Ask HN: How does a hobby programmer get hired?

2) Ignore experience requirements, apply for everything (within reason). Some folks seem to have the idea that job descriptions are carefully hand-crafted by the hiring manager to present an exacting description of their needs--but this is rarely the case. Don't be deterred by the ubiquitous requirement for 3 years of experience. That said, don't waste your time applying for senior positions, either.

3) Seriously, apply for everything. Many (if not most) of your applications will never be seen for a human being--particularly when applying for entry-level jobs, which see the highest number of applicants. Even when I'm fully qualified for a job, I assume that I'll get a call back on ~20% of applications. In your situation, the percentage will be much lower, probably less than 5%. Spam accordingly.

4) Track your applications in a spreadsheet, and follow up with a call to HR for the most promising ones. Tell the HR person that you know you're the right person for the job, and politely ask them to give your resume to the hiring manager. If you can find the hiring manager on LinkedIn, shoot them a (brief!) message saying that you've applied, why you think you can do the job, and include a GitHub link. Touchpoints like this elevate you from "just a name on a resume" to "actual human being" in the mind of the hiring manager, which is invaluable.

5) In the immortal words of Barney Stinson, "Ambition is the enemy of success." For your first job, just get a job. It will be infinitely easier to find the right job after you've got some experience on your resume.

6) If you get an interview and don't get the job, hit up the hiring manager on LinkedIn and ask if you can take him to lunch. At lunch, tell them that you've gotten a few interviews, but haven't been able to land a job. Ask for feedback, and make it clear that you aren't asking for politeness but for brutal honesty.

Something must be wrong with me then because I've been programming for decades in multiple areas productively, but successfully completing three leetcode medium/hard within 45 minutes while also talking through my thought process is not something I'd call easy.

> so don't focus on them at all

I'd suggest most people aren't going to get past the first level if they follow this advice.

As for the OP though, since they already passed coding challenges, the advice might be appropriate for them. I'm actually surprised that there was no offer on any of the interviews where "a bunch" of coding challenges were passed.

> If you can ship code yourself, you're already mid or senior level at most companies.

I'd go with this idea. Make it clear that you can ship. If you can complete coding challenges, then you should be able to make a small game. And a decent website. And a SaaS project. And so on. Get a portfolio going.

It was hard for people to even consider my CV until I shifted focus towards those projects and freelance jobs. Still, the job search wasn’t successful until one person decided to “just give me a chance”. His point of view, which I completely agree with, was that even with a lot of programming experience, he can’t be sure that I’d like working in the software industry. Fortunately I didn’t mind the process and the rest is history.

If I had to do it over again I would first figure out how software engineers really do work, that is learn the different team configurations, how engineers collaborate with each other and product people, the different frameworks used (like agile, XP, plan-build-release, etc.). Then if you decide you still like it, either try to connect your past work experience with this way of working, or try to acquire such experience as others have recommended (contractor work, open source contributor, consultancy work, etc.).