10. What to Do if You're Still Not Landing Interviews

Written by Jenn Bailey

After you’ve invested the time and energy to go through all of the steps in this book, it’s natural to hope that you’ll land an interview for your dream job right away. Unfortunately, the road to success isn’t always a straight line. Creating a career, like creating an app, is an iterative process.

It’s totally OK if you aren’t getting the interviews you hope for. It’s possible that you’re just facing a crowded job market and you need to stay the course, or it could be that your presentation is missing the mark and you need to make some changes. How do you know the difference? This chapter will help.

In this chapter, you’ll learn how to take a closer look at your process, improving your chances of getting chosen for an interview. You’ll take another look at your resume and portfolio, learn about some common mistakes that applicants make and get tips for stepping up your game. You’ll also learn how to manage your emotions and make a longer-than-expected job hunt sustainable.

What You’ll Learn

• To identify common mistakes that job applicants make and learn strategies to avoid them.
• How to request feedback and implement it in your application process.
• Tips to make yourself a stronger applicant.
• The importance of managing your emotions during a long job hunt and learn strategies for making it sustainable.
• How to implement a continuous improvement process for your job search.

You’ll start by learning about common job application mistakes to ensure you’re not making any of them.

How to Recognize and Avoid Common Job Application Mistakes

Many times, there’s only a razor-thin difference between getting a call for an interview and being passed over. That difference may come from a common mistake you don’t realize you’re making. In this section, you’ll learn many of these easy-to-make errors and how to troubleshoot your approach to make sure you’re not doing them.

1. Not Tailoring Your Resume for the Position

Some people send the same resume every time they apply for a role. There are even services that will send a generic resume to open roles automatically. This is, however, a terrible tactic.

Hiring managers review dozens, or hundreds, of candidates. If they can’t see at a glance why you could be perfect for the job, they’ll pass you over.

Make sure that you word your resume to exactly match the qualifications your potential employer has listed. As a developer, you know the tech lingo and can easily recognize different wording for the same thing. However, an HR person scanning a resume or an automatic system that’s looking for specific keywords won’t know any variations and will pass you over, even when you’re qualified, if you aren’t using the terms they’re looking for.

Check the job postings to find out what keywords they’re looking for and use that wording whenever possible.

2. Not Sending a Customized Cover Letter

A cover letter is your chance to pique your potential employer’s interest, so it’s important to get it right. Keep them focused and to the point, and don’t be shy — you want them to have an impact. Talk yourself up and show a bit of personality.

The nature of the cover letter is to catch the employer’s attention. It’s your chance to highlight qualities that aren’t expressed as clearly in a resume, particularly if you don’t yet have developer experience. Tell them who you are, what you’ve done, what benefit you can bring to their team and how passionate you are.

Sometimes, there’s a tendency to downplay the cover letter to avoid bragging or sounding too eager. Be honest but not humble. Create a well-crafted sales pitch. The product you’re selling is yourself — a dedicated and capable junior developer. End the letter with a positive call to action to get in touch with you.

Your cover letter should fit on one page. You can use a similar formula with each application, but be sure to tailor them to each company and to write them as if you were talking directly to the employer.

Include the following sections:

• What you’re applying for and how you heard about it.
• Why you’re so enthusiastic about the position and why your talent is a perfect fit. This takes some research. Do the research.
• What your qualifications are and how you got them.
• Experience you have that’s relevant to their team.
• Personal attributes you have that will make you a great team member.
• How they can contact you and that you’d cordially invite them to do so right away.

Written correctly, your cover letter will ignite employers to action. They may see the confidence and enthusiasm reflecting through and want to give you a chance. This can set your resume apart.

3. Your Resume Isn’t Easy to Scan

As mentioned above, the person who decides whether to advance you to the next step or not is very busy. You need to ensure that they can scan your resume so they can see the information they need at a glance.

Take out your resume and revisit Chapter 4, “Creating a Resume & Portfolio”. Make sure that you’ve followed the suggested structure.

Also, to double-check your resume:

• Ensure your most relevant experience and knowledge appears at the top.
• Add any new skills you’ve gained, new projects you’ve worked on, etc.
• Give it a critical look. Is it clear but succinct? Is the font easily readable? Did any typos slip in? Can you see the most important information at a glance?

4. Not Optimizing Your LinkedIn Account

Today, many companies and recruiters find their candidates through LinkedIn. If your LinkedIn account isn’t optimized — or if you don’t have one at all — now’s the time to get it in shape.

First, review Chapter 6, “Working With Recruiters”, for tips on how to create an effective LinkedIn profile. You’ll also find tips for choosing a great profile picture in Chapter 7, “Growing Your Professional Network”.

Once you’ve set up a professional profile, make sure that it reflects good keywords for your desired role.

Recruiters and employers search LinkedIn using keywords. When you include these keywords in your LinkedIn profile, you’ll show up more often in those searches.

The best place to find keywords is on job postings themselves. However, you can also mine the profiles of folks who already have jobs like the one you’re trying to land. Look at the keywords in their profiles and see which ones you might legitimately include in your own.

The first place to put keywords is in the headline: Don’t list the job you have, but use keywords for the job you’re looking for instead. Use exact phrases with correct spelling for the exact job titles that you’re applying for.

You can also use keywords in your About section. Describe your biggest accomplishments strategically using keywords along the way. You can include sections like “Core Competencies” and “Positions I’m Seeking”, then list many keywords beneath them.

Be sure to fill out the Experience section. Add any keywords that are relevant to your current job search in the responsibilities of your position. Even if you’ve never had a job in tech, add something in this section. If you’ve never had any job, then your job can be “seeking a position in” or “continuing education in”, followed by keywords.

Fill out the Skills section, keeping your most relevant training at the forefront. If you’ve had training that isn’t relevant to your job search, you may consider omitting it if it’s outdated or outside the industry.

5. Not Asking for Recommendations on LinkedIn

Another powerful way to use LinkedIn is as a way to gather positive feedback about your abilities in the tech field.

To start, determine which individuals in your network have seen a demonstration of your skills. Ask them to write you a recommendation. You may also offer to write a recommendation for them in exchange.

Mentors, former teachers and peers are great people to start asking for recommendations. Also consider any developers you know or anyone you’ve mentored. This can also include anyone you’ve volunteered for, any previous companies or coworkers you’ve had.

Tip: When asking for a recommendation, it’s helpful to tell the person exactly what you’d like the recommendation to highlight. You can also include what position you’re looking for and suggest wording for the recommendation.

As someone who writes a lot of recommendations, I can say that providing suggested wording can be a real time saver. It ensures that the recommendation meets the needs of the person I’m writing it for. Making it easier to write the recommendation makes it more likely the person you’re asking will do it.

Now that you’ve updated your resume, your cover letter and your LinkedIn profile, it’s time to get feedback.

Gathering and Incorporating Feedback

Once you’ve updated your resume, cover letter and LinkedIn profile, it’s time to ask for feedback. A second set of eyes turns up improvements to your application process you’d never think of, like ways to better highlight your skills, new skills to learn or tips to improve your presentation. Plus, hearing other perspectives allows you to see what assumptions employers are making when they read your profile.

Here are some ideas for people to ask:

• Teachers, peers or mentors from your bootcamp or school. If you attended a college or university, they might offer resume assistance.
• New developers who’ve recently gotten jobs in your industry.
• Engineering team leads or hiring managers in your network who are experienced at evaluating resumes.
• Recruiters. Any time you talk to a recruiter, get feedback while you have them on the line.
• You can use an AI tool like ResumeWorded to check how well your resume matches the skills listed in a job posting.
• Consider hiring a professional resume company to review your material.

Don’t forget to ask for feedback on your portfolio as well. Fellow developers might be able to suggest ways to better highlight your skills, new skills to learn or tips to improve your presentation. Research current job descriptions, newsletters and articles to make sure your portfolio contains samples of the latest popular features on your platform.

Once you’ve gathered the feedback, evaluate it to decide what to use. If it’s helpful and constructive, update your materials to incorporate the good advice you got. Just be sure that you keep your resume concise and readable as you incorporate the feedback.

Stepping up Your Game

If you haven’t seen the results you wanted yet, it might be time to consider which areas you can put more effort into to increase your chances of success. Even if you followed all the steps in this book, there might be areas you haven’t taken full advantage of yet. Here are some ideas for ways to up your game.

Learn New Skills

In tech, it’s important to keep expanding your skill set, whether you have a job or not. You might feel like you’ve just invested a lot in learning skills, but to stay up to date, you need to keep growing.

There are many ways to learn new skills. In Chapter 5, “Traditional & Nontraditional Ways to Find Jobs”, you joined a lot of email lists, communities and newsletters. These are great places to learn what’s up and coming.

You can also use short courses, tutorials or documentation to learn the latest technology. Some places to find these include:

• Kodeco: Use these articles, videos and books to discover the latest in your platform.

• Google Developers Codelabs: Try out and learn the latest features in Google products using the Codelabs. You can also find more learning materials on the main Google Developers site.

• Apple’s Developer site: See what’s new at Apple and watch videos, peruse sample code and read developer documentation.

• Medium: Check out the latest developer blogs on Medium. Many tech bloggers also post accompanying code samples on GitHub.

The best way to learn a new skill is to incorporate it into a new or existing project. You’ll find most of your guidance around new features from the vendors’ documentation and the platform’s communities on Stack Overflow, Reddit, Medium and elsewhere online. Whenever you learn a new skill, be sure to add it to your portfolio.

Expanding Your Network

Your network is the most powerful tool you can use. If you haven’t been nurturing this resource, now’s the time to pay it some extra attention.

In Chapter 7, “Growing Your Professional Network”, you explored many ways to expand your network. How did the process go? Is there anything in this chapter that you could’ve tried but haven’t?

For example:

• If you attended events mostly online, could you potentially find any in person? Or vice versa?
• Are any club meetups or conferences coming up?
• Can you join groups on Facebook, LinkedIn or Reddit that focus on your platform?

Cultivating a network is an ongoing process. In your past attempts, did you find communities that you haven’t explored fully yet? Keep digging, and add contacts to your network as you go.

Next, think about the interactions you’ve had in the past — were there any leads you haven’t followed up on? Are there peers from school or bootcamp you haven’t connected with yet?

It can feel awkward to connect with people when it’s been a while since you met or connected with the person. A great way to break the ice is to boost posts and endorse skills of people you’d like to contact. Look through your network and see if you can answer questions, congratulate successes or engage in conversations. Then, in turn, let your network know about your goals, and they can help you too.

When reconnecting with someone, remind them of when you met and under what circumstances. If you can, think of a reason to talk to them other than making a request. For example, provide some positive feedback on work they’ve done or a post they’ve made recently. Then, while catching up, you can inquire about any job leads they may have.

Improving Your Reputation

In Chapter 8, “Building in Public”, you explored many ways to enhance your portfolio and put your skills out there for all to see. Now, look for ways you can expand on that work. For instance, if you gave a workshop, could you give it in more places? Could you transform it into a talk? Record it and post it on YouTube? Be sure to reuse what you’ve created wherever possible.

Next, consider improving what you’ve made and marketing it to more audiences. For example, turn your project into an article or step-by-step tutorial, then post it on your blog or LinkedIn. Keep adding to your code portfolio. Everything you write adds to your value as a programmer, so market it as widely as you can.

Try to make posting to your blog a regular thing. Use a calendar to map out the posts you want to make a few weeks in advance, so you won’t be as likely to skip writing.

Congratulations, you’ve now gone through the different ways you can refine your job search approach. However, it’s not easy to deal with being rejected from one job after another, especially if you get your hopes up each time. Next, you’ll learn how to manage your emotions and how to support yourself financially if the search drags on longer than you had budgeted.

Managing Your Emotions During a Challenging Job Search

When your job search doesn’t go as planned, it’s grueling to keep applying, especially when the perfect companies haven’t returned your interest. If you’ve made it this far in the book, you’ve invested a lot, so it’s painful to not land an interview right away. However, as life coach Steven Redhead said, “The difference between success and failure is not giving up”.

Before you start making changes, it’s important to make sure you have the right mindset and the financial backing to continue to look for your first tech job.

Dealing With Disappointment

Searching for your first junior developer position is difficult. It puts you through a stressful cycle of hope and disappointment. Know that you’re not alone — many job seekers have experienced this. If you’re serious about your new career, you must fight to stay positive and stay the course. Here are some ways to do it:

• Turn rejection into opportunity: As you’re applying for jobs, prepare yourself for rejection. This is hard when the stakes are high and you’re feeling financial pressure. Yet, every failed attempt is an opportunity to refine your approach. Try to learn from each application you send and to gather feedback wherever you can.
• Maintain objectivity: Your job search might take a long time, but it won’t last forever. It’s normal that finding the right job takes time, and that doesn’t reflect on you as a person. Instead of wasting energy on worrying when you could spend it on more productive things, focus on what you can control. Try to remain detached — if you don’t raise your hopes too high, they won’t have as far to fall.
• Practice self-care: Hunting for a job takes a toll on you, so don’t neglect your self-care. Engage in activities that rejuvenate you, connect with those who are close to you and find support from other job seekers in the same situation. Be sure to eat well, exercise, sleep and engage in recreation wherever possible. Look for glimmers of hope.
• Celebrate your progress: You’ve already made it through many challenges. Take some time to feel good about all the work you’ve done. You’ve grown throughout this process, and you will continue to do so.
• Remember, it only takes one “yes”: Keep in mind that it doesn’t matter how many times you don’t get the interview: You only need one “yes”. Even if you experience hundreds of dead ends, it’ll all be worth it once that door opens for you.

It’s easy to say that you should just keep trying to find the perfect job when money is no issue, but few job seekers have that luxury. If you have financial pressure to find work soon, we see you.

Sustaining Your Job Search

To keep job searching, you may have to meet certain financial demands. If landing an interview for a junior dev role is taking longer than expected, you might need to diversify your search — and that’s totally OK. Many successful developers took a few detours before getting their first developer job.

In this section, you’ll look at alternative roles that can tide you over until you finally land that dream role.

Expanding Your Search

If you aren’t finding your perfect tech role right away, a good option is to look for tech-adjacent roles that build your skills and fuel your resume — all while bringing in a paycheck.

Even if these roles aren’t the ideal junior dev position, they prepare you for future success. Developers often have a variety of skills and positions before moving into their first developer role.

Some ideas to consider include:

• Data analysis
• Technical writing
• Soft skills
• Networking
• Technical support

These positions might be a way into a company where you can later shift roles onto the developer team. At the very least, they’ll make you look better to potential employers.

Tip: Kodeco’s article, Earn While You Learn: 5 Tech Jobs for New Coders discusses roles that can boost your resume in more detail.

Depending on your situation, you may consider something other than a full-time role. You’ll look at those next.

Alternatives to Full-Time Jobs

If you’re having trouble finding the perfect dev job, you might consider bringing in money to sustain your search with a part-time role or a paid internship. Both of these will supplement your income and help you gain experience.

Particularly with internships, you want to be careful to avoid roles that take up your time without giving you what you need. Even internships should be fairly compensated. Avoid unpaid internships.

Also, make sure that the company is giving you opportunities to learn and grow. When you interview for the position, take the opportunity to learn about the company’s commitment to mentorship and leadership. These are critical to having a good internship.

It can be difficult to find part-time roles or mentorships. These roles are oftentimes not advertised, particularly with large companies. You’ll need to be proactive in searching for these roles.

Some ideas for finding these roles include:

• Ask companies directly if they have part-time roles or internships available.
• Utilize your network for tips and referrals.
• If you’re a recent graduate, your school’s career center might have information about internship opportunities.
• Check job boards, including internship-focused sites like WayUp.

Now that you’ve considered some ways to make your search more sustainable, look at your expectations to make sure they’re serving you.

Remember that building a career in tech is a lot like building an app: It’s an iterative process that involves testing.

You’re nearly done now! To wrap up, try to apply a developer mindset to your job search.

Implementing a Continuous Improvement Process for Your Job Search

Keep in mind that preparing to get a job isn’t a one-and-done task — it’s a journey. You can think of your job hunt like an app: You don’t simply publish an app and ignore it. You use feedback to improve it. You incorporate the latest technology to optimize it. You look for new ways to market it and find a bigger audience. Your job search works the same way.

If that’s frustrating, remember that you’ll learn and grow through this process. You have already done a lot of correct things to start your job search. If it’s not yielding results, try augmenting your approach. If, for some reason, you’re stuck, don’t give up. Try to find the piece that’s not working or try another approach. You’ll soon improve this skill, just as you improved your coding skills.

Even if you’re facing a challenging job market, don’t get discouraged. That just means the search may take more time and effort — it doesn’t mean it’s impossible. A ZipRecruiter survey found that after the massive tech layoffs in 2022, 78% of the people who were laid off found a new job within just three months. That’s despite massive competition from the thousands of people who were suddenly searching for new roles at the same time.

If there aren’t a lot of opportunities at this moment, use this time to keep adding to your resume, refining your portfolio and building your skills and network. Soon, you’ll find the interview you seek. Success is a combination of having your skills on display while meeting an opportunity. Keep putting yourself out there and improving your presentation, and an opportunity will come your way.

Adjust your expectations to be as realistic as you can, but keep your eyes on the prize and have hope. Anything that’s worth doing is usually a challenge, and you’ll rise to this one. After all, you learned to code, you’ll nail this, too.

Resources

• Tips for Getting a Software Developer Internship gives you suggestions for how to pursue an internship while working toward a full-time position.
• Software Developer Cover Letter has some great links that can help you make your cover letters specific and effective for each job you apply for.
• Are You Using the Top Keywords for Your LinkedIn in 2023? is a guide to LinkedIn keywords that’ll help you optimize your profile to come up in searches related to the job you’re seeking.

Key Takeaways

• The job search can be a daunting process, but you can overcome the challenge — it only takes one “yes”.
• The market can ebb and flow — revise your expectations if needed, and keep trying.
• There can be many steps between where you are and where you want to be — any step toward your goal is the right direction.
• Getting a job is like any other skill — you improve through practice.
• Feedback is a valuable tool to refine your approach and perfect your resume, LinkedIn and portfolio.

Action Plan

• Review your application materials and make sure that they show your strengths, are up to date, are easy to read and are free of typos.
• Identify three people that could act as mentors on your journey. Reach out to them to review your application materials.
• Ask one developer from your network to provide feedback on your portfolio.
• Identify one job search strategy you haven’t utilized yet that you can put into action.
• Research one cutting-edge skill that you can learn and add to your portfolio.

Reflect on what you’ve learned: Find this chapter’s worksheet (PDF) in this book’s GitHub materials repo.