How to get a software job with no experience (for freshers)

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In this article let’s take a look at how to get a software engineer & programming job with no experience and degree like for freshers.

This is the most comprehensive article you can find online on this topic so I would recommend you to bookmark and share the article with your friends and colleagues to let them know how they can also get a job of software development without having experience and degree.

So without further ado let’s dive right in.

How to get a software and programming job with no experience and degree (for freshers) 

There are exactly 7 steps You need to take to get a software and programming job with no experience and degree. Let’s take a look at all those steps and all the tips in detail.

1. Get good at coding

The first step is obviously to get good at coding and have the skill of coding and programming in general.

Whether you want to get a programmer job or software engineer or web developer or app developer whichever it is you must have the skills of coding in the first place before you think about applying for a job or becoming a freelancer.

And honestly speaking it does not really matter whether you have a degree or not if you don’t have the skills of coding such as knowledge of Python Java or for web development JavaScript and HTML CSS, then even if you have a degree or experience you won’t get a job because ultimately skills is what matters at the end of the day.

Because you want to get a job as a software engineer and programmer so I would highly recommend you to learn and practise Java which is a high level programming language because there are many companies which use Java over others like Google, Facebook, Spotify Pinterest Uber Amazon Microsoft etc.

Another advantage of using Java is that it is a platform independent language and also very secure and safe one, and there are many features in Java that make it one of the most amazing languages you can learn for any specialisation like web development or app development or even software development in general.

But in order to learn Java you should first install something called as Java development kit on your computer which you can easily get it from the official website here for different operating systems and after installing that you can start writing and compiling your Java code and this makes Java platform independent language because as long as you have the virtual machine installed on the computer you can easily execute the code on different operating systems like windows Mac or Linux.

And if you are complete beginners who has no experience in coding before then I would highly recommend you to either purchase any coding course on platforms like udemy or Coursera or you can also visit various coding websites like free code camp, the odin project, code academy, Khan academy, w3schools, solo learn, geeks for geeks, etc. If You don’t want to spend money in courses.

And especially you might not want to spend money in coding boot camps because they are actually very expensive as compared to the free affordable ones that I mentioned earlier like courses and several websites where you can learn the language and software development in general for free of cost and also get the certificate at the end of the completion of course for free.

Apart from Java you can also learn languages like Python and JavaScript for free of cost and these are also great languages you can learn for software development as well which are good alternatives for Java.

Apart from websites and courses you can also purchase various coding books and attend coding webinars or interact with other developers on forums like stack overflow and GitHub to learn new skills and solve problems.

So overall you should be learning the skills of coding and programming in general with any language like Java or Python which are both platform independent and high level languages and easy to understand for beginners using the resources I mentioned earlier for free of cost, and it would take you anywhere between 6 to 10 months to learn the language and also the frameworks in it and get better towards it.

Note: if you are confused regarding which language you should be learning then You can obviously start with Java but I would not recommend you to learn both the languages like Java and Python, just get proficient and master anyone language and it is more than enough for you to get a job.

2. Learn and practice DSA

After you learn and practise coding skills it’s time for you to learn data structures and algorithms now.

Data structure is basically a structure and way of organising a data and information in any computer and algorithm is the way you solve the problem and the logic behind it.

A combination of both data structures and algorithms is very important for you to become a good programmer and many people think that they can get a job of software development just by learning any programming language like Java or Python but it is not the case as you need to learn data structures and algorithms as well before you can apply for any job.

And let me tell you that DSA is important in every specialisation whether it is related to web development software development app development etc.

And as I already mentioned earlier you can also learn DSA from various websites online like code academy and geeks for geeks or w3schools and there are several YouTube channels which teach DSA free of cost in great tutorials that you can refer to.

Apart from learning DSA you should also regularly solve the questions of it to get good at it and the data shows that It should take you at least 6 months of time to get good this concept.

3. work on some projects and create a strong portfolio

After you get the concepts of DSA and get a good grasp on programming language like Java or Python it’s time for you to create some projects and have it showcased in your portfolio and resume while applying for job.

For example if you want to become a full stack web developer then you should be having some projects that you can showcase to your employer like e-commerce website or any social networking site or business website or landing page or any online conversion tool or calculator or anything like that.

There are a couple of main benefits of having working on projects after learning programming which are that,

  • You can stand out from the competition and get the job by grabbing the attention of the employer through your projects by letting them know that you have the experience of working and you have the skill required
  • By working on some project it helps you build confidence on yourself
  • By working on some project it helps you motivate to continue learn and solving problems

A portfolio is basically a collection of all the coding work you have either created yourself or contributed to any open source software that you can showcase to your employer.

If you don’t have your time to work on your own project then you can become a contributor to any open source software and write code or solve problem for these software on platforms like GitHub.

And obviously you can share your projects and works on GitHub for free.

And it is very important for you to share all of this projects and your contribution in any open source software in your resume.

4. Have an active LinkedIn profile

In the meantime it is very important for you to have an active LinkedIn profile After you learn or even while learning programming languages or DSA.

Basically LinkedIn is a social network like Facebook but for professional people who want to grow in their life by getting new job opportunities or getting new business opportunities or new funding from venture capitalist etc.

It is a platform for professional people who want to get job opportunities and make more wealth in their life and also make meaningful connections, get new customers and connections.

And I highly recommend you to have an active profile and account on LinkedIn, regularly share content related to programming and your journey of learning coding from scratch so that it can inspire others to do the same and this will help you in your selfbranding as expert in programming, It is very important for you to properly optimise your profile and make it professional by listing your skills, achievements you have got in your life and more details about you because it is studied that recruiters and HRs in today’s age also look at your LinkedIn profile for 30 seconds on average for each candidate before giving him an interview, In today’s age your LinkedIn profile is replacing the resume culture in corporate world.

Apart from that, there are 30 million companies present on LinkedIn and each second at least three or four people are getting hired through LinkedIn so it is a great place for you to get job opportunities also to get in touch with top CEOs and workers of top companies.

This is especially important for you to get a programming and software job without any degree and experience because just by sharing content related to whatever you have learnt with your programming journey and helping others with your content making it more engaging and being active in general only getting can help you get noticed and rank in the LinkedIn search algorithm so you can get lots of job offers from your LinkedIn profile, other than LinkedIn you can also use platforms like meetup to connect with like-minded people but in my view LinkedIn is more powerful platform.

5. Participate in challenges

After having an active profile on LinkedIn it is also recommended that you participate in various challenges of coding and programming in general because it is seen that recruiters also higher candidates who performed good in challenges.

There are a few benefits of participating in coding challenges like,

  • It helps you evaluate your coding and programming knowledge in general, You can introspect your strengths and weaknesses
  • It helps you get noticed by top companies in your industry and also probably get a job because there are several companies which actually sponsor this events and give rewards
  • You can also earn various badges and certificates that you can show to your employer and let them know that you have participated in certain competition, This will help your employer understand that you have the skills required to get a job and you have the competitive spirit
  • These competitions also make you a lot of faster and also solve questions in stress conditions in least time possible, helps you in teamwork, leadership and improve your communication skills

There are various platforms you can choose for competitive coding like topcoder, hacker rank, International Collegiate Programming Contest, code chef, etc.

6. Work as a freelancer or join any startup

After you get good at programming and coding, You can start working as a freelancer or apply for any job as entry level programmer in any startup you can find.

You can find jobs for programmers on platforms like upwork freelancer indeed glass door, LinkedIn and other job portals online.

You can also physically visit and attend various seminars events and conferences of various companies and this will give you a chance to network with various kind of people and also get job opportunities as well through your network.

For example you can find out the companies that you want to work for like the startups in LinkedIn and you can either message the top people like founder of the startup through LinkedIn or visit their website and collect the email address of the company to email them about your job application as a programmer in the startup.

The main thing is that you need to get the experience to get a good job in any tech company and in order to get the experience you either have to work as a freelancer or as an entry level programmer in any startup company and apart from the experience you get to know the work culture and learn important skills like the communication, networking teamwork time management and organisational and logical thinking, and other important soft skills which will definitely help you in future of your job.

There are several other benefits of being a freelancer like

  • You can work from any part of the world without having to go to a specific office, 
  • You can handle multiple clients and customers and you have financial independence, 
  • You can manage your own time, You can also get many benefits from government in terms of saving the income tax because being a freelancer is considered starting a business, etc.
  • And more importantly being a freelancer you do not need to show your degree to the customer but as long as you have good reviews and good skill, You can deliver the project on time to the customer, You can take the client and do the work Which is a big advantage for freelancers as compared to the traditional employees.

But to succeed in freelancing you need to get good reviews and ratings of your work and for that you need to deliver the work to the customer on time so there are several other challenges of freelancing which I will not write about it here, You can check out all the pros and cons of freelancing in detail here.

 

Note: when you will be applying for any job you have to have a strong resume the showcases some important things like, your skills, the programming language you are proficient with like Python or Java, the courses you have taken or the certificates you have got after participating in various challenges and competitions, the projects you have created and your portfolio, your ratings and reviews if you did any freelancing work on platforms like upwork, your soft skills and your main achievements, your website URL if you have one, your GitHub profile URL, also url of your linkedin profile, all of these things are quite important to be mentioned in your resume.

7. Clear the interview & grow in your job 

After applying for the job you might get invited for the interview around before getting accepted and in the interview you have to be very much prepared for it.

Before going for the interview make sure to research about the company that you are applying for and see what are the requirements like do they prefer Java or Python and also practise all the data structures questions and all the programming questions before itself so that you can be prepared well.

You should also prepare for all the common questions asked in data structures and algorithms and prepare it well, and more importantly you should work on your soft skills like communication teamwork time management leadership and other important skills which will help you a lot more than your hard skills in getting job.

And you should also regularly give mock tests of your interview with your friends or colleagues so that you can prepare yourself mentally for the interview.

Check out more tips and techniques you can use to crack any interview of coding in detail here.

After you crack the coding interview and get the job, it’s time for you to start working and grow in your job.

Many people believe that getting the coding job is the final thing but it is the starting point for many because coding and technology is a career path which is always changing because there will be new languages and technology that should be invented.

So make sure to keep yourself updated with the technology by following the methods I mentioned below like,

  • Read and subscribe to popular websites of coding like tech crunch gizmodo meshable etc
  • Regularly listen to coding podcasts both on YouTube and Spotify to keep yourself updated about the technology industry
  • Find a mentor with whom you can speak about the technology and learn more information
  • Attend various coding interviews and conferences so you can meet people and again knowledge
  • Always try to upgrade your knowledge as you switch different jobs in companies so you can stay in demand for companies 
  • Take risks and experiment new stuff in your life

Getting a job is not the final thing in coding and technology rather it is the beginning step and if You do not keep yourself updated with all the technology changes then you will become obsolete and jobless in future because as I mentioned earlier that this industry is constantly changing so you need to spend considerable amount of time everyday or every week learning new skills and working on your proficiency, You can also consider switching your job into other professions like web development or app development, machine learning and data science after you become a software developer to get more salary and find your passion.

These are all the steps you need to take to get a job as a software and programmer with no experience and degree whatsoever.

With that said let’s end the article.

Conclusion

These are all the things you need to know about getting a software job without experience.

Do let me know what are your thoughts about getting a software job without degree in the comment section below.

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