#1 Myth About Getting Hired as a Self-Taught Programmer

hey everybody how's it going I'm Andy I'm a self-taught programmer and in this video what I wanted to talk to you about is the number one biggest myth about getting your first job as a self-taught programmer and this comes from my experience of coaching and mentoring people who are looking to make a change and get into this field and I've seen this one thing this one phenomena come up quite a bit and it's led to a lot of missed opportunities or people spending way too long a job hunt maybe they don't even end up getting a job at all so I wanted to bring this myth to the light and help you avoid some of the pain and misery and maybe get that job a little bit faster now if you're wondering who I am who the heck is this guy talking about getting your first job as a self-taught programmer I'm like I said I'm Andy I am a self-taught program right to tell myself to code back in 2014 I landed my first job in 2015 doing full stack web development and right now I'm doing mentoring and coaching to people who are looking to get into this field people from all backgrounds people who have no computer science degrees or anything like that so I focus a lot of my channel on how to cultivate the skillsets how to study better how to land that first job like different strategies and tactics you can do to actually get your first job so I'd highly recommend hating this subscribe button below also make sure to hit the bell icon so you get notifications anytime I put out a new video so let's get right into the myth here so the biggest myth that I see as far as getting that first job is that you can only apply to jobs where you know that specific technology or programming language right so a lot of you guys maybe you picked up a random programming language I think a common one is Python right so say you you started learning Python and you learn it to a really large degree and now you're gonna go out there and try to get a job well at that point you may say to yourself I can only look for jobs that are picture-perfect for what I know I know Python I've worked maybe a little bit with some web development that can only look for jobs like that and so you end up looking at very small pool of jobs you never look outside those pools of jobs because you're like well if it says something about Java or C sharp or JavaScript I can't possibly know that and this is a bad decision because just to kind of give you a sense of what I've seen as far as people actually getting their first jobs I've seen people get hired for a programming language they didn't even know so think about that that means that somebody didn't know the certain programming language and they hired to do a job in that program in language how does that work well recently I've had this happen with somebody they went to a job interview they didn't really know what it was gonna be about they had kept the job posting very generic very general and so they showed up and they were immediately asked about Java questions specifically about Java specific technical questions about Java this person who I helped coach and mentor had no experience in Java they had worked with Python JavaScript HTML CSS they built applications but they had never come across Java so he didn't do very well on that part of the interview now lucky for him they still actually brought him back for a second interview there's something about him that they liked and he actually ended up getting hired for a Java developer position which is crazy because again he has no experience at he had very very little experience let's put it that way now is this person really intelligent is he just like a you know hundred and fifty point IQ or something like that the answer is no he does not have an IQ but what he had done is he had showed the company a track record of learning on his own he had shown a track record of starting projects and finishing them and he also showed them that he had knowledge and skill in other programming languages and other technologies that they could possibly contribute at their company so they were willing to take a risk on him and has worked out very well for them it's worked out very well for him and that's not a completely uncommon story the companies are not necessarily dead set on hiring a specific type of developer one of the most common complaints I hear from people are trying to get in this field is that every job posting that they come across it's asking for the Sun the moon and the stars meaning it's asking for every program and thing which possible is asking for 10 years experience for an entry-level position and this is where it can cause a lot of confusion for people like yourself who are trying to get hired so let me kind of clarify here why this happens so if you see a job posting a monster comm LinkedIn wherever maybe our company's website and you see it listed out as you know we're asking for this three years experience in that this programming language this technology that posting may have been created by someone in HR somebody who has no experience or no knowledge no technical knowledge of software development or programming they have may have talked briefly to a software developer a manager who wants to hire a new software developer and so they may have taken information from them and then written a job posting based on what they think they heard in that conversation and so then that's where they're gonna say we're a bare minimum we're asking for this that and the other and that's the way that most jobs work but in software development it's not always so binary it's not always so black-and-white sometimes they're looking to hire someone as a software developer but they're looking for a wide range of candidates but they also don't want to be such a wide range that you know thousands and thousands of people apply for it so it is not always as clear as it may seem what I recommend for people who are going out there I'm going to start applying for jobs is don't limit yourself to a narrow set of what you think you can get as far as a job don't say well I know Python in front-ends so I have to look for this exact job posting it's gonna match 100% right like it can be close enough it can even be in a programming language that you don't even know and you may ask yourself like how does that possibly work if I don't know Java why would I apply for a Java job well here's the assumption I'd be making for all of you guys who are listening my assumption is that you've spent a great deal of time learning the fundamentals of programming in the last video that I put out it talked a lot about it was entitled the number one thing you want to learn as a self-taught programmer and it really revolves around understanding how the logic of an application works how to create the recipe follow steps so that the computer program can produce the desired output that's like the the complicated way of saying it and learning syntax is very important you definitely have to do that to become a programmer but most programming languages just differ in syntax and some of the rules in internal workings of the actual programming language so for you as a software developer to get a job in a programming language that you have no experience in if you can show a track record if you can show that you've learned things very quickly that can tell the potential employer that you are higher Abul because you can learn it you can pick it up quickly and you can build applications for them so you want to make sure whatever you decide to do whatever programming language you decide to learn make sure you create projects you can show an employer that you've done things that you've completed projects you've done it on your own you've learned things on your own and that's gonna give them the confidence to say okay I think this person is somebody who can hire I think some of you guys also need to remember a very fundamental principle about getting hired for a job the only way you're gonna get hired for a job at a company is if that company thinks that you as a human being can provide value to their company you can increase their bottom line companies don't exist without making money I know it may be a shocker to some of you guys so there's companies aren't just out there looking to see who's qualified for a job and just gonna start handing out money they have to look at you and the entire thing that you bring to the table and say I think this person can bring so much value our product will make 10 times more money or at least you know 1.5 times more money or something reasonable like that so you always want to make sure that that's the thing that you're focused on not knowing a programming language inside now but how can you contribute to this company how can you step in on day one and provide value whether that's you bring something into their culture well you are just a good person you're positive to be around you're helpful you work on a team very well your skills are up to the level where they're not gonna have to baby you all those things matter it's not a binary thing like you can program or you can't program there are other things that companies are looking for that contribute to their bottom line of making money so last thing here I'll just say this just to reiterate what I'm saying in this video don't limit yourself to a narrow subset of jobs that you can apply to open it up a little bit meaning that try to find jobs that even maybe ask for things that you don't feel comfortable with the worst thing that could happen you apply to a job you never hear back even worse maybe for some of you guys you go to a job interview and they say we really like you but we're really looking for something very specific here no harm no foul you can walk away without any bruises on your body but don't feel afraid to apply for something that you're not 100% qualified for you can reach a little bit on this so I hope this video is helpful as always guys if you enjoyed this video please leave a like also leave some comments if you agree or disagree and yeah that's all I've got for today so thank you so much for watching and as always guys [Music]

Channel: Andy Sterkowitz

Views: 22,438

Rating: 4.9405646 out of 5

Keywords: self taught programmer, self taught software developer, learning to code, computer science, software engineer, software engineering, software development, computer programming, programming, software developer, andy sterkowitz, self-taught software developer, code, learn to code, self taught web developer, self-taught programmer, how to get a programming job, programming job with no experience, programming job without degree, programming jobs

Id: -xeb0dRpeo0

Length: 9min 5sec (545 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 02 2020