You have a secret superpower for getting a job.
Tags: career, beginners
Published: 2019-12-11 23:22:58

*I'm building a community over at [GetAJobIn.Tech](http://getajobin.tech) for self-taught developers & bootcamp students looking for their first job. This is the second email my students receive on my newsletter.*

In the last email, I told you that getting your first job in tech is a system, not a straight line. I also mentioned two pieces of that system: **Sharpen Your Skills** and **Take More Swings**. We'll get to those soon, but they involve the stuff you probably already think of when it comes to getting your first job in tech: learning to code and applying to (and interviewing for) jobs. In fact, they're the bookends of the system:

1. Sharpen Your Skills
2. ???
3. ???
4. Take More Swings

Today, let's talk about the second one (drumroll please): **Learn in Public**.

I'm not gonna lie, this one really excites me, because it is basically a superpower you don't know you have. One of the things that most paralyzes beginners (actually everyone, myself included) is called "Impostor Syndrome." It's that feeling you have when you think, "Ugh, I still have so much to learn. How will I ever be good enough to get a real dev job?"

That feeling is totally normal (and I'll have a whole email on it soon), especially if you've just gotten rejected for another job because of "lack of experience."

Learning in public is the key to keeping Impostor Syndrome at bay. Instead of hiding your junior status or trying to BS your way through an interview ("Oh yeah I totally know what GraphQL is..."), you wholeheartedly embrace it and share your journey with the world.

This might be on a personal blog, a Twitch channel, YouTube, a podcast, or something else entirely. We'll cover tactics for this in the next email. For now, imagine that every time you learn something, however tiny, you write a tiny blog post about it. It doesn't have to be fancy or sophisticated (you can always edit it later). Just a TIL (today I learned) that you can write and publish quickly and regularly.

Check out the benefits of doing this:

- You have a written record of what you learned for yourself to refer back to (and trust me, you will)
- You have proof of your active learning for employers
- You're building your personal brand online
- You're helping others who might be in the exact same spot you are

These are all so powerful. For example, a good employer looking to hire a junior developer should care most about your ability to learn, not about your current knowledge base. Your tiny blog proves this. And you really never know who else you're going to help with your writing (or podcasting or streaming). It's good to pay things forward!

Okay, so now you know the big secret: learn in public. In the next email, we'll look at specific tactics for how to do this.

*If you're curious about the rest of this series, head over to [GetAJobIn.Tech](http://getajobin.tech) and sign up for the newsletter. I'll send you a series on the 3 Surprising Keys of Getting a Job in Tech to get you started, as well as the continuation of the series above (and no spam, ever). Feel free to write me back and tell me how you're doing and what you're working on. You got this! 💪*