if software development and software engineering is so in demand why is it so hard to land a job
hey friends welcome back to my channel today i'm going to be answering that question
it's someone who is a software developer and has been both interviewer and interviewee i'm really
going to go into why is it so difficult to get a job if you've gone to school for computer science
or self-taught yourself or even went to a coding boot camp different scenarios face different
issues but i really want to talk about today about why it is so difficult or it seems so difficult to
land a job as a software developer or software engineer you see over and over again from news
articles to different blog posts how in demand software development and software engineering is
in the same breath you also seem to hear from different people in the industry how difficult
it was to land especially their first job and it's really hard to understand how can both
statements be so true it's difficult to land a job but yet there's so much demand for these
roles where is what's going on here today i want to really break it down for you as to what i'm
thinking anyways is the reason behind this before we get into it though i want to share with you a
statistic to share with you really how rapidly and further in demand these roles are becoming
over the next 10 years bls estimates the u.s labor market will add 316 thousand software developer
jobs which is a phenomenal 22 percent growth rate or an average of about 31 000 new jobs each year
this statistic is mind-blowing there are very very few and far between jobs that are growing
at that rate of 22 for demand it's crazy so then comes the question well why is it so hard to get
a job as a software developer or software engineer one of the main reasons i think
it can be difficult for a software developer or engineer to land a first job is because
software itself is so broad and companies are looking typically for a very specific skill set to
fill a need so if you are someone who's applying to front-end developer roles but you find most
companies currently are looking for back-end developers there's your issue number one a lot of
times companies won't completely do a 180 and hire someone who doesn't have any experience in what
they're looking for but has experience in other areas now this isn't always the case but typically
they will hold out and wait to find someone who is more along the lines of what they are looking for
and while some companies will be willing to invest in the individual
train them on their technologies and really see the benefit of hiring someone that maybe
is more junior or doesn't have any experience with the technologies they are being used
the benefit meaning that they will be able to be trained in a way that they don't come in with any
bad habits they're able to learn how to structure the code use the technology in the way that works
best for the company another reason i really think it can be hard to land a software developer or a
software engineering role is because technical interviews are kind of a game in their own way
and what i mean by that is technical interviews are structured in a way that the company is
hoping to find the best candidate possible however there are so many flaws in technical interviews
and when people are doing technical interviews even the best of the best can stumble and get
nervous and if you are even a really amazing programmer you can fail at technical interviews
the technical interview process has gotten a lot better and companies are starting to realize this
but it definitely has a long way to go regardless if you like technical interviews or don't i think
one thing we can all agree on to a certain degree is the tests or the problems you are
solving during a technical interview are not what you will be doing in real world scenarios
it's more more so to show your way of thinking do you have logical skills communication skills but
some companies take this so literally and rather than looking for the important things like that
they're looking for can you solve this problem and if you can you're great if you can't i don't know
and those companies unfortunately even though they are few and far between they do exist
another issue i see especially with technical interviews is a lot of times when you are doing
a coding more so coding interview specifically you'll be able to code in whatever language you're
comfortable with which is great that's a bonus but if the interviewer themselves are not familiar
with that language they are a technical person but not familiar with the language it can kind
of put a barrier between you and the interviewer and maybe they will naturally gravitate towards
someone who is coding in a language that they are familiar with another reason i think it can be so
hard to land your job or your first job anyways as a software developer or software engineer
is the interview process is grueling there are typically at least three different interview
steps or different interviews to land a job and throughout these different interviews
you are talking to so many people that your resume can get kind of lost between the cracks or even
if you are the best candidate sometimes this can go missed a lot of times too if you are applying
to a company and there are other applicants who maybe have some ties within the company
that can sometimes cause some gray areas as well and if the other candidates are referred
i mean a lot of times companies will go with referrals because they know that if it's referred
by a great employee they're hoping that this referral will be great as well so i think the real
question here is not so much as to why is it so hard to get your first job or a job as a software
developer or engineer but the real question is how do we better how do we fix the interview process
the technical interview process that seems to be causing so many people to fall through the
cracks and that is a question that is so big and so vast i don't even know where to begin with that
and there are so many layers to it but i think one thing that we can do as software developers
or software engineers especially when you are looking for a job and finding it difficult
is honestly stick with it and take the feedback that's coming your way but if you're not really
getting any feedback maybe even ask the interviewer why did you go with someone
else or what you know why did you we not connect or why didn't you choose me don't actually say
why didn't you choose me but more so or less have an understanding as to why they went with someone
else and a lot of times having that understanding and communicating with the interviewer
for feedback it will tell you if it's actually something that you need to improve on or if it is
just the process and for various reasons they went with someone else i remember when i was looking
for my first job as a software developer i think i applied to oh i was doing like 10 companies a
day or something crazy like that it took a long time especially if you don't have any
prior experience to find a company who is willing to take a chance on you especially as a junior
it's not impossible i'm speaking firsthand it will happen but you have to be persistent and
also recognize that the process for interviewing and applying to so many companies is completely
normal you're going to have to apply to a lot of companies typically maybe you'll get lucky
before you land that first job oftentimes once you land your first job though there is like a switch
that goes off and all of a sudden recruiters will be hitting you up asking you to come work for that
their company and so much more so do not lose faith you really just have to go through this
process of having the difficulty of landing a software developer or software engineering job
usually just at the beginning of your career that being said it does happen throughout your
career for many people for various reasons but right now the market is needing so many more
developers and engineers not just any really good quality ones and that's key to note as well
companies aren't just looking to hire developers to code they want good developers they want
developers that can code in the best way possible communicate be team players and so much more
i hope this gives you some further insight as to why it is so hard to land a job as a software
developer a software engineer if there is so many roles in demand or these roles are so in
demand the reality is it's just a process and you have to be part of that process and you're going
to fall through the cracks sometimes and other times you're going to get picked up by these
amazing companies thank you all for watching my video i hope this was valuable for anyone who
is going through the interview process or had this question before as to why is it so difficult
leave in the comments other questions you have or other video topics you want me to cover
and i will see you all soon make sure though to hit that subscribe button for more tech
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