Dev Journey so far
Introduction
I have only thought of this dev job as a long-term career, shortly after Covid started.
Before the bootcamp, I had almost no knowledge about programming languages or how browsers work.
After I finished a 6-month frontend bootcamp in January this year (most bootcamps in South Korea are a joke, btw), I started to wonder what is actually important to be a good web developer or software engineer, such as understanding backend development and low-level programming languages.
Since that moment, I have been thinking about this job title more seriously than ever.
I have to admit that it wasn’t easy to sit and look at the monitor all day without understanding what was going on at first. It took me almost 3 months (maybe more) to get used to what I would be doing in the future.
Once I got used to sitting all day in front of the monitor, I started to wonder if I would really be able to get a job as a frontend web developer in another 3 months.
I have some close friends who already work as web developers, and they are successful, working for well-known and large companies with great benefits.
At first, I thought I would become like one of them if I studied hard enough. Also, the job market seemed alright, I guess.
The reality was not what I had imagined 3 months ago.
Job Searching and Interviews
I applied to more than 60 companies and luckily enough, I got 2 job interviews.
During the bootcamp, there was a mentor who had worked as a frontend web developer for about 3 years. We had the chance to have coffee chats once or twice a week.
I really liked these coffee chats because I always wanted to prove myself and know where I am at that moment. I talked about the frontend stacks I liked and the way I studied.
After a few months, I met him in person. Apparently, he was impressed by me because I wasn’t just studying but studying with purpose.
The first job interview ( March )
After some time after finishing the bootcamp, he asked me if I was still looking for a job and gave me a chance to interview as a junior frontend developer in a B2B company where he works.
The company had a service that manages expenses.
I had a phone screen with the CTO of the company.
He asked me:
- Which university did you graduate from?
- What programming languages do you have experience with, other than JavaScript?
- What other IT fields are you interested in?
- Do you know that pork doesn’t have to be cooked all the way through?
- Why do you want to become a web developer?
- What happens when you type a URL in the browser’s search bar?
- Have you experienced TDD (Test Driven Development)?
- How long have you been studying?
- How well did you do in the bootcamp (percentage-wise)?
- what’s your strength as a developer
- Some other questions about personal stuff…
Yes, I messed it up big time.
It was my first job interview ever, and I was nervous. I wasn’t really prepared for the interview, and most importantly, I didn’t answer the questions like a developer.
Fair enough! I Learned a lot from the interview anyways.
- How was I supposed to answer the question like a developer?
- Maybe I am not yet ready for interviews.
- Do I really want to be a web developer, and why?
- I need to study more!