Background
Unfortunately everything hit at once. COVID, SVB closing, massive tech layoffs, higher interest rates, etc. While it may have been difficult to get a remote job as a junior software dev for a while, it seems to be essentially impossible now.
I’ve been trying for a year to get a job. Toward the beginning, I had some interviews that seemed promising if I had been a better developer. But at that point I had very little experience, so I didn’t do well enough in the technical interviews.
The interviews became less frequent, and since then I’ve only had two interviews that seemed promising. They were both about six months ago, and the first one was for a mid-level role. I passed one of two coding challenges (yay!), but wasn't quite skilled enough at the time. The second one misled me in a huge way, and I didn't get the role.
Plea
Now I never get offered an interview. I’ve worked on my resume many times, and based on the input I get from React, and CS Career Hub Discord servers, my resume is pretty good. I’m about 2,000 job applications in now. And the more time goes on, the better I get at coding, the more my resume and project samples improve, the less likely I am to get offered an interview. Yes, I realize it’s because of the economy.
The problem though is that I’m disabled and I can’t do anything that will actually support me, except for remote work as a software developer. I could probably work on-site, and I’d be willing to try, but I live in a small midwestern city that has zero opportunities for me. And because I’m disabled and on social security, I’m not allowed to save enough money to move somewhere ($2,000 asset limit). Even if I could save money to move, unless I already had a sure-thing job lined up, I wouldn’t be able to. If anything went wrong, I’d be by myself without anyone to help and no way to earn extra money.
So I’m stuck. I want to work, I want to have a life, move out of the horrible city I’m in, and get off of social security and support myself. I worked hard at becoming a decent programmer, but yet I can’t get out of the hole I’m in. The economy died and no one will give me an interview. So I need help. You might tell me to spend four years in school and then get a job, but for various reasons, including the possibility of becoming homeless, that’s really not an option.
If you can help me get a job, or point me to resources or ideas I might not already know about – anything, please do. I really want to work. My stack revolves around web development, but I’m open to other things. Mobile development, windows apps, whatever, it doesn’t really matter. It’s just that if it’s not web dev, I’ll need time to learn the appropriate skillset.
I attached a screenshot of my resume, with personal information blurred. If anyone wants links to any of the projects or repositories, please tell me. And no, my photography work does not support me. My city is very dead, in numerous ways.
Unfortunately everything hit at once. COVID, SVB closing, massive tech layoffs, higher interest rates, etc. While it may have been difficult to get a remote job as a junior software dev for a while, it seems to be essentially impossible now.
I’ve been trying for a year to get a job. Toward the beginning, I had some interviews that seemed promising if I had been a better developer. But at that point I had very little experience, so I didn’t do well enough in the technical interviews.
The interviews became less frequent, and since then I’ve only had two interviews that seemed promising. They were both about six months ago, and the first one was for a mid-level role. I passed one of two coding challenges (yay!), but wasn't quite skilled enough at the time. The second one misled me in a huge way, and I didn't get the role.
Plea
Now I never get offered an interview. I’ve worked on my resume many times, and based on the input I get from React, and CS Career Hub Discord servers, my resume is pretty good. I’m about 2,000 job applications in now. And the more time goes on, the better I get at coding, the more my resume and project samples improve, the less likely I am to get offered an interview. Yes, I realize it’s because of the economy.
The problem though is that I’m disabled and I can’t do anything that will actually support me, except for remote work as a software developer. I could probably work on-site, and I’d be willing to try, but I live in a small midwestern city that has zero opportunities for me. And because I’m disabled and on social security, I’m not allowed to save enough money to move somewhere ($2,000 asset limit). Even if I could save money to move, unless I already had a sure-thing job lined up, I wouldn’t be able to. If anything went wrong, I’d be by myself without anyone to help and no way to earn extra money.
So I’m stuck. I want to work, I want to have a life, move out of the horrible city I’m in, and get off of social security and support myself. I worked hard at becoming a decent programmer, but yet I can’t get out of the hole I’m in. The economy died and no one will give me an interview. So I need help. You might tell me to spend four years in school and then get a job, but for various reasons, including the possibility of becoming homeless, that’s really not an option.
If you can help me get a job, or point me to resources or ideas I might not already know about – anything, please do. I really want to work. My stack revolves around web development, but I’m open to other things. Mobile development, windows apps, whatever, it doesn’t really matter. It’s just that if it’s not web dev, I’ll need time to learn the appropriate skillset.
I attached a screenshot of my resume, with personal information blurred. If anyone wants links to any of the projects or repositories, please tell me. And no, my photography work does not support me. My city is very dead, in numerous ways.
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