On Interviewing as a Junior Dev

I wouldn't hire this bitch, ever.

Well, looking at her CV, she has a BS, and some real world experience. Couple that with self-motivation, and the interest to do another year just to get started in CS -- that would probably place her in a different category from "went to Uni, graduated". Which is one definition of junior dev.

That said, looking at her github profile, it does give me a "junior dev" feel (not really a bad or good thing, in and of itself. Better to hire a promising junior dev, than a poor "senior" dev, I think).

If nothing else, I'm much more looking forward to my own prospects if/when I start looking for a job in earnest...

I've never quite got the salaries in the UK/London -- those that I've seen advertised or on sites like glassdoor. They seem unreasonably low?

Granted, I'm looking from Norway which has a decidedly strange/flat pay structure -- starting salary for a junior dev here would (probably?) be around a little below the median wage, to 1.5 the median wage (across all categories of jobs[1]) -- and the effective ceiling not that far above.

I do find it interesting that with her clearly limited programming skills/experience, she was valued so high. I don't think it is unreasonable, but it doesn't really match what I've seen elsewhere -- I'm surprised so many companies clearly seem to see what they need, and are willing to compensate accordingly.

[1] http://www.ssb.no/a/aarbok/tab/tab-190.html Norwgegian table. So for a single person 25-30 years old, in 2011, median income after taxes come to 264 200 NOK, or ~37K USD/23.5K GBP. Almost double that for income before tax.

This article was interesting to read from my standpoint. I'm currently unemployed and am currently looking for a jr. dev position as well.

Background: Received CS degree, have worked for 3 years as a full-stack developer internationally with lots of code written, and am now looking in the Bay Area for front-end developer position.

> Red Flag 1: Asking me to dedicate over ten hours to a code challenge before meeting anyone on the team. Relatedly, the code challenge not having anything to do with the role for which I am applying or the skills I would be using on the job.

Along the same lines, I've now worked on around 6 coding challenges (2 of which I would say had nothing to do with front-end development) and after spending somewhere between 4-10+ of my time, I've gone from the mentality of "coding challenges are good because I can learn from them" to "... another one? I need money, not more work." While coding challenges are a good way of gauging one's skill level, asking for a coding challenge that will take longer than a 2-3 hours should not be required, mainly with regard to the respect of the developer looking for the job, as well as to the company and their time to check it. I've received (and completed) challenges that took over a day to complete. Worst of all is when you submit it and you receive a "Sorry, we have decided to pursue other candidates response" without working with you to understand where your code could be strengthened.

> Green Flag 3: Tailoring the interview process to the candidate. When I feel that there is an attempt to ensure that there is a good mutual fit for a role in a company, I have a much more positive view on the company and their hiring practices.

I just wanted to emphasize this Green Flag.

The other important item I found surprisingly relatable was this:

> And of course, as they always say, it's really about who you know and using those connections.

Start-ups aside, I've found it incredible difficult to get on the radar of bigger companies, when it comes to applying from their site. I can understand hundreds or more are applying and they may not be able to get back to everyone and that's understandable, I just didn't realize how emphasized connections were. The only interviews I've had with bigger companies (i.e. Facebook/Google, etc.) have been through connections. Other companies w/o connections... well I didn't get past the coding challenge to have that interview.

I don't know how to get on the radar of any companies. I'd love to be given a coding challenge.

Background: Received Math degree this past summer, 0 years as a full-stack developer. I had supporting coursework in CS, so I'm not completely unfamiliar with programming. All I want is an entry level job...

London software salaries are low compared to the Bay Area or Seattle. Comparable or a little bit lower than Toronto software salaries.

A couple of years ago Amazon would make a standard offer of 90k USD (~55k GBP at today's rates) to new graduates hired as SDE in Seattle, plus a 10k bonus if they stayed a year.

Of course there's differences like Amazon giving everyone only 10 paid vacation/annual leave days, 15 days being considered pretty good, annual bonuses aren't common at the larger U.S. companies, etc.

I personally think London is worth it, but the money difference is there.