February 6, 2025 • 22 mins
In this, I break down five major mistakes that can instantly sabotage any junior developer’s chances of landing a real coding job. I’ll talk about how inconsistent coding habits, half-finished side projects, and a questionable online presence are some of the biggest turn-offs for hiring managers, along with one or two surprises you might not expect. If you’re serious about becoming a software developer, you’ll want to hear about these red flags so you can sidestep them and stand out from the crowd. This isn’t about shaming newbies. This is about leveling up and showing recruiters and hiring teams you’re serious.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Don Hansen (00:00):
If you are an aspiring junior developer and
you are trying to break into theindustry, I'm going to talk
about five red flags that Iwould really try to avoid.
If you're trying to button upand polish your presentation
towards or what, if you are anaspiring junior developer and
(00:22):
you are trying to button up andpolish your presentation to
employers or potential employers, I'm going to talk about five
red flags that can hold you back, that are probably going to
turn a lot of employers off.
So please take these seriously.
If you're doing any of thesethings, fix it.
So we're going to start offwith the very first one.
Barely any code committed right.
(00:44):
Most of your journey oflearning to code is going to be
building projects.
You should be committing thoseto something like GitHub.
If there's nothing reallycommitted or there's a lot of
your activity is very infrequent, where you're going several
weeks over and over and over,there's a pattern Several weeks,
potentially a month or twowhere you're taking breaks of
(01:06):
coding and then you come back.
You're like software engineersknow.
You're not really growing doingthat.
It takes a lot of time, ittakes a lot of consistency.
And if there is a pattern of alot of breaks where you are
infrequently coding and tryingto grow as a developer, that's a
big red flag.
You're probably at a verysurface level.
You really need to spend atremendous amount of time
(01:27):
digging deep and building asolid foundation and reinforcing
it through a ton of projectwork, and you could even commit
some coding challenges of thingsthat you're working on.
But the idea is to getcomfortable with git, get
comfortable with committing togithub.
Just create an automatic habitof it.
Push your stuff up because,remember, with github you can
(01:47):
organize the projects you wantto highlight.
But seeing a profile with a tonof valid activity is usually a
pretty good sign.
Of course, it's not going to bethe one thing employers look at
, but if your activity feed isclose to nothing and you're
showing that you really aren'tinvesting a lot of time into
(02:08):
this and you're not beingconsistent, employers know that
you're not that good.
That's just the reality ofthings.
And this is where, even ifyou're doing like tutorial based
projects and stuff like that alot of courses, a lot of
tutorials encourage you tocommit it to github, to push
that code to github, to showthat you are making progress, at
(02:30):
least with something you aretrying every single week.
You are making significantprogress and you are pushing
forward for months andpotentially years.
Right, this activity builds upand it builds you into the good
developer that you need to be tobe hired.
So be careful about taking longbreaks, especially when it
(02:51):
becomes a habit.
It becomes a pattern.
It usually is just a red flagfor employers.
So, number two, if you arecommitting, it's also a very
common thing and I did this, bythe way, I did this myself it's
a common thing to create agraveyard of unfinished projects
.
Now, I love when developerswill get curious and they will
(03:17):
kind of explore and they'llbuild a little project, or maybe
they'll build something toreinforce the concepts that
they're learning.
That is freaking awesome.
Those projects that don'treally turn into much, they're
kind of just meant as learningtools, those are useful, those
are fine to keep.
On your GitHub profile Again,you can showcase the projects
(03:42):
that are complex enough, thatare your portfolio projects that
you're proud to show anemployer that they create real
value, the real fleshed out,professional looking projects
that you might even continueiterating on, but they you had
an end date potentially.
But you had an end datepotentially where you said I am
(04:07):
going to fill all of theserequirements.
This is what this app issupposed to do.
I'm going to build it and I cancall it finished.
I can continue making it evenbetter.
That is an option.
But I made it a point to createrequirements up front.
Create requirements up front,and I said I am not going to
(04:29):
stop with this project until Ifinish the MVP, the minimum
viable product, the minimum ittakes for that project to go
live and provide value to realpeople.
You can have a bunch ofunfinished projects if they're
learning tools, but if yourpinned projects on your profile
are unfinished projects, youknow they're sloppy, you know
the code is crap, you know itwas supposed to turn into
(04:53):
something else and you just gaveup on it.
Those are very, veryunimpressive projects and, holy
shit, does that show a lack offollow through?
There are going to be projectsthat you work on as a
professional developer that youare going to be so sick and
tired of.
I just want to be done withthis.
Our teams are arguing we justlike the requirements are
(05:15):
changing.
I have to keep pushing backover and over.
We are not even going to get alot of users for this.
You can come up with all theseexcuses in your head, you just
hate the project.
Whatever the excuse is,whatever the reason is, you
fucking hate that project andyou finish it anyways.
That's part of being adeveloper.
(05:36):
And when you have a graveyardof unfinished portfolio projects
where you know you're capableof a lot more, you know it's
unfinished.
It's clear to other people thatview it that it's unfinished.
What do you think that signals?
Do you really think an employerwants to hire someone that has
(05:57):
no follow-through?
Of course they don't.
It takes grit, it takes a grindto finish this stuff.
And if you are creating a badhabit of jumping from project to
project because you are gettingbored or you lose confidence
and you don't, instead of likeovercoming that challenge, you
run away from it and jump into anew project.
(06:17):
That's a red flag.
Oh, by the way, if you're tryingto become a front end developer
, I highly recommend you checkout Scrimpa.
I'm specifically talking abouttheir front-end developer career
path.
They have a fun, interactiveway to learn how to code and
become a web developer.
And while that's true, that'snot the main reason that I want
to promote them.
Honestly.
(06:38):
The main reason is theircurriculum is solid.
There are a lot of curriculumsthat do not prepare people to
actually be competitive in themarket, and I've reviewed a ton
of programs and to this day, itis still one of my favorites and
one of the best front endcurriculums out there for self
taught developers.
And they're backed by MDN, aleading and well respected
(07:01):
resource in the developercommunity, and I actually
personally run my own menteesthrough the program to prepare
them for front the developercommunity, and I actually
personally run my own menteesthrough the program to prepare
them for front end developerjobs.
And if you choose to sign upvia my affiliate link below in
the description, you actuallyget 30% off if you sign up for a
paid plan, but you have to signup by the end of February to
(07:21):
take advantage of that, becauseit expires after that.
Anyways, check it out foryourself.
What do you have to lose?
Let's get back to the topic Now.
There's another type of profilethat shows a variety of small
projects.
They're finished, but they'resmall.
They're tiny, they don't reallysolve any complex problems and
(07:42):
they certainly don't require youto really thoroughly understand
complex implementations thatcan showcase your foundational
knowledge and can showcase yourgrowth as a software engineer,
but the problems that you'resolving are so small.
It's not really challenging youin that way and it's not
showing employers that you cansolve these more complex
(08:03):
problems.
If you are just building avariety of projects, you're not
really diving deep enough togrow as a software engineer,
them gaining more of afoundational and more
foundational knowledge sometimesa breadth of knowledge, but
(08:28):
certainly a depth of knowledgein their area and they take
ownership of that app.
They know that chunk of codebetter than anyone else on the
team and they take thatownership.
You don't have that opportunityto tackle complex problems when
you just build a bunch of basicCRUD applications or really
(08:51):
small tools that don't require alot of complex implementation.
They don't really require youto even think about how you're
going to organize the appbecause you don't have a lot of
files, you don't have a lot ofcomponents, you don't have a lot
of routes.
Do you really think that's goingto showcase your depth of
knowledge, which most juniordevelopers lack, and employers
(09:13):
know that you really think yoursmall, your ton of small, your
variety of projects showcasewhat you can truly do on a team?
Absolutely not.
It's surface level stuff.
So many developers get rejectedin the interview process
because they just have surfacelevel knowledge and when you
(09:36):
just work on a variety of smallprojects, that is a red flag.
You are probably one of thosedevelopers that just has surface
level knowledge.
And, man, as an employer, I'dbe so tired of going through
those same candidates eventuallyfinding out that they really
haven't dove that deep.
So that's a red flag.
(09:58):
I'd be very careful about thatand to combat that.
I've talked about this in mypast video.
Work on a capstone projectsomething that requires months,
potentially a year plus, tobuild and flush out and gain
users and reiterate, man, thatproject, you're going to be in
(10:21):
the top 5% of developers workingon a project that complex.
Going to be in the top 5% ofdevelopers working on a project
that complex.
Most junior developers do nothave the follow through to do
something like that.
Really, focus on a capstone.
You'd have a variety ofprojects but have that one
single project that continues togrow in complexity.
It looks like a professionalportfolio project.
(10:43):
You present it as such and youtalk about the users that use it
.
You talk about the real valuethat it provides, and hell if
you put a pricing model aroundit.
You talk about the revenue thatyou've gained from it, right,
and if you're not gainingrevenue from it, you can track
usage statistics.
Google Analytics is great forsome basic statistics like that,
but, man, the variety of smallprojects I really think hurts a
(11:07):
lot of junior developers.
But we're going to get out ofthe technical realm right now.
Let's talk about your socialmedia presence.
If you are trying to land adeveloper job, shut the fuck up
with politics.
Just shut the fuck up withpolitics.
Just shut the fuck up.
Please, for the love of God,shut the fuck up.
(11:32):
Stop with the controversialissues.
Stop showing the world thatwhen you are trying to become a
professional, you act likesomeone who has no control over
their emotion and gets involvedand gets baited and gets dragged
(11:53):
into controversialconversations, especially if
you're a shit poster, especiallyif you're petty with it.
Now you're doing your own thing.
I shit post.
There are a lot of people thatshit post and there are a few
people that get away with itwhile working for professional
companies.
I'm not working for anyone.
I'm good, I'm chilling, Ishitpost.
But if you are trying to beprofessional, come on.
(12:26):
That always have to inject likethey always have to have a
strong opinion about somethingcontroversial.
They have to inject politicsinto the workplace.
No one wants to work withpeople like that.
No one does.
No company wants to deal withpeople like that.
It almost always ends up inunnecessary drama.
Sometimes people quit.
Sometimes the company's ownworkers will shit on the company
because they don't back up acertain issue.
(12:46):
Like, if you're trying to looklike a professional, just stop
getting involved in thatconversation online, even if you
tend to present yourself in afairly wholesome manner,
companies generally are kind ofgoing to look at that like, hmm,
is this person going to bringdrama into the workplace?
Like, is this going to turninto something?
(13:07):
A lot of companies are lookingto just completely toss
candidates that show any sort ofrisk in hiring.
Don't give them that excuse.
Get a burner account.
Listen, like I said, I shitpost, I troll.
I wouldn't do this if I wasapplying to companies.
But if you want to hide youridentity, hide your identity and
shitpost I troll.
I wouldn't do this if I wasapplying to companies.
But if you want to hide youridentity, hide your identity and
(13:28):
shitpost I think I don't thinkthere's anything wrong with
shitposting.
Just understand like we have tohave some common sense here.
If we are looking like aprofessional, stay the fuck out
of a lot of controversial, uh,social issues or or you take a
chance talking like that and youreally try to link up with a
company that is very politicallyor socially motivated and you
(13:51):
can use that, but generally thebetter and safer idea is just to
stay out of those issues withyour public profiles.
Now, that's with controversialissues.
But also being a developer isabout dropping your ego.
It's about being able to takefeedback and not get defensive.
It's about working with otherpeople, with other developers,
(14:14):
in a very constructive manner,wanting to lift them up, not
tear them down.
You're not making fun of themor giving them shit because they
didn't know something.
Companies want to hiredevelopers that lift others up
and that's how you want to beseen.
And if you have to fake it,then you fake it for a little
while and you just givecompliments.
(14:36):
I don't think you have to brownnose a bunch of people, but I do
think there is value in atleast transforming your
interaction in society, in theworld world, to at least lifting
some people up that you feeldeserve it.
And if you feel like no onedeserves it, I like that's a
personality thing.
You got to work through that,because there are a lot of cool
(14:58):
connections, a lot of meaningfulconnections.
You could build a lot ofrelationships you could build in
the dev industry if you justtreated them kindly and you
wanted to help them out, justlike they'll eventually want to
help you out.
Like, being a developer in theindustry is about building each
other up and being humble enoughto let others build them up as
(15:18):
well.
It's very synchronous like that.
It's the teams work so well.
When you get a team ofdevelopers that are constantly,
I don't think you have to becompletely selfless, but you are
, you're being empathetic worksso well.
When you get a team ofdevelopers that are constantly,
I don't think you have to becompletely selfless, but you are
, you're being empathetic, youare.
(15:38):
You have positive intentions forwanting to turn everyone into a
better version of themselves,even if it's just by interacting
with you, because you're alwayskind and you're always
constructive and you're alwaystrying to point out even some of
the positive things in them.
Like you could just walk into aroom and you could, within like
10 minutes of people talking,you can feel out who are the
likable people, who you justfeel good to be around, because
(16:02):
they make you feel good.
That's the type of developerthat you want to strive to be.
I don't think you're going tobe perfect with it and there are
all sorts of personality typesthat might make that a little
bit difficult for you, but likeit's something you should strive
to be, because the dev industryand a lot of good developers
(16:23):
that have a lot of relationshipswithin the dev industry know
that we are like technology is afucking awesome thing that
empowers a hell of a lot ofpeople and for those that
actually want to get involvedwith it, that want to grow as a
software engineer, like we wantthose people in tech.
(16:44):
We want them in tech.
We want to lift them up becauseit just makes everyone better.
That's the mindset to have.
So I'm not saying your socialmedia interactions are going to
reflect that purely.
I think we all have bad daysand I think you know we all get
agitated at times and it's easyto let people online trigger us.
(17:05):
I do get that.
But you also have to show thatyou have some emotional control,
that you are a positive forcein the tech industry.
But going back to the emotionalcontrol, like you're someone
that when people disagree withyou or even kind of like bait
you a little bit, or they'repassive, aggressive.
You don't lose your shit, right, and I'm really stressing this.
(17:29):
I'm talking about this a lotbecause I see a lot of junior
developers that don't.
They're not there.
The soft skills just aren'tthere, and soft skills take a
long time to build up.
Take a week after you postsomething.
If you think something iscontroversial or it looks bad.
(17:51):
Take a week.
Look back at your previousweek's post and if you were an
employer or if you were evensomeone that wanted to get to
know you as a friend, would youwant to talk to you?
Would this person be likable?
Would you want to be in thesame room?
Do you think that other personwould lift you up?
(18:13):
If the answer is no, then youneed to go back and really think
about how you engage withpeople online, because that's
where, like I'm telling you, alot of companies most companies
are going to look through yoursocial media, especially any
public profiles, and if you justdon't know how to talk to
people, you don't have the softskills.
There are a lot of people whodo, who will be chosen over you.
(18:36):
Soft skills are important.
I think I've touched on thisenough, but it is really
important and this is somethingthat so many junior developers
struggle with, surprisingly.
And the fifth red flag isdishonesty.
It's a little period where some, a few people very small
(18:57):
minority of people were gettingaway with just being just lying
and flat out saying oh yeah, Iwas a developer at this company
when it was a personal project.
Um, that hiring managers are sotrained to spot that now a lot
of hiring managers are so tiredof hiring junior developers who
(19:20):
have been dishonest, who havelied.
It's expensive to fire them,it's expensive to replace them.
Hiring managers are fuckingdone with it.
I'm telling you, dishonesty anda lack of integrity is one of
the biggest red flags that youcan put out there.
You can build your skills up,you can work on your soft skills
(19:42):
, but if you can't even showcasethat you have integrity and
morals, that third thing takes along time to build up and most
people never do.
A lot of people just get set intheir ways and their habits and
their values, especially as youget older, and just expect that
employer to never think thatyou're going to grow up and
(20:04):
change and never think thatyou're going to grow up and
change If you can't even behonest with what you're building
, what you're working on.
Be humble enough to showcasethat you are still learning this
technology and that's okay.
You don't have to come off likean expert with it when you
literally just watched a courseand built one small project with
it, like, no, this is a cooltechnology and I got like five
(20:25):
more projects under my beltbefore I even want to talk about
it.
I cool technology and I gotlike five more projects under my
belt before I even want to talkabout it.
I don't think you have to waitto talk about it, but I think a
lot of junior developers thinkthey have to come off like an
expert.
Right, companies want to hireexperts that know everything.
No, companies want to hirepassionate software engineers
who give a shit about theircraft.
They have integrity, theirhonesty, because if you don't
(20:46):
even have that integrity andhonesty, you're not going to
have the real conversation youneed to have with yourself that
you have a tremendous amount ofroom to grow.
You suck at this technology.
You have a shitty foundation.
You're not able to solvecomplex problems, yet you are
(21:06):
fucking up a lot of codingchallenges.
You have so much more room togrow and if you can't even be
honest and have integrity, whythe fuck should any employer
trust that you are going toactually take ownership of this
and grow as a software engineer?
I wouldn't't trust you.
Would you trust you?
(21:28):
So I really want you to thinkabout that.
That last one really hurts a lotof people.
There are junior developersgetting hired that are humble
enough to admit when they don'tknow a technology, when they
still have a ton of room to grow.
(21:48):
That's the strength of juniordevelopers.
You are hungry to grow.
You like this thing.
You you have that fire in youthat some senior engineers have
extinguished in themselves, andyou were humble enough to accept
feedback and grow.
You don't come in with a bunchof bad habits.
It's a fresh slate and some ofyou have this idea that you have
to act like a senior engineer,be this expert that knows
(22:11):
everything, with no humility.
How do you think that goes formost people that do that?
You've lost the one advantageyou have as a junior developer
the one advantage by lying andbeing dishonest and showing that
you're not really willing togrow.
Lying and being dishonest andshowing that you're not really
willing to grow man, it sucks tosee so many junior developers
(22:36):
doing that and when I say somany, I still do think it's more
of a minority that does this,but there's a lot of junior
developers doing this.
That's it.
Those are the red flags.
Now there are a lot of otherred flags and I am happy to dive
into those.
So if you want me to dive intomore red flags things to watch
out for definitely let me knowin the comments.
But, as always, I love to readyour comments and I'll see you
(23:00):
next time.
If you are an aspiring junior developer and
you are trying to break into theindustry, I'm going to talk
about five red flags that Iwould really try to avoid.
If you're trying to button upand polish your presentation
towards or what, if you are anaspiring junior developer and
(00:22):
you are trying to button up andpolish your presentation to
employers or potential employers, I'm going to talk about five
red flags that can hold you back, that are probably going to
turn a lot of employers off.
So please take these seriously.
If you're doing any of thesethings, fix it.
So we're going to start offwith the very first one.
Barely any code committed right.
(00:44):
Most of your journey oflearning to code is going to be
building projects.
You should be committing thoseto something like GitHub.
If there's nothing reallycommitted or there's a lot of
your activity is very infrequent, where you're going several
weeks over and over and over,there's a pattern Several weeks,
potentially a month or twowhere you're taking breaks of
(01:06):
coding and then you come back.
You're like software engineersknow.
You're not really growing doingthat.
It takes a lot of time, ittakes a lot of consistency.
And if there is a pattern of alot of breaks where you are
infrequently coding and tryingto grow as a developer, that's a
big red flag.
You're probably at a verysurface level.
You really need to spend atremendous amount of time
(01:27):
digging deep and building asolid foundation and reinforcing
it through a ton of projectwork, and you could even commit
some coding challenges of thingsthat you're working on.
But the idea is to getcomfortable with git, get
comfortable with committing togithub.
Just create an automatic habitof it.
Push your stuff up because,remember, with github you can
(01:47):
organize the projects you wantto highlight.
But seeing a profile with a tonof valid activity is usually a
pretty good sign.
Of course, it's not going to bethe one thing employers look at
, but if your activity feed isclose to nothing and you're
showing that you really aren'tinvesting a lot of time into
(02:08):
this and you're not beingconsistent, employers know that
you're not that good.
That's just the reality ofthings.
And this is where, even ifyou're doing like tutorial based
projects and stuff like that alot of courses, a lot of
tutorials encourage you tocommit it to github, to push
that code to github, to showthat you are making progress, at
(02:30):
least with something you aretrying every single week.
You are making significantprogress and you are pushing
forward for months andpotentially years.
Right, this activity builds upand it builds you into the good
developer that you need to be tobe hired.
So be careful about taking longbreaks, especially when it
(02:51):
becomes a habit.
It becomes a pattern.
It usually is just a red flagfor employers.
So, number two, if you arecommitting, it's also a very
common thing and I did this, bythe way, I did this myself it's
a common thing to create agraveyard of unfinished projects
.
Now, I love when developerswill get curious and they will
(03:17):
kind of explore and they'llbuild a little project, or maybe
they'll build something toreinforce the concepts that
they're learning.
That is freaking awesome.
Those projects that don'treally turn into much, they're
kind of just meant as learningtools, those are useful, those
are fine to keep.
On your GitHub profile Again,you can showcase the projects
(03:42):
that are complex enough, thatare your portfolio projects that
you're proud to show anemployer that they create real
value, the real fleshed out,professional looking projects
that you might even continueiterating on, but they you had
an end date potentially.
But you had an end datepotentially where you said I am
(04:07):
going to fill all of theserequirements.
This is what this app issupposed to do.
I'm going to build it and I cancall it finished.
I can continue making it evenbetter.
That is an option.
But I made it a point to createrequirements up front.
Create requirements up front,and I said I am not going to
(04:29):
stop with this project until Ifinish the MVP, the minimum
viable product, the minimum ittakes for that project to go
live and provide value to realpeople.
You can have a bunch ofunfinished projects if they're
learning tools, but if yourpinned projects on your profile
are unfinished projects, youknow they're sloppy, you know
the code is crap, you know itwas supposed to turn into
(04:53):
something else and you just gaveup on it.
Those are very, veryunimpressive projects and, holy
shit, does that show a lack offollow through?
There are going to be projectsthat you work on as a
professional developer that youare going to be so sick and
tired of.
I just want to be done withthis.
Our teams are arguing we justlike the requirements are
(05:15):
changing.
I have to keep pushing backover and over.
We are not even going to get alot of users for this.
You can come up with all theseexcuses in your head, you just
hate the project.
Whatever the excuse is,whatever the reason is, you
fucking hate that project andyou finish it anyways.
That's part of being adeveloper.
(05:36):
And when you have a graveyardof unfinished portfolio projects
where you know you're capableof a lot more, you know it's
unfinished.
It's clear to other people thatview it that it's unfinished.
What do you think that signals?
Do you really think an employerwants to hire someone that has
(05:57):
no follow-through?
Of course they don't.
It takes grit, it takes a grindto finish this stuff.
And if you are creating a badhabit of jumping from project to
project because you are gettingbored or you lose confidence
and you don't, instead of likeovercoming that challenge, you
run away from it and jump into anew project.
(06:17):
That's a red flag.
Oh, by the way, if you're tryingto become a front end developer
, I highly recommend you checkout Scrimpa.
I'm specifically talking abouttheir front-end developer career
path.
They have a fun, interactiveway to learn how to code and
become a web developer.
And while that's true, that'snot the main reason that I want
to promote them.
Honestly.
(06:38):
The main reason is theircurriculum is solid.
There are a lot of curriculumsthat do not prepare people to
actually be competitive in themarket, and I've reviewed a ton
of programs and to this day, itis still one of my favorites and
one of the best front endcurriculums out there for self
taught developers.
And they're backed by MDN, aleading and well respected
(07:01):
resource in the developercommunity, and I actually
personally run my own menteesthrough the program to prepare
them for front the developercommunity, and I actually
personally run my own menteesthrough the program to prepare
them for front end developerjobs.
And if you choose to sign upvia my affiliate link below in
the description, you actuallyget 30% off if you sign up for a
paid plan, but you have to signup by the end of February to
(07:21):
take advantage of that, becauseit expires after that.
Anyways, check it out foryourself.
What do you have to lose?
Let's get back to the topic Now.
There's another type of profilethat shows a variety of small
projects.
They're finished, but they'resmall.
They're tiny, they don't reallysolve any complex problems and
(07:42):
they certainly don't require youto really thoroughly understand
complex implementations thatcan showcase your foundational
knowledge and can showcase yourgrowth as a software engineer,
but the problems that you'resolving are so small.
It's not really challenging youin that way and it's not
showing employers that you cansolve these more complex
(08:03):
problems.
If you are just building avariety of projects, you're not
really diving deep enough togrow as a software engineer,
them gaining more of afoundational and more
foundational knowledge sometimesa breadth of knowledge, but
(08:28):
certainly a depth of knowledgein their area and they take
ownership of that app.
They know that chunk of codebetter than anyone else on the
team and they take thatownership.
You don't have that opportunityto tackle complex problems when
you just build a bunch of basicCRUD applications or really
(08:51):
small tools that don't require alot of complex implementation.
They don't really require youto even think about how you're
going to organize the appbecause you don't have a lot of
files, you don't have a lot ofcomponents, you don't have a lot
of routes.
Do you really think that's goingto showcase your depth of
knowledge, which most juniordevelopers lack, and employers
(09:13):
know that you really think yoursmall, your ton of small, your
variety of projects showcasewhat you can truly do on a team?
Absolutely not.
It's surface level stuff.
So many developers get rejectedin the interview process
because they just have surfacelevel knowledge and when you
(09:36):
just work on a variety of smallprojects, that is a red flag.
You are probably one of thosedevelopers that just has surface
level knowledge.
And, man, as an employer, I'dbe so tired of going through
those same candidates eventuallyfinding out that they really
haven't dove that deep.
So that's a red flag.
(09:58):
I'd be very careful about thatand to combat that.
I've talked about this in mypast video.
Work on a capstone projectsomething that requires months,
potentially a year plus, tobuild and flush out and gain
users and reiterate, man, thatproject, you're going to be in
(10:21):
the top 5% of developers workingon a project that complex.
Going to be in the top 5% ofdevelopers working on a project
that complex.
Most junior developers do nothave the follow through to do
something like that.
Really, focus on a capstone.
You'd have a variety ofprojects but have that one
single project that continues togrow in complexity.
It looks like a professionalportfolio project.
(10:43):
You present it as such and youtalk about the users that use it
.
You talk about the real valuethat it provides, and hell if
you put a pricing model aroundit.
You talk about the revenue thatyou've gained from it, right,
and if you're not gainingrevenue from it, you can track
usage statistics.
Google Analytics is great forsome basic statistics like that,
but, man, the variety of smallprojects I really think hurts a
(11:07):
lot of junior developers.
But we're going to get out ofthe technical realm right now.
Let's talk about your socialmedia presence.
If you are trying to land adeveloper job, shut the fuck up
with politics.
Just shut the fuck up withpolitics.
Just shut the fuck up.
Please, for the love of God,shut the fuck up.
(11:32):
Stop with the controversialissues.
Stop showing the world thatwhen you are trying to become a
professional, you act likesomeone who has no control over
their emotion and gets involvedand gets baited and gets dragged
(11:53):
into controversialconversations, especially if
you're a shit poster, especiallyif you're petty with it.
Now you're doing your own thing.
I shit post.
There are a lot of people thatshit post and there are a few
people that get away with itwhile working for professional
companies.
I'm not working for anyone.
I'm good, I'm chilling, Ishitpost.
But if you are trying to beprofessional, come on.
(12:26):
That always have to inject likethey always have to have a
strong opinion about somethingcontroversial.
They have to inject politicsinto the workplace.
No one wants to work withpeople like that.
No one does.
No company wants to deal withpeople like that.
It almost always ends up inunnecessary drama.
Sometimes people quit.
Sometimes the company's ownworkers will shit on the company
because they don't back up acertain issue.
(12:46):
Like, if you're trying to looklike a professional, just stop
getting involved in thatconversation online, even if you
tend to present yourself in afairly wholesome manner,
companies generally are kind ofgoing to look at that like, hmm,
is this person going to bringdrama into the workplace?
Like, is this going to turninto something?
(13:07):
A lot of companies are lookingto just completely toss
candidates that show any sort ofrisk in hiring.
Don't give them that excuse.
Get a burner account.
Listen, like I said, I shitpost, I troll.
I wouldn't do this if I wasapplying to companies.
But if you want to hide youridentity, hide your identity and
shitpost I troll.
I wouldn't do this if I wasapplying to companies.
But if you want to hide youridentity, hide your identity and
(13:28):
shitpost I think I don't thinkthere's anything wrong with
shitposting.
Just understand like we have tohave some common sense here.
If we are looking like aprofessional, stay the fuck out
of a lot of controversial, uh,social issues or or you take a
chance talking like that and youreally try to link up with a
company that is very politicallyor socially motivated and you
(13:51):
can use that, but generally thebetter and safer idea is just to
stay out of those issues withyour public profiles.
Now, that's with controversialissues.
But also being a developer isabout dropping your ego.
It's about being able to takefeedback and not get defensive.
It's about working with otherpeople, with other developers,
(14:14):
in a very constructive manner,wanting to lift them up, not
tear them down.
You're not making fun of themor giving them shit because they
didn't know something.
Companies want to hiredevelopers that lift others up
and that's how you want to beseen.
And if you have to fake it,then you fake it for a little
while and you just givecompliments.
(14:36):
I don't think you have to brownnose a bunch of people, but I do
think there is value in atleast transforming your
interaction in society, in theworld world, to at least lifting
some people up that you feeldeserve it.
And if you feel like no onedeserves it, I like that's a
personality thing.
You got to work through that,because there are a lot of cool
(14:58):
connections, a lot of meaningfulconnections.
You could build a lot ofrelationships you could build in
the dev industry if you justtreated them kindly and you
wanted to help them out, justlike they'll eventually want to
help you out.
Like, being a developer in theindustry is about building each
other up and being humble enoughto let others build them up as
(15:18):
well.
It's very synchronous like that.
It's the teams work so well.
When you get a team ofdevelopers that are constantly,
I don't think you have to becompletely selfless, but you are
, you're being empathetic worksso well.
When you get a team ofdevelopers that are constantly,
I don't think you have to becompletely selfless, but you are
, you're being empathetic, youare.
(15:38):
You have positive intentions forwanting to turn everyone into a
better version of themselves,even if it's just by interacting
with you, because you're alwayskind and you're always
constructive and you're alwaystrying to point out even some of
the positive things in them.
Like you could just walk into aroom and you could, within like
10 minutes of people talking,you can feel out who are the
likable people, who you justfeel good to be around, because
(16:02):
they make you feel good.
That's the type of developerthat you want to strive to be.
I don't think you're going tobe perfect with it and there are
all sorts of personality typesthat might make that a little
bit difficult for you, but likeit's something you should strive
to be, because the dev industryand a lot of good developers
(16:23):
that have a lot of relationshipswithin the dev industry know
that we are like technology is afucking awesome thing that
empowers a hell of a lot ofpeople and for those that
actually want to get involvedwith it, that want to grow as a
software engineer, like we wantthose people in tech.
(16:44):
We want them in tech.
We want to lift them up becauseit just makes everyone better.
That's the mindset to have.
So I'm not saying your socialmedia interactions are going to
reflect that purely.
I think we all have bad daysand I think you know we all get
agitated at times and it's easyto let people online trigger us.
(17:05):
I do get that.
But you also have to show thatyou have some emotional control,
that you are a positive forcein the tech industry.
But going back to the emotionalcontrol, like you're someone
that when people disagree withyou or even kind of like bait
you a little bit, or they'repassive, aggressive.
You don't lose your shit, right, and I'm really stressing this.
(17:29):
I'm talking about this a lotbecause I see a lot of junior
developers that don't.
They're not there.
The soft skills just aren'tthere, and soft skills take a
long time to build up.
Take a week after you postsomething.
If you think something iscontroversial or it looks bad.
(17:51):
Take a week.
Look back at your previousweek's post and if you were an
employer or if you were evensomeone that wanted to get to
know you as a friend, would youwant to talk to you?
Would this person be likable?
Would you want to be in thesame room?
Do you think that other personwould lift you up?
(18:13):
If the answer is no, then youneed to go back and really think
about how you engage withpeople online, because that's
where, like I'm telling you, alot of companies most companies
are going to look through yoursocial media, especially any
public profiles, and if you justdon't know how to talk to
people, you don't have the softskills.
There are a lot of people whodo, who will be chosen over you.
(18:36):
Soft skills are important.
I think I've touched on thisenough, but it is really
important and this is somethingthat so many junior developers
struggle with, surprisingly.
And the fifth red flag isdishonesty.
It's a little period where some, a few people very small
(18:57):
minority of people were gettingaway with just being just lying
and flat out saying oh yeah, Iwas a developer at this company
when it was a personal project.
Um, that hiring managers are sotrained to spot that now a lot
of hiring managers are so tiredof hiring junior developers who
(19:20):
have been dishonest, who havelied.
It's expensive to fire them,it's expensive to replace them.
Hiring managers are fuckingdone with it.
I'm telling you, dishonesty anda lack of integrity is one of
the biggest red flags that youcan put out there.
You can build your skills up,you can work on your soft skills
(19:42):
, but if you can't even showcasethat you have integrity and
morals, that third thing takes along time to build up and most
people never do.
A lot of people just get set intheir ways and their habits and
their values, especially as youget older, and just expect that
employer to never think thatyou're going to grow up and
(20:04):
change and never think thatyou're going to grow up and
change If you can't even behonest with what you're building
, what you're working on.
Be humble enough to showcasethat you are still learning this
technology and that's okay.
You don't have to come off likean expert with it when you
literally just watched a courseand built one small project with
it, like, no, this is a cooltechnology and I got like five
(20:25):
more projects under my beltbefore I even want to talk about
it.
I cool technology and I gotlike five more projects under my
belt before I even want to talkabout it.
I don't think you have to waitto talk about it, but I think a
lot of junior developers thinkthey have to come off like an
expert.
Right, companies want to hireexperts that know everything.
No, companies want to hirepassionate software engineers
who give a shit about theircraft.
They have integrity, theirhonesty, because if you don't
(20:46):
even have that integrity andhonesty, you're not going to
have the real conversation youneed to have with yourself that
you have a tremendous amount ofroom to grow.
You suck at this technology.
You have a shitty foundation.
You're not able to solvecomplex problems, yet you are
(21:06):
fucking up a lot of codingchallenges.
You have so much more room togrow and if you can't even be
honest and have integrity, whythe fuck should any employer
trust that you are going toactually take ownership of this
and grow as a software engineer?
I wouldn't't trust you.
Would you trust you?
(21:28):
So I really want you to thinkabout that.
That last one really hurts a lotof people.
There are junior developersgetting hired that are humble
enough to admit when they don'tknow a technology, when they
still have a ton of room to grow.
(21:48):
That's the strength of juniordevelopers.
You are hungry to grow.
You like this thing.
You you have that fire in youthat some senior engineers have
extinguished in themselves, andyou were humble enough to accept
feedback and grow.
You don't come in with a bunchof bad habits.
It's a fresh slate and some ofyou have this idea that you have
to act like a senior engineer,be this expert that knows
(22:11):
everything, with no humility.
How do you think that goes formost people that do that?
You've lost the one advantageyou have as a junior developer
the one advantage by lying andbeing dishonest and showing that
you're not really willing togrow.
Lying and being dishonest andshowing that you're not really
willing to grow man, it sucks tosee so many junior developers
(22:36):
doing that and when I say somany, I still do think it's more
of a minority that does this,but there's a lot of junior
developers doing this.
That's it.
Those are the red flags.
Now there are a lot of otherred flags and I am happy to dive
into those.
So if you want me to dive intomore red flags things to watch
out for definitely let me knowin the comments.
But, as always, I love to readyour comments and I'll see you
(23:00):
next time.
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