I'm a software engineer working at a startup. This was my first job that I got 3 years after I dropped out of college and I have been working here for three and a half years. I like the work and I am excellent at it. But I have learnt everything that I know about programming on the job and that has been stagnant for a while now. I tried looking for a new job and in the last 6 months I've applied for a hundred jobs but haven't gotten one interview call. The best I've gotten is a link to an online leetcode-style test and I suck at those too. How do I make my skills visible? Some info about me. I'm 27 years old, from India and I don't have a bachelor degree (had to drop out due to health issues). The lack of bachelor's degree is the biggest blocker I'm dealing with. Even the few contacts that I have right now say that my CV will not even be considered for even an entry level role at their companies because of that. My manager at my current job has been becoming more and more toxic. Calling me to ask why I'm taking a paid leave, pinging me multiple times a day for updates and expecting me to be on call outside of work hours (someone was fired recently and this was one of the reasons). I just need some advice from people who hire developers. What can I do that would make you look past my lack of educational qualifications?
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Your other option would be to change job markets to where they don't prioritize the University degree after you've had some job experience. That being said 3 years of job experience is not a replacement for a 4 University degree. Even in the United States where it is still possible to work your way into positions without the University degree that is simply not enough experience to be considered. At dropping out of college and 3 years of experience you would still be looking at a non-software engineer entry level position. You would be doing support or systems administration and from there you could demonstrate the skills to move into a software engineering position.
Some other red flags are you say this is your first job you've had and you got it 3 years after you dropped out of University. Health, family, life situations do come up that cause you to take this kind of break in these kind of gaps but employers don't care. As people they may understand these things happen but as an employer looking for an employee they don't care. That's why I really think overall your best option return to University complete the degree and then with the degree your prior experience will matter and that Gap will go away.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38317087
You have to look at things from a practical perspective and leave ego aside. Getting a job is selling yourself. Look at all the things sales people do to sell a product. Your the product, the buyers want to see a degree, even if it's from a mediocre university. So, you can remain where you're at and keep looking for the 1 in a million job while those people who did the University thing get there CV's moved higher up the stack.
Otherwise you're looking to move to a place where they don't care, but again you're looking at an entry level non programing job. You will have to prove yourself for at least 7-10 years with no degree, or become well known in the industry for your area. Doing that requires a lot of networking. Attend every users group and conference. Become a presenter, etc...
While I understand the Indian University sentiment here, there are many other opportunities for learning AND promoting yourself at the same time. For example, contributing to open-source software (especially software that is used by corporations) is a classic route for a reason.
Agree in the return to university part. 27, three years of experience and no bachelors degree don't stack up well against someone with a bachelors and more experience, who can easily be younger. Life and health issues happen, living through them can nake you tougher and more resilient. That isba story to sell in an interview. Getting one is the problem now.
Hence, go back to university, get your degree (I'd say with ypur experience it would be easier than without), work as much as possibel during your studies, internships, working student jobs. But do not worl full time (I did during my masters, it worked, but took 4.5 years and instead of 18 months, I had a diploma begore, so time didn't matter for me, it does for you so).
Those interships and student jobs, in industry and not academia, shoupd be easier to get with relevant work experience. And they give you contacts and a foot in the door for a full time job after graduation.
- Networking. Much easier to meet people when you belong to the school's institution and get feet in doors. At least in the US, the university to industry pipeline is strong. Businesses have a sense of trust of quality for students coming from certain schools and will prioritize you.
- Now that you're older and have experience in the real world, you will get MUCH more bang for your buck at school. You know what you want and will be able to steer your future career much more effectively.
So, when you do get that interview, just say that the opportunities for learning new things are your current job are limited, or something else that is true but not too negative-sounding. I have seen candidates who trash talk their current or former employer in an interview get rejected for that reason, because immediately people wonder, "will they talk like that about us if they get this job?"
Also, keep in mind that the problem is not you, it's that the programmer job market is saturated with the Big Tech layoffs from earlier in the year, so keep your self-esteem up and your skills sharp and in time things will turn around.
I had this backfire. I left a job after dealing with toxic and personal BS and passed all my interviews at a great company. Then came the personal references where one must be my previous manager. My previous manager trashed me and gave me a bad reference and I didn't get the job.
In the future I didn't hold back on why I left and got the next job.
I'm an East Coast straight shooter and I feel that's enough to get my point across and let them know what my expectations and intentions are. If they're also running a shit show they'll put one and one together and figure out I'm not a good fit. If they're ligit they'll appreciate the toned down honesty.
At least that's what I hope for sone shit shows don't seem to recognize that. It's Dunning Krueger at the organizational level. Frustrating.
The other two things that can really make a difference are either having good personal projects uploaded on GitHub, or contributing to relevant open source projects.
As a disclaimer, I'm not senior/experienced enough myself to be much involved in hiring.
I have avoided applying for traditional jobs for the last 10-15 years and instead focused on "freelance" (mainly Upwork). For several reasons: because it was easier to get remote work that way, because I wanted to make sure I had time to work on my own startups, to try to avoid office politics, and because it was actually easier to get that type of work instead of "real" jobs.
Basically, I "outsourced myself".
The reality for me has been a pretty poor income. Although there have been a few times where I managed to get something like a business going for a short time. And I have not been without work for any significant amount of time.
Anyway, even though it also can be brutal to find work and you have to watch out for awful clients which are plentiful, Upwork (and relatively few other sites/apps) now has a virtual monopoly on online freelance work. At least for any project which has significant budget constraints.
You can go on there and find something that looks like a spec and just pretend they hired you. Build it out and put it in your GitHub and developer profile. Keep doing that for some months and eventually you can build up some projects in some areas and be confident that you can apply for them and they will see related work in your profile.
Another aspect of this is networking. That doesn't come naturally to me and I have had limited success. But about 1.5-2 years ago I did manage to get myself accepted into a particular community and niche where I had a web application that was popular with users in that niche.
From that web application and through referrals in that community, I managed to get away from Upwork for awhile and pick up contracts directly through Discord.
I think the key there was being embedded in that specific community with software that was used for that specific niche application inside of that community.
So you could try that. Literally find some activity or interest group that seems interesting to you and just get absorbed into it to the point where you are figuring out how to make tools that you know for sure will help people in that community do that specific task. Easier said than done. But doable.
I recently learned that there are websites out there that serve as aggregators for the plethora of Discord communities out there. E.g: https://discadia.com/ and https://disboard.org/
1. If you are in India, create profiles for yourself on job seeking websites such as AngelList, LinkedIn or Hirist. When I was part of a hiring team, I(and peers) used to go through profiles on these websites with filters for the skills we were looking for, and then ask the recruitment team to reach out to candidates we found interesting. If an engineer or a lead takes a look at your profile and feels that your skills meet what they are looking for, they are highly likely to overlook the lack of a degree.
2. Network. If your resume does not get your foot through the door, try to go to language specific meetups and socialize. The whole `need a degree to work here` is a HR thing and just a way for them to reduce the applications they receive. A referral from someone within the company would usually skip that barrier.
3. Apply to any and all openings that you feel that you are a suitable fit for. Do not let the `CV will not even be considered for even an entry level role at their companies because of that` thought stop you, and let the person looking at your resume decide if you are a fit or not.
> How do I make my skills visible?
Points 1 and 2 should help with this. Apply to one of the free courses on Udemy or Coursera and complete the courses to get a certificate. Have a colleague whom you work with leave a recommendation or endorse you for skills on LinkedIn. I used to receive offers for a IOS mobile dev roles even years after I stopped working with Swift just because of one single skill endorsement.
I believe you have not asked for this, but I would definitely recommend getting a degree, even if it were a distance learning course that you can do while you work.
Context - I'm from India, and works at big tech. I do have a degree, but no employer has every asked to see it. They just want to know that I _went_ to a college, doesn't matter if I graduated or not.
> What can I do that would make you look past my lack of educational qualifications?
Your own one-person software-as-a-service business or relevant side projects. Hard to argue that you are not qualified when you can point them to github/website and say "I made this".
The environment has changed since the zero interest rate era ended and now with AI quite frankly I'm afraid it will only get even worse which means less developers would need to be hired. Even if you get an interview, it is the Leetcode and algorithms pseudo IQ test bullshit that will be used to filter anyone out.
> How do I make my skills visible?
If I were you, I'd create a bunch personal side-projects and do some networking. As long as you have something to show, it is worth more than a 'degree'. Even better if it profitable and pays the bills.
You never know if you don't try. You might even spin it out into a business which you will be hiring developers yourself.