How to find a Job in Tech.

You're still working on that website that you were working on 4 weeks ago? That’s a lot of work for one website. There must be a lot of programmers because if you think about how many websites there are, that’s a lot. - Flatmate

Too many websites.

It’s weird how I hear from people I went to University with or people I run into who have a tech degree and they can’t find a job. That flatmate is correct. We need a lot of devs to take care of the internet. We don’t have enough developers at the moment to take care of all those websites and we are going to need a lot more if the population keeps growing and every man, woman, child and their doge 🐕 wants a website.

But there are no jobs.

It’s a fallacy that there are no jobs in tech. I’m going to give it to you really, really blunt. The reason you can’t get a job in tech is because you’re not trying. Looking on seek.com.au or whirlpool is not where you are going to find a job. Sure, there are jobs on there but they are not the jobs I suspect you want.

Are you passionate?

Passion is what you need. Clearly, if you had passion you would have a job by now. Are you working on something now? Are you keeping yourself busy with what you love? Seriously, people who are passionate about what they love get jobs. They get emails all the time from people asking to hire them. If you aren’t getting emails from people asking you to work for them then something is wrong.

Practice what you don't know.

Oh, congratulations you just got out of University and you know absolutely nothing. Trust me, you know nothing! If you haven’t been pursuing your passion outside of University, then I’m telling you now you are at square one. University only teaches you the basics. It teaches you stuff that is 10 years old that you aren’t ever going to use (maybe some of it). I bet you they did not teach you about writing tests for your code and if they did well you got lucky. Practice code outside of university and learn new things.

Be part of the community.

The easiest and best way to get a job is through someone you know already. If you don’t know anyone who works in tech then you aren’t any closer to your goal of getting a job. You need to be part of the community and be noticed. Plus, this is a really good way to learn what is new and trendy at the moment and a great way to find a mentor who can help you when things get tough. Being part of the community gives you a way to find new projects to work on, meet people in tech, help others and be passionate about the things you love!

How?

You can get started by working on a project on Github or attending Hackathons. You can also work on that awesome personal project you have been thinking about for ages but haven't actually done yet!

To be part of the community you can attend meetups, follow slack channels for programming communities, IRC or forums. Reading and watching videos on the latest tech innovations is also a really good way to increase your knowledge.

If there isn't anything you feel you can be part of you can always start your own either at university or through other avenues.

Good luck!