Job opportunity: Want a job in software engineering but lacking work experience or qualifications?

[Burnsy2023]

I've posted these types of roles before and we're recruiting again for trainee software engineers. This is a great programme and we've got some great people from it previously.

We expect a high response rate, so if you're interested, take you're time on your cover letter.

https://ordnancesurvey.wd3.myworkda...nee-Software-Engineer--12-month-FTC-_JR000383

 

[Burnsy2023]

The job description does mention this:

Although we are embracing remote working, applicants would need to be able to travel to our Southampton HQ frequently if required.

We're fully remote at the moment, but due to the nature of the role, we felt that meeting in person may be required.

 

[Burnsy2023]

Brill - wanted to double check I’m up the road, just the other side of Chichester so I’ll get an application together.

The link provides some info on things to include within a cover letter, but is there anything else worth considering over the standard cover letter content?

Thanks in advance

Seeing I wrote much of that, no, it's pretty comprehensive

I hoping that the themes come through:

• Being able to learn independently
• Being able to learn from the team - ask lots of questions, even ones that seem silly
• Being able to help a team work effectively - without everyone putting effort in it's easy to get into disarray and not do the right thing
• Show us your code!

Evidence how you do this, your approach, what worked and what mistakes you learned from.

 

[Burnsy2023]

I'm curious what you think someone is going to be able to show after a few/couple months of online courses? You're not really going to have produced anything by that point.

I stopped applying for dev type jobs because employers always go for young people with no (commercial) experience or older people who have done the job for years. What they don't go for is older people who just do a little messing around with code on the side. Fair enough, probably. I was never committed to trying to become a dev just applied on the off chance someone might take a punt. Which nobody ever did

I'll tell you now, you're wrong and I can tell you this after going through ~200 applications to shortlist 10.

What I'm looking for is independent, self motivated learning, curiosity, team working and evidence that you've developed yourself - which online courses are good examples of.

I can also tell you that several of the shortlisted candidates are not on their first career.

Edit: Just for any of those who applied through this thread, if you didn't get an interview, my commiserations, however, we usually take on many more than 4 trainees. The last intake was closer to 20. We had to reject candidates that would have previously been interviewed. Please apply again when we advertise, it's usually every 6 months. Just because you were rejected this time doesn't mean you won't be successful next time and you've got 6 months more to continue learning.

 

[Burnsy2023]

The point is, starting from scratch, it's going to take you more than a few months to learn the simplest language constructs. You're hardly going to be creating a portfolio from the word "go".

Or do people start creating useful apps in the first weeks of picking up their first book on programming?

Heck in the first weeks I just about managed "Hello, world".

We weren't even looking for completed projects. We're looking for someone who has been self motivated to learn the basics from all the resources available and be able to demonstrate making mistakes and learning from them. Many of the people who impressed us don't have any code that demonstrates anything up and above their learning - it's ultimately throwaway code.