On the day I got the offer letter I was too excited to start developing a product that was going to be used by clients from different parts of the world. I had worked on mini projects and participated in Hackathons but it was the first time to work on something that people were willing to pay for. Therefore, I was overwhelmed by that thought and on top of that, I was going to get my first income from it so it became more special.
How I got the offer
I am part of different communities on discord. On one of the groups, someone shared that they have an opening for a front-end developer. They mentioned that they want someone who has worked on Reactjs for at least 1 year and they require someone who is willing to learn and explore different things. I recently started learning React and didn't have much experience in working with it, so I was a bit hesitant to apply. But I kept opening that message again and again as if my mind is telling me to apply so without any delay I applied for that opportunity.
I had a call with the CEO and he gave me a Figma design and told me to try creating it using React and I was allowed to use mui too. I completed it and submitted it on the same day. After that, I had a Behavioral interview round and then 2 days later he told me that I am selected for this opportunity.
My experience with working on the product for 1+ year
I was happy working on the product. I wanted to learn more about startups so apart from coding I was also helping on how can we market the product, communicate with clients, email marketing, and discuss new features we can add, so I had a great time working there. (Note: Other than coding, I did other voluntary work as I wanted to learn more about it :-) )
But from the aspect of coding I didn't get a chance to learn from senior developer as I was the one building the front-end, it was nice and I learned a lot but since I didn't knew about clean code, code smell, and other coding practices all I knew was I have to make the feature work, I didn't write any test case so was fixing the bug after we found it in manual testing or when the client informed about it, So I felt like I wasn't going in the right direction. I wanted to improve my clean code practices and that's the same reason for which I left the job.
Advice to get the first job
I myself don't have much experience in the tech industry so I can't give any advice as such but I do these things while searching for a new job
- Keep applying without getting demotivated by the rejection emails.
- Be active on LinkedIn or Twitter and often interact with other developers and recruiters.
- If you have connections working in the same company you are applying for then ask for a referral with the proper message and job Id.
- Keep practicing coding questions on leetcode.
- If you have projects deploy them on a live server and if possible make the code public on github.
All the best in whatever your aim is to be and let us keep working every day to achieve our goal.
About Me
I enjoy learning new things and exploring more about products and different tools. I am currently developing a habit to learn something new every day and also trying to stay fit by regular exercise and walks. You can connect with me on my Twitter or LinkedIn.
Thank you for reading this blog and do let me know your suggestions in the comments.