Ask HN: Recent engineer grad. What should I study/do for junior dev positions?

3 points by cocoawhale 11y ago ↗ HN

In terms of CS knowledge, I have the equivalent of an Intro CS class and a Data Structures/Algorithms class under my belt. I have many projects on my GitHub but all of the projects (about 5-6 of them) are Hackathon (crappily written un-bragworthy) code. I'm focusing on mainly back-end WebDev junior developer roles. I graduated about 6 months ago and have been focusing exclusively on picking up software skills for these last 6 months.

I DO have 10 months of traditional engineering experience but no Software engineering experience.

Should I at this point, focus on Cracking the Code Interview/Hackerrank problems mainly? Would top-tier companies care about any projects I build? If so, should I focus my attention on projects? Should I look for only internships at this point? What is a good course of action at this point considering one can only choose to do so many things at one time? Will companies hire a postgrad as an intern? So many tough questions, will I ever find all of the answers?

2 comments

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tdefarbus 11y ago ↗

don't waste your time. have you tried devdraft.com..you take a few coding challenges and then you get in front of tons of companies. some of the best coding challenges i've ever seen.

MichaelCrawford 11y ago ↗

First, you need your own website.

Of the projects you've written - the Hackathon stuff &c. - pick out the one that would appeal to the most people, were it well-written. Host your own git server (not GitHub - you want people coming to your site, not someone else's!) then refactor the code so that it is well-written.

Have a read of my articles "How to Promote Your Business on the Internet" at http://www.warplife.com/tips/webmaster/website-promotion.htm... as well as "White Hat Search Engine Optimization" at http://www.warplife.com/tips/webmaster/search-engine-optimiz...