Work Experience vs Learned Experience

S

Stephen

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Hi All

I am was a strong believer in continuous learning especially in the dev biz but that belief is fading because of what I am experiencing.

I am a front end developer by trade , have lots of experience in the most high pressured environments , so I decided to upskill myself by doing some intensive courses on React and Agular 2+ - these courses have large practical parts to them

So now I am getting rejected even at mid level positions because of no working experience in React.

So I ask myself why did I bother upskilling or consider future upskilling.

Any tips would be appreaciated

Thanks
 
/inb4 "write a project and put it on GitHub" waffle

How many times were you rejected and we're they specifically intermediate/senior react jobs?
 
Hamster said:
/inb4 "write a project and put it on GitHub" waffle

How many times were you rejected and we're they specifically intermediate/senior react jobs?
Click to expand...

Its been 5, 1 was for React Dev (this one also had all the other things that are standard with Front End Dev positions ) , the others were Front End Dev where one of the skills required is React.

I just target mid level positions and I have a GitHub account lol
 
You're not competing with yourself the job market, so don't become dejected after a few rejections.
I'm not a developer so I wouldn't know if you're entitled to a new job after five applications when you've up-skilled yourself, so take what I said with a pinch of salt.
 
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Stephen said:
was for React Dev (this one also had all the other things that are standard with Front End Dev positions )
Click to expand...

Maybe look for a more general front end position and when they get to the "what else" part of the interview mention React and how you really really want to get exposure using it in the real world.

Personally, I'd stick to Angular btw. React feels like it's .... dying. But I could be wrong.
 
Stephen said:
Hi All

I am was a strong believer in continuous learning especially in the dev biz but that belief is fading because of what I am experiencing.

I am a front end developer by trade , have lots of experience in the most high pressured environments , so I decided to upskill myself by doing some intensive courses on React and Agular 2+ - these courses have large practical parts to them

So now I am getting rejected even at mid level positions because of no working experience in React.

So I ask myself why did I bother upskilling or consider future upskilling.

Any tips would be appreaciated

Thanks
Click to expand...

Welcome to life in SA.. we have a huge development need but wont touch non-specialists nor pay the ones we do hire exceptionally either. Once hired you will be expected to be a McGuiyver and they wonder why the specialist is annoyed.

It’s industry stupidity if you ask me and younger managers being risk adverse to be frank. I’d think your best bet would be with larger multi national companies and/or SME startups where the dev manager is old or old school and non-specialist. But know that you will likely be thrown to do a lot of other things doing so too.

I dunno.. I’m busy with job interviews and talks for US and EU companies (bye bye SA) and find their recruitment process easy as they value experience and adaptability. In SA they want very specific things.
 
If I was hiring, I'd take someone with six months react working experience over two years learning experience, if the job was critical around that specific tech. Otherwise a hire looks at total experience to offset learning curve.

2c, I wouldn't be despondent though.
 
Last time I was unemployed I must have gone to 3 dozen interviews before I landed a golden job and I'm still there now. Don't give up just keep at it.
 
Lucas Buck said:
You're not competing with yourself the job market, so don't become dejected after a few rejections.
I'm not a developer so I wouldn't know if you're entitled to a new job after five applications when you've up-skilled yourself, so take what I said with a pinch of salt.
Click to expand...

I am not saying I should be automatically entitled,

Hamster said:
Maybe look for a more general front end position and when they get to the "what else" part of the interview mention React and how you really really want to get exposure using it in the real world.

Personally, I'd stick to Angular btw. React feels like it's .... dying. But I could be wrong.
Click to expand...

Yeah I think I will do that
I have seen a few for React, the reason I bring up React is how close it is just to vanilla JavaScript, there is not a ton of pre defined methods one needs to know.

krycor said:
Welcome to life in SA.. we have a huge development need but wont touch non-specialists nor pay the ones we do hire exceptionally either. Once hired you will be expected to be a McGuiyver and they wonder why the specialist is annoyed.

I dunno.. I’m busy with job interviews and talks for US and EU companies (bye bye SA) and find their recruitment process easy as they value experience and adaptability. In SA they want very specific things.
Click to expand...

I often see adds where they are literally asking for everything. Even being a Java Dev / Designer

Are you applying for overseas jobs from South Africa

Kosmik said:
If I was hiring, I'd take someone with six months react working experience over two years learning experience, if the job was critical around that specific tech. Otherwise a hire looks at total experience to offset learning curve.

2c, I wouldn't be despondent though.
Click to expand...

Yeah I guess you are right if the tech in mind is critical
But then I was thinking you will never really be above the curve so to speak, where some hot new tech comes around

It reminds me of those ads where they want 5 years experience with a tech thats been around for 2

Solarion said:
Last time I was unemployed I must have gone to 3 dozen interviews before I landed a golden job and I'm still there now. Don't give up just keep at it.
Click to expand...

Yeah thanks, I was trying to be selective in the positions I apply so that is close to what I am most experienced in while thinking to the future.
 
Stephen said:
Yeah I guess you are right if the tech in mind is critical
But then I was thinking you will never really be above the curve so to speak, where some hot new tech comes around

It reminds me of those ads where they want 5 years experience with a tech thats been around for 2
Click to expand...

I saw an ad the other day for a .net core developer with 5 years experience.
 
3 years dot net framework prior to 2016 + 2 years dot net core experience

:cool:
 
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Kosmik said:
I agree with you but the recruiter/hr don't understand it hence the op.
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Agreed; once you throw that into the mix anything is possible.
Plus any client who doesn't interrogate the adverts / criteria used to shortlist potential candidates is quite a bit reckless.
 
krycor said:
I’m busy with job interviews and talks for US and EU companies (bye bye SA) and find their recruitment process easy as they value experience and adaptability. In SA they want very specific things.
Click to expand...
Good luck,... having worked in both, I personally prefer EU for a number of reasons and probably would resettle there, alternative is Singapore. But at the moment I'm reasonably hitched to SA for family reasons, but fortunately work wise our primary income streams have been off shore for more than a decade, so fairly well shielded in the event the leftist brown stuff hits the fan.
 
Hamster said:
And here I was under the impression that we are looking for generalists and not specialists in good ol' South Africa.
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Not what I’ve seen over the last 10+ yrs, if the interviewer is a specialist nope. The weird thing for me is that most of the interesting stuff I did over the years happen because of my diverse experience.

Interestingly in our team, I hire a diverse skill set and personality/culture etc because it covers us well. Sometimes you need a specialist or other times it’s burning hours doing so.

[)roi(] said:
Good luck,... having worked in both, I personally prefer EU for a number of reasons and probably would resettle there, alternative is Singapore. But at the moment I'm reasonably hitched to SA for family reasons, but fortunately work wise our primary income streams have been off shore for more than a decade, so fairly well shielded in the event the leftist brown stuff hits the fan.
Click to expand...

Funny thing is I prefer EU, I’d gladly go in like the minimal time where as US it’s meh.. ok. I know career wise it’s arguably better but keep in mind it’s family move so spouse and I are looking and going.. gun control, school shootings, Political instability, Gov debt, social inequality, QoL costs.. and we not even talking about SA
 
krycor said:
Not what I’ve seen over the last 10+ yrs, if the interviewer is a specialist nope. The weird thing for me is that most of the interesting stuff I did over the years happen because of my diverse experience.
Click to expand...

I've had the exact opposite experience. I really don't see many options for specialists in South Africa. "Full stack", which is on most job ads, by definition is looking for diverse experience.
 
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