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Ask HN: Advice for finding an entry-level remote job?

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Re: Ask HN: Advice for finding an entry-level remote job?

#41

Post by curiousllama »

I like some of the advice in this thread, but taking a bit of a broader view:

OP, you're trying to do 2 things here: (1) get a job, and (2) learn a trade. Those are different, though related pursuits.

The ideal is you can find a job that will teach you the trade; in other words, you're looking for an apprenticeship. There are often gov programs for tech apprenticeships (typically state level, so I can't link a definitely-relevant one), but [1] may be a place to start. Also just google "[state] IT Apprenticeship." There are also corporate programs at IBM and Accenture you should look at.

Second, even if you can't get the tech job immediately/this round, don't give up. Google needs IT support folks enough that they started a new education program to teach people enough to work for them [2]. If you have to get a different job, look at that. It is a bit pricey at $49/month, but Google says they'd consider completion to be equivalent to a bachelors.

Finally, every CV you submit should have a cover letter, consisting of the paragraphs you wrote in this post from "I am a techie at heart" to "solution seems impossible."

Good luck!

[1] https://www.apprenticeship.gov/apprenticeship-industries/inf...

[2] https://www.coursera.org/professional-certificates/google-it...

Re: Ask HN: Advice for finding an entry-level remote job?

#43

Post by playingchanges »

One more angle since I haven’t seen anyone mention it.

Instructions on how to bootstrap a software portfolio:

Pick a language (sounds like you chose JS which would be my pick as well), buy a copy of cracking the coding interview, make a leetcode.com account, make a codepen.io account, and get to work.

If you’re smart and dedicated you can teach yourself this stuff and these are the best tools to help you in my opinion.

Spend your time solving problems on leetcode and then utilizing these techniques in codepen portfolio pieces.

In my opinion with serious dedication you can have a junior swe worthy resume and portfolio put together within a year.

[edit] since the question inevitably comes up with JS in my opinion you should not spend any time focusing on front end frameworks. Learn Vanilla JS, HTML and CSS, you will blow your interviewers away if you can solve their problems without a framework and it is overhead you don’t need as a beginner.

Re: Ask HN: Advice for finding an entry-level remote job?

#44

Post by virtuous_signal »

sokoloff wrote: post #8

Here’s my advice which is worth hopefully at least twice what it costs you. Focus on achieving some initial level of “proof” that you can perform in an entry-level software (or help desk) role. If you can’t ever visit the office, you’re competing against a worldwide set of candidates, but you can still bring something that distinguishes you. That you work in US time zone and make it easy for someone to employ you are…

> I applaud your focus on your family; I’d keep that out of the interview process. If I’m hiring an entry-level remote employee, I don’t want to worry that they’re taking care of a family member most of the time and trying to fit my work into the gaps. If that’s what is happening invisibly behind the scenes, great, but it’s irrelevant or negative to the interview.

This is really important. Don't think about employers "taking a chance" on you or having their hearts warmed by your story. (I mean, it might actually work when the OP is hitting the top of HN but in general...) They want non-risky choices.

Re: Ask HN: Advice for finding an entry-level remote job?

#45

Post by goat_whisperer »

Re: Eloquent JavaScript. I tried to read it when starting on my JS learning path, and I quickly grew frustrated.

It may be the perfect match for you -- but all I want to say is, if you get frustrated with it, you're not alone! Don't be afraid to try a different resource to get started.

However, I've revisited the book and I enjoy it a lot more after becoming more familiar with the language

Re: Ask HN: Advice for finding an entry-level remote job?

#47

Post by pfarrell »

As someone who has sat on the interviewer side for some entry-level positions, I would recommend you do not present a bootcamp project as an example of your work unless you have greatly extended it. I have sat on many interviews where I had the exact same project shown to me. It began to have a negative signal unless the interviewee had pushed beyond the requirements.

I would recommend that you develop some project on your own which you can speak to and talk about struggles with. Depending on the position and the company, demonstrating and talking about personal experiences on a project can go a long way towards showing your passion and determination. This isn't the way in to every company, but it is a way to ensure you have something to talk about that will help you stand out during an interview.

Re: Ask HN: Advice for finding an entry-level remote job?

#48

Post by grumpwagon »

anm89 wrote: post #19
grumpwagon wrote: post #11

I'd highly encourage you to continue learning to code. You might also consider software QA. It is also easy to do remotely, pays well, and the learning curve is a bit lower. If you learned selenium, the ability to navigate a SQL database, postman to test REST APIs, and some testing terms and methods you'd be well on your way. The first job will be the hardest to get, but once you have that, remote jobs are readily av…

Just to give an alternate take, I think you can get pigeonholed as a QA person and if you want to be a developer it may be a better route to look for positions that are going to give you practice developing. That being said, the reality of job market these days might be that entry level positions are too competitive and this just isn't practical in which case getting your foot in the door with a QA role is still a mu…

Totally agree you can get pigeonholed, but my read of the OP is that they want a job that can support their family first, and that development was one of the things they were considering, not that development was a goal in and of itself. My thought is that QA is a solid career, and that once they are established, and get a support structure for their family, if they want to become a dev they can work towards that from a position of strength, rather than a position of near-crisis.

Re: Ask HN: Advice for finding an entry-level remote job?

#49

Post by marcusverus »

exdsq wrote: post #4

Remote support roles will probably be your best bet, perhaps for a startup where it’s focused more customer experience than tech skills. Do that while carrying on with courses and you’ll be in demand quickly! Regarding finding work, I’d go on remote-focused job boards and look for any junior support or QA roles. Email the hiring team directly saying hi along with your CV to try beat any filtering systems. If you can’…

I agree with this assessment. I'd also recommend searching Dice and Indeed for something like this.

It's also important to do a bit of research and understand the huge variety of jobs which will come with titles like 'Remote Support' or 'Remote Support Analyst'. An IT Helpdesk job, a Software Application Support job, and a Zappos customer service job might all share the exact same generic title. So do some googling to figure out what is what, make yourself a list of titles that match the jobs you're looking for, then troll the job boards for roles with that title. Based on the post, I would target jobs with titles like "Application Support Analyst". If you search for remote only with no geographic constraints, you will find an absolute ton of jobs.

As a former recruiter, I think it's worth noting that job hunting in this way is absolutely a numbers game. When I was looking for IT work with little/no experience, I would generally get my first interview after ~50 applications. My point is that you shouldn't get your hopes up with each application, and you shouldn't feel let down if you don't hear back on a given job. If you go in knowing it will be a bit of grind, it will be much easier on you. Set yourself a goal of 2-3 applications a day, and get that many done, every single day. Given the huge number of fully remote roles out there, I'm confident that you would be hard pressed to apply for 100 of them without getting an offer.

With that in mind, get your resume all set, write out a couple of cover letter (your writing is solid, so this will help. But don't write an original letter for each application.) and then apply for everything that looks like a fit. Ignore experience requirements for roles that aren't "senior" or "manager" roles.

Best of luck!

Re: Ask HN: Advice for finding an entry-level remote job?

#50

Post by cjohnson318 »

grumpwagon wrote: post #11

I'd highly encourage you to continue learning to code. You might also consider software QA. It is also easy to do remotely, pays well, and the learning curve is a bit lower. If you learned selenium, the ability to navigate a SQL database, postman to test REST APIs, and some testing terms and methods you'd be well on your way. The first job will be the hardest to get, but once you have that, remote jobs are readily av…

> pays well, and the learning curve is a bit lower

I've done development and testing, and I would characterize QA as "same job, less pay". In both roles you struggle with vague requirements, lots of edge cases, and unrealistic deadlines. It is surprisingly difficult to get out of the QA pigeonhole. People assume the job is easier, and that you're not as capable as a developer.

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