These are the Things You Must Do to Land a Junior Web Developer Job in Berlin
Written by Edalí Cárdenas Beltrán / Fellow at DCI
I have seen many students wondering if it’s worth getting into web development. Most of the time, we need just a little more of confidence and motivation. What can make it more appealing is knowing more about what’s in future, if you decide to pursuit a career as a web developer.
I can list several reasons to take the challenge of becoming a web developer:
- Working in web development allows you to decide how you want to do it, whether you want to freelance or work as an employee.
- The demand of web developers keeps increasing. Just check out online job platforms such as Indeed to get an idea.
- The Average salary for a web developer in Berlin is €36,789 per year.
- It is really fun and inspiring to work along with the fast pace of product development and innovation in tech. You feel part of a movement that can have a real impact in life.
Quite impressive reasons, right? But then again you think “It’ll be years before I, a completely beginner, can start doing a job like that!” Well, think again. Everything in life takes time and effort. You can learn the fundamentals of web development faster than you think. And luckily, DCI is supporting us in this process.
To get started as a web developer, in the DCI web development course you learn:
- HTML
- CSS and SCSS
- JavaScript and jQuery
- React
- NodeJS & Express
- And much more…
The DCI web development course also includes access to Code School and other events that will boost your preparation to get a job as a junior web developer. In addition, you will have to work aside by your own, if you really want to master your skills. Find plenty of free sources online to practice a little more every time you can.
I know, even accomplishing the majority of these things, you might not feel ready to convince them to hire you. But you will have to try! You will never know what exactly are the job requirements. However, there is no better way to find it out than going for the interview. I’ve heard many recruiters saying that they are open to hire people who are not experts but highly motivated willing to learn new things. So go for it!
There are a couple of things that I also recommend you to do to get closer to your first job as web developer. Here are ten things you should start with:
- Build your own portfolio website. Be as impressive and innovative as you can! It should reflect your skills and the best of your web dev personality. Fill up your portfolio with projects. Work on your own ideas as often as possible. That will improve your skills and you will also start coding faster.
- Check out other web developers’ projects. It is always important to be curious, search for what you can learn from other more experienced people.
- Do freelance projects. It is a great way to get some for your portfolio. It’ll give you the chance to build your experience. These projects don’t have to be huge ones. Offer, for example, to re-do part for a website.
- Put your code on github. Github is the industry-standard for version control, so many companies want to know that you already know how to use this tool.
- Contribute to an open source project. Find them in Github too. Open source is the term for source code that’s publicly available and can be modified by anyone. Getting involved in open source projects will strengthen your development skills. Furthermore, you’ll meet and network with other developers.
- Participate in a hackathon. They’re a fun and exciting way to get to know people and cool projects. Plus you test your coding skills, learn from others, and maybe win prizes.
- Always search online for what you do not know. And follow tech news to get updated with the most recent information.
- Attend tech meetups. Berlin is the perfect city to find meetups every day. Or, you can even organize them.
- Do not miss job fairs. By attending to job fairs you get to know what recruiters look for and mathematically you increase your chances to get a job opportunity.
- Network. No matter what are your specific interest, it is essential to build a wide network. Meet people working in the tech industry, tell them what you’ve done and show them your portfolio. Stay in touch, so you have more allies to get your dreamed web developer job.
If you do these things, in no time at all, instead of just applying for junior web developer positions, you’ll be accepting your first one. I can tell you this because I’ve seen former students from DCI who are already working in great startups here in Berlin!
