How Do I Get a Job as a Junior Software Engineer?

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The hardest part of starting out as a software developer is not the programming

There are free tutorials on YouTube
The documentation is freely available
And early on, the types of problems you’ll be solving usually have well-established solutions

The hardest part is landing that first job due to the “can’t get a job without experience, and I don’t have experience because I can’t get a job” conundrum.

Especially with more companies using algorithm-based coding interviews, the barrier to entry is high for the self-taught programmer

So what do I do?

Most prospective programmers index very heavily on getting into FAANG (aka Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, or Google) due to the name recognition and great benefits. This is a great goal to have! But recognize that even seasoned developers have a hard time getting in to big-name companies, so as a self-taught programmer, you will need to be more strategic

Below are a few approaches you could take, ranked in order by most-to-least effective from my experience

Strategy #1: Look at your Current Network