Hello guys, the next year I’ll start working as a programmer, I’ve been doing it for around 8 years but never done it professionally. I hate all the jobs that I can currently get to so… I wanted to speedrun getting a job with a good programming language (i.e. Elixir or phoenix). Do you have any advice? Ty in advance.
Recruiter: rejected
There is always a faster way, but it’s never better.
A random member not sleeping at night
Good luck!
advice: coding practices and culture matter more than language. Focus on finding a team that matches your values and workflow instead of limiting yourself to elixir only. Keep working on your elixir skills and eventually a good opportunity may come along
Generally there aren’t shortcuts - you just have to put the work in to stand out (especially because Elixir is one of the most highly paid languages and so competition for jobs is high).
Here’s a quote from a recent interview with @redrapids over on Devtalk:
It’s something many of us have echoed in similar threads here on the forum - you need to do your bit to stand out, and you can do that by things like:
- Reading as many books or doing as many Elixir courses as you can.
- Blogging.
- Creating libraries.
- Sending PRs to existing ones.
- Being visible/active/answering questions on places like this forum.
Good luck, and welcome to the community
One thing to keep in mind is that your first job in any industry doesn’t matter. The reason you get your first job is to give you the experience needed to get your second job. So, along with what everyone is saying above, don’t worry about the first job. It won’t be fun and it won’t be what you want, but it will get your foot in the door and give you the experience you need to ensure your second job is more in line with what you want.
Likewise, your second job is a pathway to that next job that is more what you want. There are no perfect jobs or companies or cultures, so look at what you can provide and learn and just keep moving towards your goal.
I would also echo the idea that languages come and go. Don’t tie your career or identity to being a developer. Our job is to solve problems using the best tool for the job. It is not to write x amount of lines of code in a certain language. Concentrate on solving problems and providing value and you’ll have a great career.
Also, welcome to the forum.
Not sure if you know, but I got my first Elixir
job after 3 months since I become active forum member. I believe it’s short enough. That’s said … obviously it does not mean that I was as good as now. You cannot skip anything “just like that”. Only practice is the right solution to improve your skills and in this meaning there is no shortcuts.
Also I got said job only because I was really quickly learning new things and worked really hard in said time. There are still alive theories that I’m not sleeping and everything began exactly when I was the most active. @AstonJ bent over backwards trying, in many time zones, to do changes at night to make sure nobody would notice any problems. However no matter what he did I was reporting literally every accessibility trouble on forum. Maybe I should put info about it in my references.
When I think about it my personal theory could be that he have launched devtalk
site to distract my attention between two forums. However because of that I become one of the most active members on both of them. Maybe I’m sending less reports than before, but in exchange I got more free ebooks, so I feel like I’m the only winner here. Did I mention that my final target is also Erlang
forum?
I wrote above half seriously just to better show how much work needs to be done to achieve something. There is no “only right way” to solve things, but every way gives you some wins and drawbacks. Only you can advice yourself what’s best for you like everyone have a best way to remember new things. No matter what you choose it would never be easy and fast in the same time.