Have just graduated or completed a programming course and are looking for a position. However, it seems that you can’t get a job offer without previous experience, and get stuck thinking about how to become a skilled Java junior developer and start your career.

In this article, I’m going to share a few tried-and-true ways to address the problem of lack of hands-on expertise. As a result, you’ll end up with an effective way to improve your skills. Let’s take a look at what it takes to become a junior developer in a company.

1. Join independent projects

The first step to gaining hands-on experience in mastering a programming language is to work on independent projects. I recommend contributing to an open source project first, then launching your own project and sharing it on Github when you’re ready.

In the beginning, avoid complex projects or projects that require more in-depth knowledge. Everything a beginner Java developer needs is practice. Once you’re more or less confident in your skills, it’s time to move on to higher-level ideas. You can make most projects by listing a few on your resume. This way, you can showcase your skills to potential employers.

Even though most job openings have a certain number of years of experience, this is not the main requirement. Hiring managers often notice experts who have clear ideas about how to use their own code and others’ code. They also want applicants to be good at using different tools.

Hard skills in one way or another must also be accompanied by soft skills such as empathy, collaboration and effective communication. To improve your soft skills, learn to work with other programmers on projects that respond to real problems and require you to meet real deadlines.

Professionals with soft skills and a desire to learn and grow can be interesting to employers, even if you lack specific technical skills or a solid theoretical foundation.

2. Tackle personal projects

When students start learning Java or any other programming language, they are often required to build their own projects to hone their skills. These so-called “pet” projects show that future coders are engaged in programming and are interested in ongoing career development. In addition, these personal projects add heft to an expert’s resume.

For junior Java developers, personal projects are often expected or even mandated. Potential employers want them to be eager to code and learn.

So, at the beginning of the trip, I recommend writing as many projects as you can to practice, so that you can make a difference during the interview. Consider a project that can solve a real problem for yourself or someone you know. If it has some clear use cases and/or commercial ideas, it will look better and may appeal to hiring managers.

3. Freelance

The truth is that junior Java developers often have trouble finding full-time jobs. In this case, they can start with the freelancer’s website for practical expertise and find paid projects.

But I’m still not comfortable with freelancing. When junior Java developers start working alone without supervision, they are more likely to engage in bad practices. What they need to start out with is freelance work with a team and technical lead as a contractor on a part-time basis. The technical lead usually accepts the task of reviewing the developers’ code and providing constructive feedback.

In addition, a good team leads experts in good planning, researching before coding, conducting thorough testing, and encouraging them to always learn new things. In this neat workflow, poorly written code is allowed into production only after it has been cleaned up.

4. Choose peer-to-peer programming

If you feel you can’t handle a project on your own, join a team of developers. Experts may have the same level of skills and knowledge, or may have more qualifications. It’s your choice. Teamwork involves collaboration and knowledge exchange, allowing you to progress faster. In addition, programmers often support each other, which keeps team members motivated.

There is no doubt that teamwork is important and helps you a lot, but you should still be careful about which projects you join. Due to their inexperience, novices happen to share bad practices with each other, which may harm their future learning.

That’s where the tutorial system goes. It is common for one person, especially a group, to find a senior programmer as a mentor, to supervise and mentor them. Another approach is to share code in the community and solicit feedback.

5. Let it go!

Now that you have earned a diploma or a full course certificate, and have your own belt and team work experience under the independent or individual project, it is the right time to put together your CV and apply for a trainee, junior or postgraduate position. You should be fully prepared: put in a well-done educational project, accompany it with CV, solve some Leetcode tasks, etc.

Don’t get angry if something goes wrong during the interview – remember the questions you struggled to answer, correct the mistakes and try another interview. Try again and you will succeed. Only those who don’t even try don’t succeed.

Packing things

So now you see that programming is all about practice. This means that you should code regularly and work on as many projects as possible to get the hands-on experience that recruiters are looking for. These projects may vary from open source groups to individual open source – you can choose for yourself.

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