In this video you will learn how to get your first job as a web developer in 2020. I want to share with you how I would prepare for getting my first job based on the experience that I have now after more than 10 years of experience and after interviewing lots of developers.

So you decided to start as a web developer. Which means you are looking for junior position. And it will be tough to find because everybody want that you have real working experience but you can't have it because you can't get a job. It becomes even more complicated if you are living in a small city because the amount of companies and vacancies will be significantly lower.

So the first thing that you need is a list of technologies that you need to learn in order to get junior position. I already described all knowledge that you need as a web developer in other video (I will link it in the description) so go check it now. Let's just go through really quick.

You need to know html markup, css basics, css preprocessor like scss or less and some css framework. For framework I recommend Bootstrap.

With this knowledge you can already try to get a junior position. Yes without learn programming and with no javascript skills. In big companies frontend is often splitted between javascript developer and guy who is writing only html and css.

So at this point I would create CV and start sending email. The most important part here (and I see it in 90% of CVs) people don't attach any projects that they did. Which means I as an interviewer can't know anything about your skills because you didn't work anywhere. This is why it's crucial to add 1 or several made projects to your CV. I will create at least 2 projects. 1 created markup with html and css for some popular website like facebook or twitter and second with using css framework (for example Bootstrap).

Let's be serious here without done projects you CV value is zero. The other super important part is to upload your projects to github for example using git. Why? Because all developers and using git everyday and this solves 2 problems. First of all you show that you have at least some skills with git (or at least you know what is it about) and secondly you give an interviewer an easy way to check your code. Because you can't attach archives to all CVs and it's not that comfortable in comparison to just opening the link to your project on github. It doesn't mean that you need to spent lots of time on learning git and github. Just google how to upload your code in github with graphical tool. It is possible to make it in 1 evening.

Let's repeat this together: "With projects to show I will simplify finding my first job enormously".

So now you have html css knowledge and created markup for 2 projects. Now I would recommend to start learning javascript. There are millions of tutorials, courses online, even free tutorials on youtube. You goes in to focus on javascript basics like variables, data types, conditions, loops, functions. The main problem here what I see is that a lot of people are going too deep or start solving some boring tasks like "Fibonacci algorithm" or some deep math things. I don't recommend going in this direction. You need mostly to focus on working with DOM, changing elements. The good small projects will be building login or register form with html,css, javascript which has validation, showing errors, and so on. This is also something that you need to upload to your github account and add to CV. Creating dropdown menu on javascript or some quiz is also a nice idea.

And just to remind you. Keep updating your CV in platforms which are popular in your country like for example Linkedin and also keep sending your CV in all companies which possibly can be interested in taking a cheap junior.

After some time you should at least get a little bit used to javascript. It doesn't matter that you need to master it but at least understand the concepts and be able to write some simple code even if it takes long. Now it's time to take a javascript framework. I recommend to take React just because it's the easiest framework to start with and the most popular. You goal again is not to learn everything or master it but to create a real application with it. But keep it simple and don't do huge projects like clone of facebook. Start with 1-2-3 features like rendering a list of products on main page, showing details page for any product, building whole markup. It should look pretty. Add it to your projects on github as soon as you have something to show. Attach screen to the main page so it is visible on the first glance what is inside and how does it look. You want the interview to spent not more than 5-10 minutes to go thorough your account and see your projects. Keep it simple. Write what every project is about and what it shows. Also it's important that the main focus of your CV goes on your projects because you don't have working experience so keep it above.

At this point it should be enough knowledge. Of course you can learn more but this is the normal scope what junior needs to know. It depends on the company a lot. They may want less or more but it doesn't mean that you need to learn more for junior position. Just keep trying.

Now I want to talk a bit about your interviews and your attitude. It is completely normal when you just don't get an answer from companies. Just keep sending your CVs to other companies. It's completely normally that you will fail you first 3-5-10 interviews. But you should get an outcome from them. First try to write down all questions that you get on interview right after it until you forget them and then google them at home and find answers. Maybe in the next interview you will get the same question. And it would be really stupid if you didn't find an answer at home when you had time.

It's also important you get the feedback from the interviewer. If you get a negative response from HR always ask for feedback from the interviewer if possible. They don't normally bother to do that but this information can help you to understand what was the problem.

And here is something really important. You need to have some soft skills. What does it mean? You should be friendly and polite. Normally the interviewer will be your teamlead so you need to show him what you know, that you want to learn and you like the company and want to work there. Normally you will talk first with HR and then with tech interviewer. Ask HR questions about office, teams, company, vacations, salary. You need to look interested to work there. Even if you just want a job and you don't care. The same with tech interview. It's important to show your knowledge but the same important so show that you will easy fit in the team. You don't need to do something special: friendly, want to learn, have some skill.

Here are 2 more super important points. First of all don't lie that you know something if you don't. But just the answer "I don't know" is also bad. Because you need to show you interest or a way how you think. Because it can be a question on specific knowledge like for example "What is closures". The answer "I didn't use them yet, for what do we normally use them?" is much better because you opens the dialog. If the question is more like "How would you do this and that" it means that the interviewer wants to see how you are thinking so just start thinking out loud.

And now here is the truth. Most of tech interviewers won't be prepared for the interview. Maximum they will check your CV and hopefully your projects. So they will simply start to bombard you with some random questions to check your knowledge. Sure it's the bad way to make interview but we have what we have. What you need to do is to propose on checking your projects and your code. A lot of people like to check code and say what the think about it and also it will be the topic which you at least know and where you can discuss something. So I recommend that you come always with your own laptop where all your projects are already installed. Then in a matter of minutes you can show the code and speak about it together.

I hope that this video helps you to get your first job as a developer. And don't be depressed if you first tries won't be successful just keep doing it by the plan and sooner or later you will succeed.

Also don't forget to check my full courses regarding different web technologies.