C# Programming for Beginners | Junior Programmer Job Search

Junior programmers have a hard time trying to get started in a career of programming.  There seems to be so many opportunities out there yet they can't seem to gel with what you know or have learnt.

In order to find a job that “fits”, you have to look everywhere.  The thing is, if you’re looking for a job who knows about it?

People will tell you that the best way to get a job, or find out about a vacancy is via word-of-mouth.  Right, so key to that is to let all your friends know that you are on the job hunt, and tell them to keep their ears open for you.  Check.

What else can you do?  Well you’ve probably guessed it already – you have to actively look for jobs.  So how can you do that?  Of course, the old classified section of the newspaper is the perennial starting point.  However, as we all know, the Internet has provided us with a lot of tools to aid us. Enter:  Job Boards. 

You might think that, “I’ll just sign up here, and before you know it I’ll have a fantastic job.”  Right?

Wrong.  There is such a plethora of job boards out there that you’re going to spend a lot of time looking through them to find jobs that are suitable.  Also, not all sites are the same.  Some boards are very generalised, and others are targeted to a specific industry (for example IT).  You are likely to spend a lot of time wending your way through them, trying to sort through all the noise.  After a while you might just start signing up to a few of them, like I did, because “you have to at least do something”.  That’s when you really start with the head scratching,  trying to remember when you worked where, for how long, what did you do for all that time, why etc etc.  Even if you have got a CV with most of the details on it already, you will still be left wondering about some of the fields that they require.

So you’ve signed up now.  “But do they work?” you may ask.  Well, to be honest I’m not sure; I’m still searching for a job after all.  However, two friends of mine (one an electrical engineer, and the other a welder) both got their current job offers through a job site.  This shows that people are using the boards when searching for employees and that yes it must work to some extent.  I must point out here that most “employers” that are looking for employees on these sites are in fact employment agencies.  This doesn’t really change anything (I don’t care if I get a job independently or through an agency, as long as I get a job) but is worth keeping in mind. 

At least uploading a CV to one or two of these boards gets it “out there”.
It is better to have at least the possibility of the right job finding me.  How many calls or emails I get that are relevant, remains to be seen..