Finding work in Elixir #001
Tags: elixir, career, beginners
Published: 2022-10-04 09:33:11

Hello Elixir community (and other developers too, of course):

I will have an announcement to make in the next few weeks, but in short, I will be sharing valuable information and guidance I find from my Gandalfs and Obi Wan Kenobis on my way to finding work.

Not only work. I want to find work that puts a big smile on my face. That is different for everyone, but I am reporting from my own journey, with the hope that it valuable to others.

Not big speeches yet, just note taking. Here are some principles that I have found valuable from my search.

Shout out to Jeff, Andrew and Brook, from whom I have learnt what you are about to read.

- It is not what you know. It is who you know. Be active in the community that you want to belong to. Contribute. Learn. Meet people. Ask questions. Be noticed for the right reasons. The job that fits you may or may not be on LinkedIn, but more often than not comes through a personal connection. Find your gang and play!


- Your previous career experience, even if it is unrelated, is valuable. Jeff, an experienced recruiter I talked with told me that developers with a varied past professional experience bring a lot of value to the job.


- Pragmatic tip related to the above: When it comes to presenting this to potential employers, possibly the cover letter is the best way to bring this up. In my case, I would write about skills and attitudes I have learnt in my forays into the hospitality industry, entrepreneurship, advertisment, freelancing, writing, traveling, content creation... even music. What is relevant? How has that shaped the person I am now? How is that useful in the job I want to have? Spell it out in a cover letter (is that still fashionable?)


- Being competent in Git is essential. Apparently there are developers out there with more than 20 years of experience who keep making a mess on Git, making life messy for everyone involved, despite their great skills in coding. I do not blame them. Git is a beast I have not yet tamed, but being orderly, disciplined, and fluent in Git & GitHub is very valuable and attractive to employers.


- Speaking of Git: be active in projects you love. Have well populated Readme.md files. I didn't know this, but employers actually check your GitHub to peek into your life as a developer. Git your house in order and make it beautiful (apologies for the lame joke. It was low hanging fruit, and it looked tasty).

Bonus material on Readme.MD profiles (shout out to Stephan for providing these): 

- TEMPLATES: https://github.com/kautukkundan/Awesome-Profile-README-templates

- VIDEO: https://twitter.com/github/status/1294348292130836482


Even MORE bonus material on finding work:

- GREAT Citizen Coder podcast episode with Andrew and Brooklin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WghWvI5qfFU

Thanks to the Dockyard Academy community for sharing some of these below. I will be listening to them and... God only knows where the breadcrumbs will lead to:

Ben Orenstein - How to Stand Out When Applying for a Job at a Small Company - https://fullstackradio.com/152

Top End Devs... Adi seems like an interesting guy: https://topenddevs.com/podcasts/elixir-mix/episodes/getting-hired-as-an-elixir-programmer-with-adi-iyengar-emx-184

A podcast for freelance developers: https://www.dreamclients.io/

I will keep bringing these type of articles and resources to the community, and my job will be to summarise and extract the bullet points. If you have more wisdom about job-finding & career-building, please do let me know.

Also, if you know any Elixir recruiters, or projects that are looking for Elixir developers, I want to talk to them to understand their needs and challenges, as well as "what's cooking!". Mapping the territory I am.

Keep riding towards the sunset in the Elixir Wild Wild West!

```
Git add .
Git commit -m "Leave the cave. Kill something. Drag it home."
```


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