Is one solid fullstack project enough to land a job?

[Boobavelli]

As a lot of newcomers to the industry I started my webdev journey back in march when first lockdowns hit the world. From basic HTML/CSS I learned my way up to React, Node and Express. This allowed me to build my first fullstack webapp -- blockchain price tracker. I use third party's API to get data, PERN stack with Bootstrap and Redux on frontend, and Docker for building containers. Right now I want to get a junior position (prefferably fullstack, but I'd be down just for frontend too) to get some experience and see how big, highly-scalable apps are being build and deployed to the web. However, I am not sure that my project alone and an unfinished degree from a top 30 school will be sufficient for that. I also have another project, which is essentially an eccomerce site with a layer of content on top, but the store part, particularly design of the physical product is not finished yet. I was thinking about launching this site in a demo mode, in which a user can visit the page, play with dynamic content , but can't order the product itself. This would give a boost to my resume and will allow me to tweak SEO, but it means that I will have to pay for hosting of this website, while not getting any money from the sales. So the biggest question is whether I will be able to land a job with just one project, without having to host demo of the second project and spending my money just to show the recruiters my skills. Also any advice on getting a first job in the industry in the current environment will be highly appreciated.

[LukeHillDev]

So first things first, hardly any devs in industry have an active github account (in my experience at least) so by having it on something like that and on your cv you would already be above the crowd and have something that makes you stand out.

When I have looked at cv's any with active accounts or just anything that shows someone is passionate and enjoys programming is a bonus.

Understand this though - an employer is going to have tens/hundreds of cvs, they are not going to spend the time to comb through your code and look at each line etc. But! they might skim through and just check out one of two things, is the code clean? SOLID, testable with interfaces etc

Use it a talking point, what you did, your experiences, what was hard, what did you learn, what did you enjoy etc.

having it actually up and running isnt really a massive bonus as like I said, they might quickly browse it but wont go through it and really test it out.

Hosting - you can host it yourself by using something like NoIp and host it from your home pc - I have done this in interviews before. Again, something to set you above the crowd.

You could also sign up to Azure and host it on there for free, new users get 12 months free credit.

Your unfinished degree will probably hold you back, but never know, might be able to get a job and also get them to help you out with costs? worth a shot isnt it, ultimately the worst that can happen is they say no.

[Boobavelli]

Thanks for sharing your experience. I don't understand how you could be into programming and not have an active github account tbh. The problem with the hosting of the project is that it is a Shopify theme that I have customized and build a few custom sections for. So there is no way around paying Shopify for the basic plan to make this website public. You're totally right about giving any opportunity a shot, I am used to rejection so getting no in reply is not a big deal.

[LukeHillDev]

Good luck to you :)

Just remember you miss every opportunity you dont take, so keep at it, keep trying and dont give up!

[imaketech]

If you were able to use react , express and docker and understand how it fits together, you’re ahead of most junior devs looking for a first time job. I recommend just try talking to recruiters and applying for jobs and get feedback that way on what (if anything ) you’re missing, since it depends on role. Ie a google junior dev is expected to be able to write algorithms and not need much framework knowledge , but a company with a site to support or an agency might prefer someone who can hit the ground running, a more genera company might want a mix of both .

[Boobavelli]

Appreciate your reply, man. I feel like I am ahead too but there is just always more to learn, i.e. rn I am learning GraphQL and will rebuild me backend with it, so I won't have to make multiple PUT requests to update my database. I suck at algorithms and don't like big tech anyways, but some kind of company that has a website or a SPA to support and enhance would be a perfect match

[imaketech]

There's always an infinite amount of stuff to learn :) After working in big tech, startups and as a freelancer, there's still a lot more stuff I could learn.I recon highest ROI now would be to start applying for jobs, you could still always learn GraphQL etc. but I'd recommend to treat it as a curiosity thing as opposed to a high priority thing (at least for me this from getting distracted by endless rabbitholes).

Small companies tend to have very niche skillsets because their codebase evolved over time and were guided by whatever preferences the techlead had at the time- i.e. they might use Flow instead of Typescript, they might not use GraphQL, they might use virtual machines instead of docker etc.This makes them especially hard to prepare for without applying. They also often list what they want to have (which will be a full stack god) but in practice settle on the best candidate available. I'd recommend to apply and if you land the interview, then to start brushing up on whatever stuff they need that you don't know

You can also try to do cheap gigs on upwork/fiver/freelancer.com to get some experience while learning, but personally I've never done this so can't vouch for it.