How To Get a Programming Job With No Experience?

What’s going on it’s a Rick,

I’m here today and we’re talking about job interview and this has actually brought up by one of the Members here inside the group and he was asking specifically how do you can actually go ahead and look into actually getting a job as a developer and what you should expect once you actually go in and for your interview and those questions are gonna be brought up in that discussion and you know as far as you know what companies to.

Apply for what positions to look into what titles to go for and then how to get a job without actually having any experience that’s what we were talking about today that’s what the entire cost going to be about and if you have any questions specifically about this topic make sure you write drop a comment below on the sidebar wherever you might be watching this drop a comment and let me know that you are watching this life if you’re.

Watching this on the replay still drop a comment I’ll be able to C be able to still see the comments you’re watching this as a replay drop a comment below and I’ll try to get to those one screw once I get off this call so don’t think that you’re left out in darky but I don’t get to comment before we actually get to the end [Music] here is Noel dan actually asked this question and lo Rick Rand is I.

Was wondering but if you could share your experience with looking for a job how was the interview process technical questions algorithms anything I left out things in advance so that’s the questions all jammed packed into is a couple sentence and the question becomes you know how are you gonna go about getting a job right and can I share some experiences as far as getting a job I can go ahead and talk about specifically you know.

The job that I had in the past and how the interview process went for some of those and what to look for but before I get into that I actually want to go ahead and do you take you back to step one and step one is figuring out where you’re at this is kind of what I wanted to figure out where Doyle was that if he’s had any jobs in the.

Post if he is currently just you know studying or where he’s at right now if he’s had any internships and I really don’t know cuz again his profile doesn’t really show that much information with me so I don’t really know as far as where he’s at but I’m gonna guess he’s pretty you know pretty early on as far as his career and trying to figure out where things are actually gonna end up take you back so I got my first paid programming job at the age of 20 and I had very little to no experience.

Because I didn’t learn to program till I was 20 so that kind of gives you that background there um so actually got this job for a well let me back up a bit more before you actually started looking for jobs before you start applying for jobs or before you start looking for different opportunities to take and all of this is you first have to understand kind of if this is your first job we’ve never been in.

The field you’ve never applied for any type of company first you have to find a vertical you’re interested in so something that calls your attention right this could be many different things from many different people maybe you’re into the automotive industry maybe you’re into the education industry maybe you’re into the real estate industry maybe you’re into the online whatever right there’s hundreds and hundreds of industries you can go into maybe you’re into alternative energy industry maybe you’re into I mean aerospace industry there’s just so many different places you can look into for buying and getting a.

Job so first of all find the vertical you’re interested in and you might be saying well Rick I’m not interested in anything you know what are you talking about what he’s saying as far as interest well you have to find the interests that are that you want to be a part of and if you absolutely have no clue you have no idea you have you just don’t know you’re just like I’ll just take whatever kind of job I want whatever it might be you know kind of reflect back and try to find something that you’re a.

A Little bit of interested in I don’t really care maybe it’s something that you know people don’t find interesting like food processing or whatever it might be right you know there’s hundreds of difference of.

Possibilities you can apply for so first find that vertical you want to be a part of right and once you find the vertical where whatever it might be logistic for example for mine I specifically wanted to focus on education just because education is something that I that I value very highly so that’s the protocol that I specifically chose when I start looking for different job opportunities so you know if you are starting off don’t have that much experience and then you actually go ahead and pick a vertical so that’s step number one right most people don’t.

Even take the time and consideration to find a vertical to apply for and they just start looking for whatever job opportunities whatever job availability is whatever is actually open up in job boards which is not a very effective way right if you just start applying for different companies you know and finance and you have no idea how the financial markets work then it’s like why are you applying for that so.

Find the vertical that you’re at least interested in you don’t have to know that much about the vertical you just have to be interested in it because at the end of the day that’s the things you’ll be working with on a.

Day to day basis so thinks about it like I don’t know if you played a video game or a game where you have this huge amount of map right and if you hate.

The city doesn’t go to the city you know go to the mountains goes for a different area don’t be so focused on just one specific thing so that that’s why it’s really important to pick.

Your vertical find a vertical to think that you’re really interested in and then start applying this are looking for different opportunities because sometimes the opportunities specifically in that vertical won’t be located in your town won’t be located near you it won’t be located you know the specific place you want maybe it’s not people salary you desire you have to account for.

All those things but once you find the vertical then you can start whittling that down to the specific things you want to focus on so for example do you want to work remotely do you want to have a high salary do you want to be able to take you no more than 10 days off per year do you want to have you know different perks do you want to be able to.

Work with the team that’s you know 10 people 20 people like you have to start thinking about these other things before you start a little looking at a different job but that doesn’t really matter that much if it’s your first job you’re applying for because you don’t yet know you know if you like working with one you know one-on-one with a group of like three people or with a group of 10.

People you don’t you know those dynamics so don’t think that you need to know that but if you’ve already had a couple jobs and you already know all of those things already lined up for you just you know focus on that specific thing which is finding those things that you do really need so for the people that really had a.

Job before in the past make sure you have your wants and your needs aligned with the position you’re gonna be applying for you’re completely brand new and you don’t even know what you want or what you mean to find the vertical and then start looking for the positions and then see which one up goes ahead and cause your interest because there are definitely many different things out there so alright so looking for a.

Job so it’s the way you started looking for it you find the vertical and you start looking for the ones that are gonna be you’re gonna be the most interested in and once you find the positions more than likely they didn’t require some sort of experience and this is kind of where new people get stuck we’re like how do I experience if I.

Don’t have any experience that won’t give me a job I can’t get a job of having any experience so you have to be able to bridge that gap of filling in that gap of.

Not being able to have no experience and going into a position now there are companies themselves have actually figured out a way how to take care of this which is by internships so many fortunes of.

Having a cup offer some sort of way for you to be able to get mentored I’ll be an internship now there’s two kinds of internships you have paid and non-paid internships and depending on which one you get the company is gonna have their own process of you going through that process of being an intern and then going from an intern to being an employee of the company now there are very many different reasons why company goes.

Ahead and actually offers an internship program whether that be to get new hires into their company or whether that be to be able to beat anybody else from winning you over because you’re in such high demand or it might be just because they want cheap labor I mean there are hundreds of reasons why a company might get interns but at the end of the day you know that internship opportunity is available so.

Let’s go ahead and talk about the first one which is not working for a paid position it’s just huge is there as an intern so if you could be there as an intern and.

You’re not gonna be getting paid you’re more than likely gonna have the ability to essentially watch over the shoulder of everybody else you’re not gonna be being then nobody’s gonna request you to do anything yes you might have to go grab coffee or yes you might have to go and get lunch for everybody else but you know if you’re there for four hours a day those four hours you might end up doing you know 20 minute tasks and.

That’s your entire day again there is specifically on each of the states you’re in there is an entire gamut of things you have to be able to apply by if you’re actually going to be a non-paying in turn can employer can’t request of you to start actually doing full-time work and not pay you for it I think that would be called slavery but that’s a story for another time not paid you to know it’s gonna be easy you get to look over people’s over Oracle’s shoulder but here’s the thing that most not paid interns to take for granted.

They don’t take advantage of the opportunity this is like literally you get to pick the brains of like senior engineers senior staff, you get to talk to directors you get to talk to everybody in an organization you get to ask questions like how awesome is that um and most people just like yeah well I’m just an intern you know no one’s gonna know no one’s gonna care about my idea.

I Was gonna care about what I think and that’s completely the opposite if you’re interning in it rain make sure you take full advantage of that and you know you talk to everybody in the rotation you get to know everybody in the organization because once your internship is over then the position or the opportunity is present to yourself to work for that organization as a plane as a paid employee whether when your graduation rolls around or.

You did go ahead and bring you on as a part-time or full-time employee and you know that’s part of the internship process is to get you some experience so you can start planning for those for those different available positions so really important non-paid make sure you take advantage of it now there’s also the paid version of an internship now the paid version of internship is different because you’re actually getting paid for your time and this is kind of that this is kind of the one that I did the first company that I worked for them actually.

Got brought on as a junior programmer or entry-level program around just you know 20 years old like here you got Rick here’s your project go ahead and get to it and we’re gonna go ahead and pay you for it now the pay yourself wasn’t great and I mean you know I’m not gonna argue about the pay because I had a little to no.

Experience and going from working at a retail job right we’re getting paid like nine ten bucks an hour to a part-time programmer like pays is double that so I was actually pretty happy that my pay doubled just by being able to.

Jump from retail over to a programming position and I was pretty happy about that so I wasn’t gonna you know I wasn’t gonna argue with them and let them know like no I don’t want no I don’t want the job like I want this much amount of money so you know if you get a paid internship which is the one that I got I’m running like you’re gonna be up teamed up with a mentor and.

This mentor is actually gonna go ahead and take you essentially under his wing and tell you everything that you need to know specifically to complete the project you’re coming working on so you actually create something your value for the organization and it actually sees some sort of return on the money that you’re gonna be getting paid that’s option that I did I don’t really regret it was really worth it because literally in a year and a half I learned so much that can read books about it oh wait I have looked about it so yeah in a.

A year and a half I you know I got essentially took in under the wing of this mentor for a year and a half and this is a person that has a is the senior engineer has over like 20 years of.

Experience in the education industry and you know just really sharp guy that has been doing this for a really long time and you know having a mentor gives you a lot of different ability he’s again asking questions be able to ask for help in think you’re struggling with such as you know what books to read what classes to take you know should you should you focus on a specific thing like games or not I mean having a mentor is really valuable because they can actually see the path that you’re walking and be able to point you to.

The right to the right direction you need to go and that’s really valuable because when you really know where you’re heading like how do you know where you supposed to go so again, mentors it’s kind of a understand who you are they understand kind of where you’re going and they understand you know what path you should be taking and it’s really important you know if you decide to go with that path of being a paid intern with it.

With the mentor that gets assigned to you that’s really valuable even if you get paid less I would definitely give and consider that over the free non-paid internship because they’re not paid internship yeah there’s really no risk right hey if you just sit on that corner over there and do your homework you know no harm no foul right and you.

Know if you ask no questions no harm no foul right there is no there’s no one’s risking anything on the contrary if you’re a paid intern if you’re as a paid intern then there is definitely some skin in the game right not only by you but also by the company alright so that I think that answers the first question Noel.

Asked which is um could you share your experience she looked for a job so that’s experienced one right how was the interview process so moving up to part two of this question the interview process so you went ahead and you know you found the vertical you found the possible opportunity and then now you are going to go ahead and actually go in.

For an interview now depending on the company working for this is Kim this can vary from company to company each company has their own screening process right so you might start off by summoning your resume or getting a referral or actually applying through the website whatever might be then there’s just typically some sort of mechanism that goes through all the resumes and pulls the ones out there it does not qualify for the position yeah there’s some sort of.

The full interview so you actually go ahead and get on a phone call again this doesn’t apply for every company but more than likely your company is gonna go ahead and get you on a.

Phone call be able to discuss you know a couple things in touch bases with you on this phone call isn’t too formal it’s more of a Kay you know we got your we got your resume you know we’re interested in interviewing you don’t you know tell us about you and then you can kind of go back and forth and then you schedule a time based on that call now some companies actually go ahead and stretch.

That call for freaking four to five different calls depending on the organization so I’m just saying a call for the sixties implicitly but sometimes that things get stretched out to five different calls where there is an assignment you turn in that assignment there’s another call and there’s another call and there’s gonna call yeah it depends on the company I don’t want to say that every single company will do one single call but there’s gonna be some sort of call process right and then once that once you get past that then you actually go for the interview and.

The interview process again it’s some companies it just might be one single interview in person or it might be three or four different interviews depending on the title you’re applying for the simplicity.

We’re gonna go for a junior position right if you’re applying for you know junior program or junior developer Android mobile web whatever might be writing your lines for some sort of entry-level position and if you’re playing for an entry-level position that’s gonna be very different the interview process is very different from a junior coming into a senior that has been doing this for 10 years the interview process is very different and.

You might get some of the same questions but it’s still a different process it I wouldn’t go ahead and consider it the same now I’m gonna go ahead and tell you this from experience right I’ve actually been on the other side of the table I’m actually have been able to hire different developers and be able to go in there and.

Ask interview questions actually I was the interviewer the interviewee so when I say these things again I’m coming at this from that perspective of actually being actually have had hired developers in the past so I understand that process so the.

Interview process once you get through the phone interview the in-person interview might actually happen through some sort of video mechanism so cool hangouts Skype zoom there’s a bunch of different platforms where you might actually get on a video call like.

This one and be talking back and forward with that person and you know get through the entire process of the interview and that’s what’s gonna be involved there now that interview process might be just a single call or it might be a series of calls like you know first this like the soft skills and hardcore skills and the summary skills and then wrapping up call so there might be four different calls or five different calls you go through that or there might just be one but I just want you to understand there is a screening process.

Right whether it be phone call email automated you know whatever way they can go ahead and parse those resumes and then there is an actual interview process where they go ahead and validate all the candidates and then the company goes and actually decides based on the on the resumes and based on the interviews and based on the candidates that go.

Ahead and actually pick one and actually send you out an offer so that’s what the process looks like but more than likely you don’t want to know about the proximately like you want to.

Know like the actual technical questions and like the nitty-gritty like nuts and bolts of the thing right like what technical questions what do you need to know what programming language again so depending on the company so depending on the on the job and what I’m going to tell you here is that you go look at the job posting and you go look at the company okay now what about site is.

Really valuable you go look at the company right and you see where the company’s getting their funding all right this is a VC-backed company this is a company that raises grants this is a company that’s being funded by the government figuring out where they’re picking up their money or is this an actual company that actually creates money where depending on where.

The money is problem is really important you know if it’s an event-based company they’re an entire money comes from events so again understand where the money flow is coming from and really try to figure out how the money they’re gonna be eating paid is actually ending up in your bank account so go look at the company see what they do understand what they actually do so for example you know it’s gonna be the financial industry and are they.

Going to be managing some sort of portfolio so try to understand as much as you can about the financial industry so you go in the interview and you’re not there you know completely looking at it I had the other percentage of blank stare when they tell you like do you know what stock is again I understand I understand the vertical.

Right this is why it’s important pick the right vertical understand where the company’s making their actual money and then you look at the job posting and you look at the technical requirements they have you know is it is it Mongo Express angular node and if it is you know you start looking those technologies or is it Java Scala will Rumi whatever the language might go look at the requirements and you know if they’re using something specifically like.

Scrum or they’re doing some sort of thing with agile whatever the thing might be stories whatever it is right they have this entire requirement list good to that requirements list and make sure.

You understand and you’re able to talk about every single thing on that list right you know if they’re talking something specifically about you know mobile development you bet your buddy but you’re gonna guess what she’s about mobile development so make.

Sure you understand all the requirements on the job posting and you’re able to enter enough of little questions from that job post now technical questions and algorithms and that’s where those things actually come from so the technical questions are going to derive from the job posting the algorithms are going to derive from the company and those are the two big ones right technical questions and algorithms so the algorithms is if it’s a financial based company you’re.

Gonna have some sort of algorithm they’re gonna have in that specific verticals so understand I’ve heard of go and be able to say okay more than likely I’m gonna gas these type of questions because there’s the type of industry they’re working with where because of this they’re making their money in this certain form which is you know managing portfolios whatever it might be right and then you can do backwards the questions you might ask it asked so those are the technical questions and if you really if you are really having a hard time with the technical.

Questions then I recommend you to read the book cracking the coding interview I personally haven’t read the book but I looked through the what is it called silk, not syllabus the table of contents and I went through all of that you know covers pretty much everything you learned about in a CS degree so you know this is usually all the algorithms that you need to know about you know reverse binary all that fun stuff you can find it in.

That book and it’s short enough that you can go ahead and you know to brush up on it and more than likely it’s not to learn it’s to brush up on it in people get.

That mixed up all the time when they’re paying for interviews like oh crap anything all this stuff no you need to learn you don’t need to learn it and if you need to learn if you’re not ready to apply for a job you’re right you need to brush up on any to you know review it and kind of get back to a back up back up to speed up no I.

Was asking how did you get started and what were the struggles of looking at the first paid internship job okay I think I’ve talked about that already well I think I did have some struggles I think I talked about this I think I wrote a blog post about this but there’s definitely some real struggles you have to go through and the first one’s gonna be self-doubt especially if it’s your first position self-doubt is gonna kick in pretty bad you know it’s gonna be oh who do you think you are you already know how to code well.

With a pager blah like all this nagging thoughts are gonna kick in dad like they’re gonna want to make you procrastinate and make you not want to apply for jobs they’re gonna make you will not want to actually go and actually start looking for different opportunities so the self-doubt is gonna be pretty hardcore the first time you do it so you know the best way to get past that self-doubt is to.

Get some help right if you’re if you’re a university more than likely there’s some sort of placement on some sort of career placement Resource Center they have so they actually go ahead and you know show you off to different companies and show you different opportunities career placement yeah there’s some sort of career match isn’t that the University says I don’t.

Want the exact title for it I never used it but there’s definitely that resource there available for you if you don’t have that available there’s definitely not recruiters there are different ways you can actually you know to get rid of the self-doubt so.

Other people are kind of pushing you towards actually going out and getting a job but yeah that’s the big struggle that I had so yeah technical questions and algorithms are those gonna be.

Based on the vertical and then if you want to brush up on any of them look at cracking the code interview which I think you can go CodeWithIntent.com/interview and they’ll take you over to Amazon you can go ahead and purchase it out I’ll drop it I’ll drop a link below on the back here so you guys.

Can actually go ahead and know and then the next one is everything else I left out thanks in advance so no I’ll ask this question you know anything else so here’s the other part that you probably left out you probably not this is not gonna matter for the first time around you do this but it’s gonna matter for the third.

Fourth bit sixth time you do this which is going to be up your salary requirements your vacation requirements your work environment requirements you know those things are going to matter big-time so once you actually get through the interview process and you get to the end and they actually go ahead and offer you a position or they go ahead and out for you an offer essentially for a salary position or an.

Hourly position whatever it might be once you get to that goal right I want you actually get to that to the end result of actually getting a job offering slash job position slash job opportunity right at that point once that’s actually on the table now it’s your job to go ahead and move up those numbers to go up right because more than likely the company’s gonna tell you some sort of.

The number and your job are to get those numbers to go up and you know there’s definitely a lot of ways to do this and if you’ve done this multiple times you’re pretty happy you.

Probably already have a good mechanism of going about moving those numbers up and if you if you paying attention this call in the previous the last 10 minutes at all talking about and if.

You understand where they’re coming from then you have even a little bit more advantage there too because how much your salary is going to be but if you’re a brand-new person here’s what I’m.

Gonna go against what everybody else is gonna tell you to take the damn job look if it’s your first job just take the damn job all right don’t get picky don’t like you already had time to pick the vertical you already had time to apply for the position you already had time for this and that if it’s your first programming job if.

It’s your first development job does not matter if it’s paid unpaid if somebody’s offering you the job if they’re offering you the opportunity take the damn job all right even if it’s less.

Then what you might be making right if you come from like a sales background or if you come from a different vertical and you were used to making you know 75,000 $80,000 a.

Year and you’re getting this internship opportunity at $40,000 a year I mean you know you know like less than what you were getting paid cause internships and I usually a year on length buy their agency well they might be you know depends on the company take the damn job if you really want to make the job make the freaking jump and jump already and take the job now if you’re a brand new person you have.

Multiple team or multiple offers on the table then obviously you know choose the one you want to go with because sometimes it might not be the one with the most amount of money it might be the one the most much not potential to make you a lot of money so that’s the last advice once you get to the end you’re an experienced person make sure in negotiating salary and if you are a new person just take the damn job and then after you take the job get ready to quit and start preparing to automate your job.

Away and Sarah move to the next thing now there’s entire videos that I have about that specific topic so if you’re interested in that you know to check up a YouTube channel check out my blog check out Jace Academy and go ahead and talk about all of those things as far as uh you know getting rid of your job and actually moving away from your job and finding next thing after you get your job which is.

The next phase of getting a job so that’s it guys that’s it for this call this actually went a lot longer than I thought 30 minutes I thought was gonna be done in ten so I’ll talk to y’all next time.