Educator and Career Consultant, Resumeover.com
How to apply to developer jobs
without prior experience
The world of technology careers has known no limits. With the advent of AI and ML, new products are launched every other day and the start-up world especially is in full swing. The opportunities that were full of Web 3 are now seemingly replaced by AI-related opportunities, causing a lot of interest among those who are not currently in the technology industry.
I know the title does not do justice to the topic because the term “developer” is too loosely used since while the word “developer” could mean someone programming and developing digital products, the context within which the developer role exists can change the dynamics of entering the world of technology as a developer quite a lot.
Through this article, using my own experience, I intend to share a few tips with those that are probably considering entering the technology industry, possibly as a developer.
TLDR;
Technology is probably one of the industries that is most welcoming of those that can prove their skills. Basically, more meritorious.
The good news is while there may be several that would not agree with me, from my personal experience technology is probably one of the industries that is most welcoming of those that can prove their skills without being too focused on someone’s prior experiences.
There are countless stories of people successfully switching careers even with 20 years of experience after either learning on their own or attending a bootcamp. Well, going to bootcamp is another topic for another day.
Depending on whether you want to become a mobile app developer or web developer or a data scientist, or even purely front-end or back-end developer, the path one can take to realizing an opportunity can vary but as long as one acquires skills necessary along the way, the route does not matter.
From exploring a bootcamp to just learn html and CSS because I was upset someone was takin a month for a simple static landing page with my email address displayed 10 years ago to having built 6 full stack web applications that have among themselves twenty thousand users, I can say that the most important step you are going to take in your journey to becoming a developer is believing that it is possible.
You would agree with me that the first material step to becoming a developer, i.e. securing a job as a developer is acquiring the skills. In the last ten years, the opportunities to teach someone programming have grown manifold with the internet is literally full of sites and YouTube channels that offer courses for free or a majority of the course for free to try. Let us take a look at finding your developer niche area so you can carve a path for yourself and stick to it.
How to go about learning web development
The world of web development can be confusing to even some of those that are in the area of web development because there are new technologies – call them frameworks and libraries – that come out literally every month and some become popular and some become popular enough to get a few people talking.
But, do not let the framework jargon intimidate you. You will understand the moment you start your journey and develop the knack to shut the noise out. Consider this – imagine you want to travel by road to a city for your vacation. How many possible ways in which you can get to your destination. I would assume your answer is countless, a few considerable routes and one or two preferred routes. Also, if I were to ask you what are the various travel modes possible. You could say there are a few but you would be driving or taking a flight etc.
Becoming a web developer is exactly similar to this vacation travel. There are so many frameworks, libraries, technologies and tools available for you to consider, but you will pick the one that makes the most sense. How do you decide which most the makes sense? Unlike in the case of vacation planning which you may have done several times in your life and know intuitively what works etc., when it comes to learning a new skill that potentially is the pathway to your career destination, it is inevitable that you would make a few small U-turns and that is just part of the learning process.
The best approach would be to start somewhere. If you have confusion as to which IDE (integrated development environment) to use because you watched a few YouTube videos, I would suggest start with something first and see if you like it. If not, change to something else. It will all come down to personal preference and that is why there are so many options. The key is to start somewhere.
Now, let us talk about which technology to learn. You cannot avoid HTML, CSS and JS. It is basically the foundation, the walls and the roof of your house. All frameworks and libraries that you see flying around are all developed to help being these three together to work better, faster, and easier to build. Period.
Some would say before you jump to learn any frameworks and libraries, you should first master the basics of CSS and JS. But I would say give it a try. Download a framework while you are still learning the pure JS. Get a taste of everything and stick to one approach. As an adult, your learning patterns have all been solidified long time ago and tinkering that up is not going to be very efficient. If you are a one-at-a-time person, stick to that. Approach it like a course you would have taken at your senior school or college. Finish one and move to the next. Or, you could be someone like me; slightly impatient, want-to-see-all-now type of a person who wants to check a few things and trying to make progress on all at the same time. If it works stick to that. Or, you may be someone who is both. A few weeks one and a week trying everything. That works too.
The point is to do everything that is going to keep you wanting to learn. It needs to be fun. Do not be compelled to something that you do not enjoy because you don’t want to give up learning because you are force-fitting someone else’s learning regime. Start somewhere as soon as possible.
Build Something
When I was learning web development, I realized my own learning patterns. I realized I was not someone who likes to learn something for the sake of it. Nothing stuck with me when I was just learning how tables work in HTML. Then I realized I needed to build something for every learning outcome. Then it became so much easier to connect to the learning material. If I was watching a YouTube tutorial where someone was teaching how to construct a table and style it, I wouldn’t just follow the same routine as the instructor. I would instead come up with my fictional use case, for example, creating an invoice and a few things to it like a logo or a digital signature etc. because seeing something like a finished product excited me and gave me such a kick.
Tips to becoming a developer
- Start somewhere
- Build something of importance
- Create a portfolio
- Network and network
- Don't wait till you feel ready
You don’t need to remember everything
This was one of the things I struggled with at the beginning. I would try and memorize all the CSS attributes and HTML table structures etc. Then I realized there is this wonderful thing called internet. Your willpower quota is best utilized to learn how a few things fit together rather than memorizing trivial syntaxes and class names that you can easily look up and get in a second. Also, because it is not going to be possible for you to remember everything you are going to learn in the coming months. So focus on how things come together to create a final product and making it better as soon as you have a version 1 of your output.
It might make sense to take notes on your learning. My personal notes are usually related to my development environment settings for a particular technology I use for a project. Because it saves time to look up my own notes rather than searching it online.
I still remember the first button I styled and a click action I attached to it. It made me so happy and I never looked back.
So, key points to remember: Start with something as soon as possible, build something for every small learning, and you do not need to remember everything.
Develop a personal portfolio
A personal portfolio is an online collection of your projects, skills, and achievements that showcases your abilities as a developer. It acts as your digital résumé, but with the added advantage of demonstrating real, tangible examples of your work. Typically presented in the form of a website, a portfolio includes detailed descriptions of your projects, the technologies you used, the challenges you encountered, and how you solved them. It’s a way for potential employers and collaborators to see your technical expertise and problem-solving skills in action, even if you haven’t had formal experience working in the field.
Your projects on the portfolio are your work experiences that is going to level the playing field for you when you are going to compete with others who may be already working as a developer. So, treat your projects on portfolio as a serious endeavours that solve a specific problem as if they were a real business problem for some fictious company or an individual. For this reason, you would find it useful to build a handful of features really well and completely, solving a single use case really well rather than build several features not catering to a single use case.
Keep a customer persona in mind as you build your portfolio and have a clear picture of how your website is going to help solve the problem for the chosen customer. These will come handy during your discussions on the job interview.
Why developing a personal portfolio is a good idea
When everyone says they know their trade well, your showing your trade via a portfolio can make you stand out. Listing your skills on a résumé is valuable, but showing them in action is even more powerful. A portfolio gives potential employers or clients a window into your capabilities by showcasing actual code, completed projects, and creative solutions to problems. Even if you're a self-taught developer, a portfolio can help you prove that you can apply your knowledge to real-world scenarios. It also allows you to demonstrate your continuous learning, adaptability, and growth over time, which is especially important when trying to break into the field without prior job experience.
Your projects don’t need to be live
One of the common misconceptions about portfolios is that all projects need to be deployed or live for them to count. This isn’t true. Your projects can exist in a GitHub repository or as offline demos, and they will still be valuable to showcase. What matters is how well they demonstrate your understanding of coding principles, problem-solving, and your approach to development. Employers aren’t necessarily looking for polished, client-ready applications; they are more interested in your thought process, code quality, and the progress you make with each project.
did it. What is important is you built something with the skills you learned.
Do not compare your portfolio to others’ as it is very easy to feel discouraged and panic. What matters is how well you can solve a given problem and given some time. It does not matter when you know everything by heart or even how much you know of a certain technology. Problem solving is key. Someone else’s personal portfolio can look all too colorful and with fancy animations. Yours maybe simple. Don’t worry about these things. What matters is you built yours and can built several like these and more complex ones as a professional developer.
Explore job opportunities
A tip I would like to share with you is, you should start applying to jobs as soon as you built one or two projects that are on your portfolio. Given the time, we would delay applying to jobs until we feel ready. No one ever gets 100% ready. As long as you are able to build something and host it for others to see, you should consider yourself ready. Developers are known to suffer from Imposter Syndrome. It is the feeling of being insufficiently capable while in reality it is not the case.
Open positions can be explored across all job sites, including Linkedin etc. Do not fall victim to job scams. In short, if anyone ever asks you to pay in advance to put you in touch with a recruiter or to get you an employment offer, that is likely a scam.
Attending meet-up events and conferences are all great opportunities to connect with not just likeminded developers who may be in the same situation as you, but also to meet with recruiters or someone who could you connect you to recruiters and hiring managers.
Apply to open positions
The single most important tip I would like to share with you is tailor your resume to each job you apply. You could argue that the technologies remain the same across the job descriptions of the openings you are applying to, but the soft skills may be different. Make sure to emphasize on your soft skills as you tweak your resume for each job you are applying to.
If the cover letter is optional, do submit it anyway. Cover letter is a fantastic opportunity to bring your personal story specific to your learning journey, learning achievements and career objectives as a developer, which the resume may not be able to capture very effectively.
Interview tips for developers without prior developer experience
Approach your interview as a series of discussions about your learning journey, learning achievements, career aspirations and your knowledge about the specific company. When we approach interviews as discussions, we generally feel a little less nervous.
Viewing the interview as a discussion can help calm your nerves and shift your mindset from "being tested" to "sharing experiences." It's an opportunity to explain your unique journey as a self-taught developer, which often makes for compelling storytelling. Discuss the resources you used to learn web development, the moments of insight that led to breakthroughs, and the small victories along the way, like building your first functional web app or solving a tricky coding issue. Your interviewer will likely appreciate your initiative and resilience. By treating the conversation as an exchange of ideas rather than a grilling session, you'll feel more comfortable, confident, and authentic. The more you engage with your interviewer in this way, the more you demonstrate that you're thoughtful, passionate, and growth-oriented.
As for the preparation, you just need to focus on only two things. 1 – the company you are applying to and 2- how you built those that are on your portfolio.
Instead of trying to master every potential technical question or cram information about countless topics, narrow your focus. First, research the company you're interviewing with: what they do, what products they develop, which one of them sells well and which ones don’t sell well, the problems they solve, and their current projects or goals. Understanding the company's needs will allow you to better align your skills and experiences with what they're looking for.
Next, dive deep into the projects on your portfolio. Be prepared to explain your process for building them, the technologies you used, and the challenges you overcame. Knowing the ins and outs of your own work demonstrates your competence and readiness for the role. Additionally, by reflecting on these two key areas—company research and your portfolio—you'll be well-equipped to handle most of the questions in the interview and show that you're a great fit for the position.
1. Focus on Your Projects and Problem-Solving Skills
During all your discussions, both formal and the non-formal ones during meet-up events, etc., highlight the projects you've completed as part of your learning journey. Be prepared to walk through the development process, the challenges you faced, and how you solved them. Showing that you can apply your knowledge in real-world scenarios and explaining your thought process will help compensate for any lack of formal experience.
2. Be Honest About Your Knowledge and Limitations
Self-taught developers often feel pressured to prove they know everything. However, it's better to be honest about what you know and what you're still learning. Interviewers appreciate candidates who can identify their gaps and show a willingness to learn. When you encounter something you're unfamiliar with, focus on how you would approach learning it or solving that problem. But also be careful about not letting imposter syndrome creep in.
3. Emphasize Your Ability to Learn Quickly
If you have any doubt whether you can learn on your own and quickly, look at your portfolio. That is the proof that you can learn on your own and learn quickly. Don't undersell yourself in the interview and casual discussions. Emphasize this skill during the interview by sharing examples of how you picked up a new language, framework, or tool. Employers value candidates who are adaptable and can keep pace with changing technology, so make this one of your strengths.
Conclusion
So many have done this before and so can you. If there is one thing that you can take away from this article, I would like that to be confidence in yourself that you can do it. Do not be confused for long as to which technology to start your learning with. Start with anything you like, one at a time or several together until you figure out which works best. We are all different. While we all learn differently, one thing that is common among all of us is we become more committed to the learning process if we enjoying the learning process with a few signs of quick wins to tell us that we are achieving results as we learn. Celebrate small successes, tweak your process as you like for at the end of the day, it is just one life and want to see what all we can do in this one precious life time.
Good luck with your professional developer journey.