The 3 things that actually get you hired as a new dev (and the ones keeping you unemployed)
The three-step guide for any new developer, for any junior, for any intern, for anyone trying to transition careers. This is the simplest guide you'll probably ever find online. You probably know times have changed—it's not as simple to get a job in tech anymore as it was 5 years ago during COVID where all you had to know was HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Who Am I?
I'm an immigrant in Canada. I moved here 2 years ago. I started from scratch. I had to work low-level jobs. I was a server. I cleaned a physiotherapy clinic. I was a server for two places actually. I had one shift in a retirement home and I thought, "Holy crap, this is insane." I quit the next day after my first shift.
Today I work remote for a startup in San Diego. I probably know what you're going through. I've probably been through the same things as you are going through right now. You probably don't know where to start, where to look. I'm here to help you because I've been in your shoes.
Number One: Just Having a Good GitHub Account
It really is the most important thing you can do. It doesn't matter your portfolio. It doesn't matter if you create your personal website. What truly matters is what you display on GitHub.
Great Projects Pinned
You can't just have a calculator. You can't just have a personal portfolio. You can't have bad projects. Here you must display the best ones you have.
For example, I have a mobile app which is published to the app store and the play store. This one is an AI voice agent built with Express, Supabase, and 11 Labs—basically you call and you can talk to the AI. This one is a project using AI for business discussions and this was another mobile app. Four great projects.
I have 56 repositories and those four are the most relevant ones. So those are the ones I decided to pin.
Understand Conventional Commits
Oftentimes I see from early developers that you just don't know how to create commits. You decide to push five different things into the same commit and then it's just a mess. You don't want to do that.
You describe the scope of your commit and then a description. You don't want to make it five different scopes. You don't want to change the authentication, then feature A and then feature B and put it all into one commit. No, you make smaller commits into different chunks.
For example: "fix: fixed the index," "add: follow button to the log card," "update: style." Smaller things. Don't just push "add whatever" or just type anything. It looks ugly.
Great Documentation
For each project you build, you must have great documentation. My mobile app has good documentation—shows features, tech stack, what to do. Your profile on GitHub has to look good.
You're looking for your first job, so you cannot have a profile with low contributions. If you want to stand out, you can contribute to open source projects. I've never done it, but it's a huge plus for your profile.
Number Two: You Must Have a Good LinkedIn Profile
LinkedIn is so simple yet I see so many people making the same mistakes. You don't want to position yourself as "Oh I'm a student. I'm looking for internships. I'm looking for entry-level roles. I'm open to work."
You want to position yourself as a professional, someone who knows their craft, who knows what they're doing.
Profile Picture
Good lighting, centered face. You can see my face. I'm smiling. There's no "open to work" banner. It's not a full body picture. It's not a mirror picture. It's not a selfie picture. It's a good picture.
Your Banner
This doesn't really matter that much. I like to put a picture of me doing my craft. Some people have informational banners with your email, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram. Up to you. Some people have their company banner. Simple banner, don't go ultra crazy.
Your Headline
Some people say it's extremely important. I disagree. It's extremely important if you're a founder, but in your case, simple. Don't reinvent the wheel. Just add "Software Developer" and then add the keywords for what you know: NodeJS, React, Node, Postgres, whatever.
Your About Section
You want to position yourself as a professional. You don't want to position yourself as someone who's looking to learn more when you get a job. You have to show that you know your stuff. You're here to work, not here to learn.
For example, mine: "I moved to a new country alone at 18. No friends, no family. This experience made me grow and mature more than anything else could have done. To this day, I have built multiple projects that prove I can build end-to-end applications, and they were all through trial and failure. From AI phone agents to mobile apps, I'm able to ship anything."
You want to tell a story about yourself and it cannot be ChatGPT generated. This has to come from your heart. You can't just add "I'm a software developer with passion and enthusiasm for fast-paced environments." Get away. It has to come from your heart.
Posts
Your posts have to be meaningful. You can't just show up once in a blue moon and post "I got a new job" or "I went to an event" or "I graduated." You have to show up. I would say at least once a week. You have to be in people's minds. You have to create meaningful content.
Number Three: Build Something
You want to build something. You must build something. You can't just hope that you're going to get a job by applying to different applications. You must build something and guess what? Post about it, share about it. You must let the world know what you're doing.
Imagine you were starting a startup. You're a founder and you have to get customers. You have to create content so people know what your company is about. That's what you have to do.
Not a Random Project
You don't want to build a calculator, portfolio, or any other stupid thing. Everyone does the same. And now with AI, you only look dumb if that's all you can build because AI is accelerating all developers.
You want to build something real that solves a real world problem. My app started with a pain my girlfriend had. She had recipes all over the place. So I built her a web app to save everything. Then it became a mobile app.
Do the Founder Role
You have to do the founder role of getting users. You want to tell everyone about it when you go to events, hackathons, online. If it's B2C, create accounts on social media. I have my Instagram account where I post reels every day. You want to tell all your friends and get their feedback and iterate on user feedback.
You get to solve real world bugs. You get to put your app in a real pipeline and you are being proactive. You are not waiting to learn when you get a job.
My Success Story
For a long time I was creating posts about my app every single day. Here's my CTA: "Hi, my name is Arthur. I'm a natural builder and I decided to share the real world applications I've been building for my portfolio. I'm frequently sharing about this process so follow/connect with me to see the journey unfold."
This is for the founder, co-founder, CTO, tech lead—for anyone. The 970 people who saw my profile and decided, "Oh, nice. This guy is looking for a job. He has an app in production and he's sharing about it every single day. This guy is legit."
That's how I got my current job by posting every single day. I met someone who introduced me to someone because he was seeing my posts every day and he liked me.
The Power of Building Real Things
I also got two freelancing opportunities from people seeing my posts. One of those freelancing opportunities became a job offer that I didn't take because I was already employed. Someone else saw my GitHub and recommended me to someone else.
When do you think in your life you're going to be talking to 30,000 people? Never, if it's not through social media. You never know who's watching. You never know who's going to like you.
The Bottom Line
If you are a new grad, if you are a new student, if you are looking for a job, if you're still in university, that's all you have to do:
- 1. You want to have a good GitHub
- 2. You have to post everything on LinkedIn
- 3. You have to build something to have something to post
Thanks for watching and I truly hope this video helps you somehow.