Finding it very hard to get a job 😶
Hey everyone, I am a Junior FE Dev (from my prev work title coz my exp is 1YoE). Have been working extensively on React.JS and Redux. My previous company was great. I was loving it. Sadly a few months ago, I was laid off. I still don't know the reason behind why I was one of the laid off people. Anyway, I moved on from that depression and started searching for a new job from last month. Made it to final rounds in pretty much every interview I sat for. But then got rejected in final round for crazy reasons including "we currently don't have funds to hire you". One of them even said they are on hiring freeze, literally in the final round 🥲.
Haven't been able to get a job anywhere. I don't know if my skills aren't enough to be hired or is it something else. "What's hot in FE right now ? Like what skills can fetch me a job ?" - Started asking this myself as well as some of my good friends, but they say don't learn skills for getting job, learn it for yourself. Though it's true, I don't have much savings to support myself for atleast a month. So, I have to get into a job to keep myself from going bonkers under the financial crunch that I can clearly see ahead of myself if I stay unemployed in the next 20 days.
Yes, the tech market is in its winter season. I understand that, but I still see there are so many openings in the market for ppl with 1YoE like me and skillset that matches mine, yet I never hear back from them or just get rejected in final rounds 😕.
I'm absolutely clueless on what to do right now. Any suggestions would be really helpful.
Next.js, SSR, GraphQL clients, WASM based apps, React server components, monorepos, micro-frontends etc. are all pretty hot right now.
Start with learning JS and React in depth (Akshay Saini's series, Kyle Simpson's books).
Make some interesting React projects with some of the above mentioned hot tech - preferably Next.js
Learn about frontend architecture and system design - state design and management, modularised component design with dependency injection, CDN abstractions, caching patterns, bundle-size optimisations, SEO optimisations etc.
Then apply some of the learnings from all of the above system design topics to your previous project. You will gain enough knowledge and expertise to be at the top of the market.
PS: I'm not a frontend engineer but a full-stack engineer so some of my prioritisation could be inaccurate. I just happen to work with an amazing frontend engineer who shares tons of insights with me.
Do you have any suggestions for UI designs ? I came across AI tools like Midjourney, but the designs were pretty basic, something I would have built myself without any UX knowledge.
In the end, despite all these tech, its the UI and UX that matters the most 😅
For FE dev, I think you can build and deploy an awesome web application, which can showcase your skills and knowledge to the fullest. A pictorial is worth thousand words, I had actually hired a college dropout purely on his skills what wonders he could do in FE, rather than his resume
Building UI is not an issue for me. I can easily breakdown complex UI and even collabed with design team in my prev org to come up with better UI than what was shared with me.
Now that I'm open for work, I do have many project ideas in mind but I don't have an UI design that would carry the value that my project idea will offer. This is where I lack. Explored dribbble and behance for design inspirations but couldn't find what I was looking for. Any suggestions on this ?
Design is a creative aspect, I can find flaws and add suggestions but coming with one is not my cup of tea. Sorry would not be of much help. I suck at creativity, my mind is more of a logical and analytical
Start freelancing with whatever time you have. It can take time to find clients but you can start with lower rates to extend your runway a bit.