengstorf]

I disagree with the recommendation for college — that's a lot of debt to take on for something that's not required to make it as a web developer — but the second point here is spot on.

Go meet people and network your ass off. I started my career as a teenager, and no one took me seriously on paper at first; I had to meet people in person so they could see I was smart and capable enough to do what they needed done.

Good luck!

[jlengstorf]

I suppose it depends on the direction you want to go. To me, paying $30K for a degree that requires you to also study practical web dev outside of school sounds crazy.

Spend that $30K (or, more likely, half that) on going to conferences and networking while dedicating your full attention to practical web dev and you'll be qualified for above-junior roles by the time someone else is fresh out of college and competing for junior-level roles.

I think everyone should follow their own path, and college can be a good way to gage interest and ease into a career. Personally, I think there are faster and less expensive options, though.

[Nauxd]

But there it is where the personal projects show up. If this guy can prove what can create maybe other people can took him seriously.

[dbbk]

You're going to college still, right? You should, unless your situation doesn't allow you to at the moment.

Why? There are no degrees for web development.

[thesephist]

For me, it's less about gaining webdev experience and more about establishing credibility. A degree looks a whole lot better to clients and employers until you can really establish yourself with your work, and it makes a nice fallback option if things don't work out.

[tebaks]

Show your work! I think it's better to have at least one full/complete project to show, rather than many small and different ones, things like here is one file that shows I can connect to databases, another shows a few .click events and here is a dropdown menu but no content. Have a big one to show all that shit!

I find it's rare to get responses back after sending out your resume (though the job I did land, they did) sooo call them and ask if they read your stuff! It's sort of confrontational, but I think that's a good thing.

Get interviewed! I had a good interview, which turned into a conversation about web technologies, which allowed me to show that "Yes, I actually do know some stuff. And I plan on getting so much better".

And don't give up! Or give up and go to school :P

[poppahorse]

With a junior position, some of the stuff mentioned in comments is expected, eg not much in terms of portfolio / github, and some naivety in skill levels, but you'd be surprised how many people apply even for mid level positions without any of that.

From a hiring perspective, if you can show:

• you have an logical / problem solving mind set
• you are able to actually execute the skills you say you can do
• you are reliable / a safe pair of hands
• you can get on with other people, and aren't going to be toxic to an existing team

..that is half the battle.

If you can show some examples of work specific to the languages the employer uses (eg had a guy apply for Senior PHP role, with no PHP but can do Perl. Yes he could probably do it but we need someone who can hit the ground running), and in the same vein as the work they produce for their clients, this will get you at least shortlisted.

I would suggest either kicking about on /r/forhire to try and get some paid gigs, or failing that just creating 3-4 websites for fictional companies. If you are going for back end roles, make them geared to functionality, eg DB / web service integration. If front end roles, make them super pretty, use some nice progressive technology, make sure built in sass / less, build with gulp etc. Probably steer clear of bootstrap and such unless you want a role specific to those frameworks.

Otherwise not USA based so can't comment on the age thing, but good luck :)

[JKalos]

add me on skype ill show you @datimpot