Ask HN: I have a computer science degree, how to I get a software developer job?

5 points by SxC97 2 years ago | 11 comments

I completed my bachelors in CS back in December 2020 and was able to land a cybersecurity analyst job via a personal connection. It's been ~2 years and I'd like to switch to a software development job, but it's been difficult.

I've applied to over 400 jobs over the last 3 months and have recieved nearly as many rejections, and at this point I don't know what to do.

The core problem I see, is that most positions need atleast 2-4 years of experience to even be considered. This is fine for mid-level positions, but I see this for entry level positions too!

I feel like I have a strong resume with several side projects in several different disciplines, along with strong technical knowledge and management experience at my current job, but how can I convery that to a hiring manager? I've tried applying on LinkedIn, google job boards, via the HN Who's Hiring posts and have still not managed to make any progress.

I'm currently back in school, finishing my masters in computer science (remotely), hoping that this might help somewhat with my job search in the long run, but I'm starting to have my doubts.

So, to anyone reading this who works in the tech field, how did you land your first job? And what should someone in my position do to land their first job? Should I look into head hunters? Hire a resume specialist? Lean on personal connections more?

Thank you for all of your advice!

rel2thr 2 years ago |

In your situation, start writing software at your current job.

If your company is smaller and has software devs, ask them for tasks

If not, just start coding things to automate your tasks or make things easier or grow new business lines

After 4-6 months of this, ask for a title change to software developer .

Then your job search will be easier as you will have real world experience and check a lot more boxes on resume screens

elmerfud 2 years ago |

You don't mention which university you went to to get your degree. Additionally doing a remote learning for a University degree does not look as well as physically attending. I understand back in 2020 there wasn't much choice to be had, but there absolutely is now for getting your masters.

Where did you intern with as part of your bachelor's degree? Did you intern at all? Did the University you attend have job placement and recruiters that attend the University to find talent? These internships and relationships you form at University with recruiters are key to landing your first job. Going to a school that is not known for its computer science program or where recruiters don't go or where top companies don't look for interns at greatly affect your ability to land positions in your field.

If you didn't avail yourself of those things at University you can perhaps avail themselves now when going for your masters but I would advise not doing a masters with remote learning. Also go to a university with a master's program that requires you to write a thesis that's top 10 or top five in the programs that you want for your master's degree. This is the best way to land a good job right out of school. Because recruiters will be there looking for talent at those schools. Avail yourself of every opportunity for an internship and to interact with these recruiters even if you feel that internship is beneath you.

the_only_law 2 years ago | |

> Additionally doing a remote learning for a University degree does not look as well as physically attending

I was under the impression that an online degree, at least from a fairly reputable schools (I.e. not a for profit) makes no differentiation on paper between online and in-person. How would they even know? Are companies calling up the school to request such specific information?

Jtsummers 2 years ago | | |

Some schools mark their online degrees and in-person degrees differently in transcripts/diplomas. Not all, GT for instance awards an MS CS for their OMSCS program participants so that there is no distinguishing trait between the two that someone can filter on.

paulcole 2 years ago | | |

If 2 things are valued the same and one of them is known to be less useful than the other (but you can’t tell those 2 things apart), how much do you think those 2 things are valued?

If companies can’t tell the difference, they’ll just ignore them both.

brodouevencode 2 years ago |

> I've applied to over 400 jobs over the last 3 months and have received nearly as many rejections, and at this point I don't know what to do.

What's the common reason given? Have you done any interviews yet? Are you certain that it's lack of experience?

Is there anything that you can do from a SWE perspective at your current position? Many daily tasks like report building, etc. that you probably do manually can be automated, for example, which helps build your skills and build your portfolio.

SxC97 2 years ago | |

Thank you for taking the time to reply!

Unfortunately, when it comes to online applications, there is never a reason given beyond "We appreciate your application but we have decided to go with a different applicant."

As for interviews, I did a few technical interviews last year and discovered my data structures and algorithms knowledge was a little weak. I did spend some time practicing leetcode questions to shore up my knowledge in that area.

This year, I haven't managed to make it past phone interviews where my lack of (specifically) work related technical experience was brought up every time. I was told several times that my work experience, educational background and hobby projects (like homelabbing) were impressive, but did not make up for the lack of previous software development experience.

I did manage to do _some_ programming in my current job (writing queries for parsing security logs, shell scripts for processing plain text data, etc...) and I've tried to emphasize these acomplishments on my resume. I was also recently promoted to global team lead, and I believe there will be some more oppertunities to work on technical problems so I will keep this in mind for the future!

mattbrewsbytes 2 years ago | | |

> I did manage to do _some_ programming in my current job (writing queries for parsing security logs, shell scripts for processing plain text data, etc...)

Do you consider devops types of roles software development and something you'd do? Those tasks you describe sound like sys-adminy types of things. Maybe try applying to that type of position?

Another option is to just get same role you have now but in an organization that has people writing code as a major deliverable of the company. I'm assuming there aren't teams like this in your current organization.

girishso 2 years ago | | |

I have nothing to offer, but you seem on the right path, just don’t give up!

austin-cheney 2 years ago |

Here is the path to attain employment provided you are willing to work within a given salary range and are willing to throw away any consideration of job satisfaction.

1) Toy around in JavaScript. You need to be strong in the syntax, but that's it so get comfortable typing the code and minimizing errors, but you don't need to be good at any of this.

2) Get solid on React. Spend most of your time here.

3) Learn all the popular tools that your peers cannot live without. These will include build tools, static analysis, test automation, bundlers, UI packages, and everything else. Keep in mind you will rely on NPM packages for everything because you can type in some syntax but dont really have any idea what you are doing.

4) Build out a portfolio and make it eye candy. It can work like garbage but it needs to be pretty. Window dressing is the name of the game. You can clean this stuff up and make it competent in the future once you learn the job a little bit.

5) Apply for jobs as a junior developer. These pay less and have higher competition for employment. You will notice that once you get hired everybody is basically a junior anyways despite their years of experience.

6) Check all the blocks at your new employer to achieve a promotion within the first 3 years. Bam, you are now a senior by title. You don't have to know how to really program. You just have to learn to play the game and manage competing priorities.

7) After 5 years of total employment already be thinking of your exit, such as entering management. At this point if you have not taught yourself to program on your own time outside the office you are likely really good at doing the same beginner things over and over. You are an expert beginner. Some people are happy with that, but your career is essentially capped here unless you have an exit plan.

misterrobato 2 years ago |

Do some projects and build a portfolio, github or your website.