Six Tips for Finding a Software Developer Role During a Pandemic
By: Chris Morrow
Tags: Job Hunting, Jobs, Pandemic, Software Development, Interview

Photo by author via Flickr

Recently, and quite surprisingly, I found myself unemployed. You see, I’ve been gainfully employed for the last fifteen years and even had contract jobs while working full time. Once the initial shock wore off, I suddenly didn’t know what to do with my time. After four weeks and with multiple offers to choose from, I’m employed full time again. Here’s how I spent those four weeks and my advice to anyone who finds themself looking for work during the pandemic.

1. Don’t Panic

Suddenly losing your job can be demoralizing. It’s easy to fall into a trap of self-doubt and worry, especially when the news is full of stories of high unemployment. It’s important to remember your self-worth isn’t tied to your job. Just because you lost your job doesn’t mean you’re a bad developer. Also, the good news is that despite a global pandemic, the job market for software developers is still booming.

Because most developers are working from home, and might be for the foreseeable future, many companies are now opening up to hiring 100% remote employees. Some might involve light travel, while others will never have you come into an office. This means companies are no longer narrowing their hiring to just employees willing to relocate, but are now open to hiring across the country. Do you live in Portland Maine and want to work for Google? Now you can!

The road ahead isn’t easy. To find work quickly, you’ll need to dedicate several hours a day to the job hunt. It will become a job unto itself. But there is light at the end of the tunnel.

2. Be Prepared

First, you need to keep a close eye on your finances. You’ll need to minimize your monthly expenditures as much as you can because you might not know when your next paycheck is coming. An easy way to save money is to suspend or cancel streaming services. Some will even let you select a cheaper plan in exchange for less streams and reduced quality. An added benefit is you’ll have less distractions while you job hunt.

You’ll also need to update your resume or CV and your LinkedIn profile. There are a lot of great tips out there for writing an impressive software development CV, so I’ll just cover a few highlights:

Make sure you clearly mark the languages or tools you’re proficient with.

In the descriptions of your past roles and responsibilities, make sure to highlight the languages and tools you used for that job.

If you’ve worked on any open source projects, be sure to draw some attention to it.

When applying for jobs, many recruiters are filtering applications based on buzzwords they see in resumes. Maximizing mentions of cloud services, databases, and languages will help you get more calls from recruiters and interviews.

3. Leverage Your Network

There’s no shame in asking for help. Reach out to friends and colleagues for references and referrals. Nearly every job I’ve ever had was because I had a referral from someone I knew. You’d be surprised how many people have been in a similar situation as you and are willing to help. Some of your contacts might even have part-time contract work. If you can find the work, it’s not a bad idea to do some light web development or consulting while you job hunt. Just be sure not to over-extend yourself and keep it under 20 hours.

Be open to talking to recruiters. One thing I found extremely useful was to adjust my Job Preferences on LinkedIn by saying that I’m actively applying for jobs. This simple adjustment opened a flood gate of messages from recruiters. As long as a job description from a recruiter sounds like a good fit for your skills and a role you can see yourself doing, let them know you’re interested and send them your resume and phone number. Having regular chats with recruiters can open the door to several interviews.

4. Finding the Right Job

There are several resources out there for searching for jobs. Indeed and LinkedIn are good resources for finding software developer positions. You can also check the open positions for particular companies you are interested in directly from their website. You might even be invited to smaller, more targeted job sites by recruiters. I personally found Talentpair to be really useful.

I think a lot of job seekers put too much emphasis on the company they want to work for. I feel it’s more important to find a job you are qualified for, will enjoy doing, and is on a team with great people. Having worked for very large companies, the prestige of working for a well known company isn’t worth it if the team, leadership, or job role makes you miserable. Instead, try to find a job you want to do first, then start to narrow down to the companies you would like to work for.

Pay close attention to requirements in job posts, such as the tech stack, whether the job is 100% remote, and if it will involve travel. You should be casting a wide net with your job search, but these are quick things to check that can help you narrow your search. Say for instance you are a NodeJS developer, you probably aren’t going to be interested in jobs that require several years of .NET or Java experience. You also might not be interested in being imbedded with a customer’s developer team overseas for several months if you are looking for a work-from-home position.

Being selective will help you narrow your search to just positions you are interested in. It will also help you with talking to recruiters and letting them know exactly what you are looking for.

5. Study and Practice

Once you start scheduling interviews, many companies will want to perform a technical assessment of your skills. Since interviews during a pandemic are all conducted remotely, there are no whiteboard interviews. However, the online replacement for the whiteboard interview takes a few forms. It might come in the form of a timed skill assessment, where you will need to work on two or three problems that are automatically graded at the end. It might also be an interactive coding session in an online IDE-like environment, where the interviewer can see everything you type. Regardless of the form the assessment takes, you should expect to answer technical questions and will need to be sure you’re ready.

Most of the questions often involve algorithms and data structures and vary in difficulty. Common interview questions involve two-dimensional arrays, trees, and graphs. Be sure to study these data structures and how they can be manipulated. Make sure you understand how and when to apply recursion. Be ready to explain the time complexity of your answer. Studying alone will not be enough, and you should really go through several practice questions to hone your skills. A great free resource for practicing interview questions is hackerrank.com.

Practicing live coding during an interview is also invaluable. This gives an interviewer a peek at your problem solving skills and coding style. Remember, these live coding exercises are a two way conversation and feel free to ask clarifying questions, bounce ideas off of the interviewer, or ask for a hint if you’re stuck. Be sure to talk through your thought process and explain what you’re doing. This usually makes a good impression with the interviewer even if you don’t get the solution 100% correct.

Having several interviews also lets you practice pitching your skills, experience, and what you can bring to a team. Remember, you are marketing yourself to employers and making a good impression is critical to receiving an offer.

6. Be Humble and Thankful

With luck, you’ll have several interviews lined up. Some will decide not to move forward with you. Try not to let it bother you. You will likely receive a few no’s before you hear yes. Interviewing is a humbling experience, and the important thing is to not lose focus of your goal of scheduling interviews and finding a job.

With practice and luck, you’ll receive multiple offers. Even with a single offer you probably will have a few interviews under your belt. You might even have some upcoming interviews after your receive an offer you want to accept. In any of these situations, it’s important to thank the people that helped you get to this point.

You’ll need to notify recruiters that you’ve accepted an offer and need to withdraw from consideration. You might need to notify hiring managers that you’re declining an offer to accept another. Be sure to show your appreciation and thank them for their consideration. You never know, they might want to hire you in the future and it’s a good idea to stay on positive terms.

Once you’ve accepted an offer, be sure to thank everyone that helped you along the way. Whether they’re friends that referred you, past managers that were willing to give you a reference, or anyone just offering their support, be sure to let them know how much you appreciate their help. So much of job hunting is about human connection as it is about your skills.

Happy job hunting!