Looking for a job as a developer?
Whether you're looking for your first developer job or you're an experienced dev looking for new opportunities, we know how overwhelming job hunting can be. The good news is, there are tons of sites with tech job listings, job banks, and helpful resources to help you stay organized and motivated during your job search!
We asked Juno’s Career Services Team to highlight some of their go-to tips and tools for job-seeking developers for every stage of their search:
How to start a job search
"Before you begin your job search, it’s important that you reflect on your skills and experience, and align them with clearly defined goals. The best way to do this is to create a job search plan," says Chi-Chi Egbo, the Director of Outcomes at Juno. Chi-Chi designed a job search plan especially for students of Juno's Web Development Bootcamp looking to find jobs as developers after graduation.
Job search plans are a great way to help you stay on track, especially if you're feeling a bit discouraged or lost. You can easily create a job search plan on your own or find a template online. Here are some ideas of what to include in your job search plan:
- Your goal(s)
- Tactics you'll incorporate into your job search
- Daily and/or weekly job search schedule (make sure to include time for self-care activities!)
- Target companies
- Target job locations
- List of resources
- Values and characteristics of your ideal employer
Your plan may include preliminary work such as sprucing up your resume, or finessing your cover letter. Your goals may include a target salary, an ideal deadline to land a job, or a target number of jobs to apply to every day. Everyone's job search plans will vary based on their needs. Be as detailed as you'd like in your plan - it's a resource by you, for you!
How to find job openings in tech
When it comes to the job search itself, while it's certainly useful to find job openings on popular job boards such as Indeed, LinkedIn, GlassDoor, and more, don't forget about tapping into other unique resources!
Madi Fuller, a Career Success Specialist at Juno, recommends Meli, a weekly newsletter that emails you curated lists of brand new, fully remote developer job openings from around the world. Bonus: all jobs on Meli are 100% human-curated, which shows their dedication to selecting high-quality opportunities.
As the workplace continues to change, it's important to broaden your job search." - Madi Fuller, Career Success Specialist
Another great resource Madi recommends is Diversify Tech, that provides a collection of resources for underrepresented people in tech, including a weekly newsletter with job opportunities, scholarships, and events. Their website has even more resources for job seekers and companies looking for new tech talent!
"Similar to Juno, Diversify is changing the face of the tech industry by building an inclusive and virtual community," says Madi.
How to prepare for a job interview
Looking to brush up on the interview phase of your job search? There are lots of helpful resources to help you prepare for job interviews and increase your comfort level with technical challenges.
Juno's Career Services Team recommends Jobeir’s Front End Developer Interview Preparation Guide as a comprehensive source of interview questions. And if you want to get better at taking technical challenges, completing daily challenges is a great way to practice - try LeetCode or CodeWars.
For those looking for more practice with job interviews, Pramp is an intuitive peer-to-peer mock interview platform that is a must-have tool for job-seeking developers. You can book mock behavioural and technical interviews for free with other developers based on your programming language and interview type.
“What’s cool is that they have lots of resources on preparing for your interview, including technical problem sets that you can attempt to solve beforehand,” says Aizhan Zakai, a Career Success Specialist at Juno. “It’s useful if you want to get in extra practice, and get that “real interview” type of experience. Plus, the questions in the technical challenges are similar to ones asked in paired programming sessions.”
We also recommend checking out our blog that covers key questions you should be asking during a job interview in a post-pandemic world.
Bonus Tip: Are email follow-ups necessary?
At Juno, our Career Services Team recommends always following up on applications or interviews with a simple email. Follow-up emails can be a professional way of checking in on the job hiring process and making yourself stand out as a memorable candidate above other applicants.
Adapt Prospector is a Chrome extension that works as a LinkedIn Email finder, which comes in handy for identifying a correct professional email for your follow-ups. “While it’s a tool used for Sales and Recruiters, I recommend repurposing it as a job seeker for email outreach,” says Aizhan. “It saves time, and improves the response rates from employers, which can help you get your resume/profile seen and get invited for an interview!”
Looking For More Career Tips?
Check out our blog for more handy resources!