sahra 💫TL;DR
- Begging to he hired devalues your worth and sets you off as desperate
- Be confident in your skills
- For every knowledge or skill gained, your value increases.
- Learn how to sell yourself properly
- Showcase your knowledge and skills and value to potential employers.
- Be assertive, don't sell yourself short.
Why You should Not Beg for a Job
Getting hired is a goal a lot of developers out there hope to achieve, but are you going about it the right way?
The tech space today is highly competitive and landing a job within is a rather tasking endeavor which requires quite some effort and determination.
A lot of developers seeking for jobs don't really know how to go about it, hence they find themselves in the comment sections or DMs of recruiters begging to be hired. Most times when I come across such posts or comments like that, I just find it completely wrong and mostly cringe.
Doing this makes you devalue yourself and sets you off as desperate and unprofessional.
You have taken the time to learn the skills and strengthen your knowledge base, so I don't see why you should still be begging to be hired. If you do, you probably fall in one of these categories:
- You are actually not confident in your skills enough.
- You probably feel there would be some sort of empathy towards you, hence landing you the job.
- You just don't know how to sell yourself.
Category 1
If you fall under this category, you have learned the skills required for the job you are seeking, but you don't feel quite confident enough to actually land you the job hence you go beg for it, wanting to be hired on merits of a favor rather than based on your actual value. All you have to do is work on your confidence level.
There is one thing I like to say to people a lot, which is:
Confidence would put you at the top
Confidence will present you as a knowledgeable person in your field. You might actually not be 100% confident in your self or your skills within, I know a lot of people struggle with imposter syndrome daily. but don't ever let that reflect outwardly, you would just be setting yourself up for complete self devaluation.
If your skills in reality aren't actually enough to land the job, then I don't think a job is what you should be searching for at that moment. Take your time to learn the required skills, broaden your knowledge base. Dont go learn HTML, CSS and JavaScript, then go begging for a job with a company that the core of their Frontend is React. You are of little to no value to them.
Category 2
If you fall under category 2, you must have probably received some very bad advice somewhere.
People would not hire you based on how much you beg for the job, 'software development' is not 'waiting tables'. People want to see how you can be a valuable asset to them and that you have the knowledge to take on the role. If you are begging for the job, it shows you don't know your value and if you don't know your own value, it's hard for someone else to see it.
Category 3
For those in this category, the ability to sell yourself is a very crucial thing you need to understand if you are looking to be hired. Here are a few ways you could sell yourself properly to potential employers and set yourself apart from over 50% of the other applicants.
Be socially active: Being socially active doesn't necessarily mean you have to go out of your way to become a tech influencer or some thing. It simply means just showcase your knowledge on social platforms for the world to see. I would recommend LinkedIn and Twitter specifically, those are great platforms that can really help you get spotted by potential employers looking for your skills.
Build and share your knowledge publicly: Show off what you can do always, no matter how small. I find this method really great because you are not only setting yourself above a whole lot of applicants for whatever role you are applying for, but you also create a public archive of your knowledge for both others and yourself. Follow hiring managers on your social platforms. Engage with their posts, not asking or begging for a job, but showcasing your knowledge. envision your self as a recruiter, look at your work and ask yourself: "would I want to hire me?". Your answer to this would give you some clarity on what it is you should do or don't do to make yourself better.
Contribute to Open Source: Honestly this can't be overemphasized. Put yourself out there by contributing to open source projects. Pick a few targets companies that you would be interested in working for, learn one or two about what they do, and try to figure out how you can improve on their existing software and go ahead to make the contributions.
A little twist you could add to it is as a beginner:
After contributing to a project and your contributions were hopefully accepted, send an email to the software company, seeking an internship.
Send them the contributions you made to their software, highlighting how you solved whatever issue and your interest in their company, stating your desire to work with and learn more about the company as an intern.
This would put you about 50% ahead of most other applicants that would probably submit for an internship role with them, they would see your actual interest and understanding of their software.
Your request of an internship role rather than a job would also be interesting to them, because it shows your willingness and interest to learn about the company, rather than you just looking for a paycheck.
This method would help you put your foot in the door, and after working for an intern for a certain amount of time, you could apply for a full time role with a higher paycheck😉.
Be assertive: No one wants to hire anyone who feels they don't really know what they are doing. Humans in general are programmed to have more faith in the assertive one, even before they actually get to learn what it is you can really do.
When seeking a job opportunity, it's essential to avoid certain phrases such as "I would be honored if you hire me" "you would not regret it if you hire me" and "I would like to work in your company because..." can diminish your assertiveness.
Instead, employ expressions such as "I have had the opportunity to closely observe the impactful work undertaken by your company, which I find incredibly intriguing" and "Being a part of a team that consistently delivers innovative solutions aligns well with my career objectives".
The latter positions you as a confident candidate who values mutual benefits. It's important to convey your desire to contribute positively to the organization without compromising your professional integrity.
Hopefully, this article have given you one or two insights on how to go about your job hunting without begging for it.
If you have any question or techniques you feel people should also apply when seeking a job, please do not hesitate to share it in the comment section below. Till then✌.
