Building a reputable CV

Daze

Daze

Daze

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I made a thread in this forum back at the start of December asking for advice on learning how to code, since then I have been making use of mainly Codeacademy, but also Coursera, Edx, Udacity, YouTube videos, blogs, etc. All of this is to hopefully become experienced in all the languages and tasks expected of someone in a front-end web development role.

I have been working for the last year on a couple of my own projects, from a technology startup idea, which is proving to be quite a big fish to fry, to a non-profit that I am now running successfully. I have also completed a functional ecommerce website on Wordpress mainly to get a bit of experience in that area. I was always limited by my coding knowledge, which is why I originally made the thread to try and get a better understanding of coding.

At this stage, I am starting to consider future job prospects, and would love to work in a front-end web dev role to get more experience, and would especially like to work with startup type businesses now that I'm beginning to be able to bring a technical role to a startup team. I also do some piece meal design work for an importing company so am well versed in using Photoshop and Illustrator.

However, my qualifications don't go past A-Level and I have no qualifications at all really that relate to IT or web development, which all companies seem to require.

I basically work from home at the minute, with the exception of a few meetings up and down the country, so have been able to dedicate a lot of time to learning to code so feel that I am, whilst still a beginner, capable of completing tasks required in these roles.

So, the reason for this thread is basically to ask what can I do in terms of getting real life qualifications that are recognised by companies, that will give me good prospects in terms of getting employed as a front end web dev? Will Coursera certificates stack up, or should I create a portfolio of all my work as it goes? Even if I do do this will it stack up when compared to people with CompSci degrees and a few years experience? Should I try and seek an apprenticeship type role within a company to build experience?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers.
 
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Really depends on who you want to get hired by.

Your bog standard HR drone would probably "file" your CV as soon as they noticed you didn't have formal qualifications regardless of portfolio.

Although someone like me would be more interested in a portfolio than a qualification (not web development myself but similar field). Someone may have a 1st but it doesn't specifically mean they'll be better than a self taught coder. If you can show your code and explain why you used X you'd be off to a good start. Also showing code and being able to explain it goes a fair way to showing you didn't just mash together what you found in google searches.

Having a qualification will make it much easier to get through the door but a portfolio is what's going to allow you to keep going through the door Monday to Friday.

Pretty sure open university offers degrees on this subject which combined with a solid portfolio would certainly be better than coursera and depending on the view of the employer put you on even footing with compsci graduates.

I'm sure someone will disagree with me :D.
 
I was in the job centre this morning and I have realised something. Instead of creating a word document of your skill set >

What would be good is a proper real approved CV site where you can link too so the job that you are applying for can see in detail of qualifications and skill sets. This would be fantastic if someone could build this and get it off the ground! Bit like a resume area.

I know there are sites a little like it but not a job site a CV site.

Something authentic and genuine. I'm fairly positive there would be some web developers who could make this happen.

I may have to investigate this even further...
 
Get your work on to github so you can show people your code and also start contributing to open source projects so you can show people your passion. Be sure to revise old projects and update them with better and more efficient code where possible.
 
mrbell1984 said:
I was in the job centre this morning and I have realised something. Instead of creating a word document of your skill set >

What would be good is a proper real approved CV site where you can link too so the job that you are applying for can see in detail of qualifications and skill sets. This would be fantastic if someone could build this and get it off the ground! Bit like a resume area.

I know there are sites a little like it but not a job site a CV site.

Something authentic and genuine. I'm fairly positive there would be some web developers who could make this happen.

I may have to investigate this even further...
Click to expand...

That's quite a good idea. Don't see anyway of it being free though if verification was required :(. Although I imagine a lot of people either use their own URL or GitHub profile.
 
Portfolio
Github

If you don't have a degree, you'll need to show what you can do. The above two things will help with that.
 
I suggest you google the term "Skilled based CV" if you haven't already heard of it. It's a way of formatting a CV that puts an emphasis on skills and experience rather than academic qualifications and previous employers.

It's probably worth picking a type of job you want and deepening your skills in that area. So rather than having a smattering of skills across a range of topics you have a broad range of knowledge on a number of areas and a deep/ish understanding of one area. This will help in targeting the kind of jobs you're going in for.
 
Thanks for the advice lads. Will look into GitHub and also building a skill based CV.

In terms of highlighting code in previous projects by other people and demonstrating how I would change the code, do you mean in terms of them using the wrong code or do you mean in terms of UX and giving the website a better flow?
 
mrbell1984 said:
I was in the job centre this morning and I have realised something. Instead of creating a word document of your skill set >

What would be good is a proper real approved CV site where you can link too so the job that you are applying for can see in detail of qualifications and skill sets. This would be fantastic if someone could build this and get it off the ground! Bit like a resume area.

I know there are sites a little like it but not a job site a CV site.

Something authentic and genuine. I'm fairly positive there would be some web developers who could make this happen.

I may have to investigate this even further...
Click to expand...

LinkedIn?
 
mrbell1984 said:
That's more of a networking site though I'm on about a site based only on CV creation that generates a URL.
Click to expand...

It's more than that these days....your LinkedIn profile is your public general purpose CV.

If you're sending someone a CV for a particular job, you want it targeted and in PDF format so they can't have any dramas when they try and print it out.
 
mrbell1984 said:
That's more of a networking site though I'm on about a site based only on CV creation that generates a URL.
Click to expand...

You will have recruiters look at your profile, possibly send you messages about jobs at their company if they like the "sound" of you.

I've also seen online job application forms that ask for your LinkedIn, GitHub and StackOverflow accounts if you have them. Things like that offer more insight into your abilities and potential.
 
I my experience the only essential thing is an online portfolio showing you have skills and experience.

I have no formal training in front-end development (I have a degree in graphic design though), but am about to start a job as a senior front-end developer because I have a portfolio showing I have 8 years experience doing front-end work.

Not having qualifications will put you at some disadvantage, but the junior dev my new employer has just hired is also self-taught, so it's clearly not terminal.
 
Qualifications are worth very little in software development imo. Systems administration, general IT etc. is a different matter as those roles really revolve around product knowledge.

A good software developer can get running in a new language with a reference manual and a few hours. It's the aptitude for programming that can't really be quantified by exams that makes a good programmer, and the most effective way of getting that across is by sharing your code.
 
mid_gen said:
It's more than that these days....your LinkedIn profile is your public general purpose CV.

If you're sending someone a CV for a particular job, you want it targeted and in PDF format so they can't have any dramas when they try and print it out.
Click to expand...

Scotty123 said:
You will have recruiters look at your profile, possibly send you messages about jobs at their company if they like the "sound" of you.

I've also seen online job application forms that ask for your LinkedIn, GitHub and StackOverflow accounts if you have them. Things like that offer more insight into your abilities and potential.
Click to expand...

Maybe I'm just out of the game, however I have never heard of any company of friends and family been a seed for their linkedin profile. But then again maybe it's down to the job at stake. I still think there should be a resume/CV/portfolio all in one site designed. I'm not too good at web design that is why I mentioned it.
 
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