Differentiating Myself in a Vast Market of Competition

The Job Market in November 2024 👨🏻‍💻

Today, it is evident that getting a job in software engineering is not as easy as it may have been in 2019 (or other boom tech phases). In the year of 2024, the combination of resume filtering technologies and remote work has made it difficult to get attention when applying to jobs. While scanning the internet for available positions there appears to be no shortage of job postings for frontend, backend, fullstack, AI, and cloud engineers. However, anyone from anywhere can now apply, which makes it just as difficult for hiring managers to sift through the applications as it is for the applicants to get noticed.

Working on projects and writing code seems to be a good way to show off skills. However getting an introductory meeting and passing a coding challenge will likely be the first hurdles to overcome. After that, system design knowledge and actual experience with building applications will come into play. Judging by the data in my latest project, it is rare that a hiring manager will take the time to look at a project in depth or take the time to log in to an application. I have had a few but a small percentage.

The Challenge 🥅

After 2 months of applying to jobs I have had three intro interviews in which I was not selected to go to the next round. I need to update my strategy. I am asking myself -

  1. How can I stand out in a sea of applicants?

  2. How can I quantify my skills and experience in a way that is easily digestible for hiring managers?

  3. What additional skills can I learn to make myself more marketable?

Answering my own questions 🙋🏻‍♂️

  1. I love to learn new technologies but quantifying that learning in a way that proves it remotely is difficult. Acquiring official certifications seems to be a good way to do this. I have decided to start with the AWS Cloud Practitioner certificate.

  2. Fortunately the #1 answer also helps with this question. Certificates are a way to quantify my skills and experience in a way that is easily digestible for hiring managers.

  3. In alignment with my decision to learn AWS cloud technologies, refining my skills with Kubernetes and Docker would be a good choice. These technologies often go hand in hand with cloud engineering and are listed in many job postings.

The Daily Recipe 📃

  • 1:30 minutes of studying for the AWS Cloud Practitioner certificate
  • 1:30 minutes of leetcode
  • 1:30 minutes of applying to jobs
  • 1:30 minutes of working on personal projects

My plan is to check these boxes 5 days a week until I have passed the AWS Cloud Practitioner certificate exam. Afterwards I will reorganize the daily goals for new objectives while continuing to improve my Leetcode skills and apply to new jobs.

This is where I shamelessly plug mygoalcreator.com which is a tool I am building and using to help me stay on track with these goals.

I love checking boxes. Satisfaction at its finest. ✅

Without a defined plan the application process seems to rather chaotic in nature. Although the role may be titled Software Engineer, every job listing is a specific flavor of technologies and due to mass competition and resume filtering technologies not having an exact match could be the difference between getting an interview or not.

aws cloud quest screenshot

AWS Cloud Practitioner

I have found AWS Skill Builder to be a great resource for learning about AWS. They have a free tier that allows you to build solutions in their cloud environment.

The above image is a bit funny, but I love gamifying the learning process, so Cloudquest appeals to me.

So far I have built 6 solutions in Amazon's Cloudquest platform covering the below topics:

  • AWS Global Infrastructure
  • VPC - Virtual Private Cloud
    • Internet Connectivity
    • Security
  • EC2 - Elastic Compute Cloud
    • Storage Networking
  • AWS Systems Manager
  • RDS - Relational Database Service
    • Availability and Durability
    • Scalability
    • Security
  • EBS - Elastic Block Store
  • S3 - Amazon's object storage
  • DynamoDB - Amazon's NoSQL database
  • Cloud Economics

Having a plan feels good. I am excited to see where this journey takes me. I will continue to document my progress and share my findings.

Cheers!

Will