Talk details

After interviewing dozens of first-time developers in 2023, I found they were showing 3 same symptoms:

• only got a crappy PFE internship
• stuck with freelance gigs
• an inconsistent resume

I thought "these are talented people! they would win big time... if only they could showcase some real world projects", and thus I devised an ideal roadmap that I, as a recruiter, would be excited to find in any resume.

7 real world projects to convince any interviewer

The plot twist is that it's one long project in 7 milestones, demonstrating long-term vision and productification
1 - ship a CLI tool

• hard skills: linux, system, git
• soft skills: ideation, documentation

2 - ship the CLI as an API

• hard skills: backend, asynchronous processing, rate-limit
• soft skills: ideation, apification

3 - ship an automation to consume API from repos

• hard skills: github actions, UX/UI
• soft skills: test, user docs, DX

4 - ship a SaaS for end users

• hard skills: auth-n, auth-z
• soft skills: marketing, bizops

5 - ship an integration for automation

• hard skills: oauth, zapier
• soft skills: 3rd party marketplace

6 - ship a browser extension

• hard skills: frontend, UX/UI
• soft skills: support, user docs, marketplace

7 - share your achievements

• hard skills: JAMstack, public cloud deployments
• soft skills: personal branding, content creation

bonus points, split the work with another partner!

• hard skills: submit patches, process design
• soft skills: negotiation, team building