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Ask HN: Should I Apply Anyway?

6 points by Clanan ↗ HN
As a newbie software developer with little formal training I have come across countless entry-level job postings requiring "1 to 3" years experience, a "functional" or "knowledgeable" grasp of language/skill X, or similar. I never know whether I should apply to such postings as it can be difficult to quantify such terminology (e.g. I have -almost- one year of experience). Given the many postings discussing the talent shortage, should I apply anyway? Or am I, and newbie devs like me, wasting our time?

7 comments

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samikc
I think you should. You cannot quantify how well you know a programming language X. I have come across such questions in many interviews, and I was like "How can I say - how I rate myself in Java in scale of 1 - 10?". I now avoid that question diplomatically. Some interviewers say, the gauge your confidence level with that but you take that as it is. Like if you tell me I rate myself 3 in C and you wow me with a perfect binary tree traversal algorithm code. I give a st about you the score "3" you are a good programmer to me.

Anyway, you apply to the companies and land yourself a job. You will learn a lot once you start working on something.

Very best for your job search.

amorphid
Go for it. The cost of failure is your time. Don't forget to keep becoming a morr awesome coder :)
floppydisk
Go for it, the worst they can do is say no. Don't limit yourself to the box of only having "<1 year of experience with Language X", think about what skills you bring to the table other than experience in that language. Have you built an open source project, even a tiny one? Can you learn new languages and technologies fast?

Emphasize the other things you bring to the table other than your ability to sling code in a specific programming language! In the long run, possessing the ability to critically think and solve problems will carry you much further along than possessing mad skills in Languages X,Y, or Z when you first apply. You can learn 'em all as needed. ;)

Best of luck!

DyumanBhatt
It is worth trying at least. In the meantime make some personal projects that prove what you can do. It can be a simple game, or a solution to help a small business.

Don't forget that networking can also help you bypass such requirements if you have an internal referral.

flannell
Good advice. A friend of mine dropped out of his Computer Science course but still went for a job at a games company Rare. He sent them his code for a rotating 3D light sourced car written in GW Basic, and got the job!
devs1010
I would apply to any jobs that ask for 5 or less years experience. Don't get caught up on all the cruff they put in job postings, they say they want this and that but really what they want is someone who is competent and can help their company in the specific role for which they are hiring. Whoever posts the ad doesn't usually understand much about sofware development, hence ads where you see things like "Java J2EE developer needed, ruby, python, php, javascript experience a plus", they really don't need someone who knows all these languages, they just figure it would be nice to have someone who did