The Key Steps to Landing Junior Developer Jobs

In today’s fast-paced, high-tech carnival of a business environment, the folks with the top tech skills land the best gigs. Web developers are in high demand and command excellent salaries, but knowing how to get the skills and connections you need to succeed as a developer can be daunting. It’s essential to be familiar with the key steps to landing junior developer jobs. A few simple steps can get your foot in the door and start your tech career off the right way.

We’ll take you on a tour of the things that you can do that will make a significant impact on your developer career. You’ll find out which subjects you should study, the projects that can get you additional work, and the best way to get your name out there. Junior developer jobs are out there and ripe for the picking, so what are you waiting for? Let’s do this thing, y’all!

Follow Industry Trends and Keep Studying

The top junior developer jobs go to the folks who not only know their stuff but push themselves to continue developing as employees. If you want to compete with the big dogs, you can’t be content to sit back. Don’t rely on your previous experience and training to make you an appealing prospect to employers. Ambitious and driven developers are constantly learning new topics and stay on top of the latest industry news and trends.

You should broaden your skill set whenever possible. You might know CSS, but it’s worth getting to know Less and Sass, too. Try to become a framework expert by boning up on Angular.js, Node.js, Ruby on Rails, and Backbone.js. It wouldn’t hurt your chances if you got some extra training in CMS concepts and platforms, either. WordPress is a great candidate for further study—it’s an immensely popular platform and a critical skill that employers want to see on resumés.

Complete Freelance Projects and Contribute to Github

As a junior developer, your portfolio is probably pretty spare. You might have only worked on a few projects in school or at a previous job. That’s fine—you’re a newbie, and employers won’t expect you to have tons of experience. If you have new freelance projects on your resumé, though, you’ll have a leg up on the competition. Developing and completing projects on your own is a signal to employers that you have enthusiasm and ambition.

Find some small jobs that you can do in your spare time, and make sure to follow up and complete them. Local businesses might need websites, for instance, or perhaps a company needs some email automation. Anything helps. Once you’ve started working on projects, create an account and submit code to Github. Employers like to see that sort of independent work. It’s the perfect way to qualify for great jobs in top tech cities.

And there you have it, friends and neighbors. When you’re first starting in development, you need all of the help you can get to qualify for the top gigs. We’ve shown you the key steps to landing junior developer jobs to get your career on track. You’ll be a coding whiz with a fantastic salary before you know it.