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Home Forums Other Do you think it is possible to get good front end developer job being very young?

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  • #41689
    IlyaDaderko
    Member

    Hello everyone,

    Little bit about my self, I’m 18 years old, currently studying software engineering in London.
    I started learning front end development since I was 14, I’ve done some freelance work before, but never worked for actual company.

    At the moment I’m refreshing my knowledge to be up to date with latest technologies. Once that is done I’m planning to make completely new portfolio website, with some demo work (demo meaning that I’ll make websites for companies that I made up).

    As the title says, will I be able to secure good (or at least any) front end developer job in a company? Will employers be strict about previous work experience and my young age?
    Will clean and neat portfolio website be enough to impress employer? (I’ll do my best to make it responsive, retina ready, optimised and everything I else I’ll come up with..)

    I’m also planning to refresh content on my social websites like twitter, fb, g+ to make myself appear more professional, furthermore I’m aiming to update my LinkedIn profile and create several projects for Github to show employer that I’m a serious worker, despite my young age.

    So what do you think? do I stand a chance?

    #119474
    Senff
    Participant

    As someone who has been in charge of hiring front end developers, I can say that in my case, there were three things that mattered for me to hire someone:

    1: talent. You have to be GOOD at your job.
    2: passion. You have to LIKE this kind of work.
    3: not be a jerk.

    Age never mattered to me. I’ve hired 20 year olds, I’ve hired 45 year olds. Of course, I wouldn’t put a young guy in a senior position.

    Having said that, I’m in Canada, and in some countries the culture might be different and age DOES matter maybe. And of course, it differs from company to company and from person to person. But, again, I personally think age is not a very important criterium if there’s talent and passion.

    #119476
    IlyaDaderko
    Member

    Hi, thats a helpful reply thank you.

    Any chance you could expand on what you consider is a best way to show passion for front end development. I do read a LOT of blogs, watch many tutorials and I really enjoy this kind of stuff, maybe you have some suggestions on how to show all of this to an employer?

    #119479
    Zoom
    Participant

    As an employer your age would not concern me. What would concern me is the fact that you are a student and you are not even about to graduate. Maybe an internship would be better for you at this point.

    #119480
    rthor
    Member

    Age isn’t a problem when you’ve got talents, passion and are reliable. I’ld suggest that you make some useful projects and not just demo projects. Create something useful—at least something that has some real-world problems that you solve (hopefully well) . That way, you will be showing of how your frontend talents relate to your logical sense—_an awesome design isn’t awesome unless it’s practical_.

    #119481
    downpour046
    Participant

    First off, you are in a great career field. It’s less competitive than other positions out there but you have to have a passion for it. There is a lot of money in this field, and in my opinion few front end developers out there who are actually good at what they do. That being said, your age is a factor, but not if you can demonstrate you know your stuff. As mentioned above though in another post, I probably wouldn’t hire you for a senior team-lead role without team/ business experience. There are certain things you learn just with working in teams and clients that can’t be learned in a book.

    Getting started is always the hardest thing to do, but once you get your foot in the door its downhill. As also stated above, you need to have a passion for front-end work. Whenever I interview I can always tell the difference between who fluffed their resume and who means business. I can also easily tell if someone enjoys being a front-end developer very quickly.

    So my suggestion is make sure your skills are top-notch to compensate for your age. If I was interviewing you and a 45 year old gentleman with a masters degree and you demonstrated you clearly knew your stuff better than he, I’d hire you in a heartbeat.

    #119484
    IlyaDaderko
    Member

    Thans for the tip guys, I feel more confident now ;))

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