Somebody had posted a application in the #careers channel of the Slack group I’m a part of. And then somebody left this response:
Ah. “You should have: – Preferably 5+ years software development experience including Ruby.” Well, keep in touch if they’re hiring another more junior person
My response to this was:
Apply anyway. Include a cover letter honestly outlining your skillset and experience. You never know if they wouldn’t consider hiring a junior. That’s how I had gotten a role once
Which is true, I had gotten my role at Rentify because I applied for their application, which was for a mid-level (if I remember correctly) and had asked whether they would consider a junior. This had gotten me the opportunity to send my CV and code examples which led to a technical test and then a face-to-face interview where I successfully achieved an offer for the role.
The junior’s reluctance to apply had inspired me to write this post as I had been in the same position once. And my intiative to apply back then, had gotten me one of the most crucial roles of my career as a junior.
Software developer job applications on the internet will usually come some requirements for what the employer expects in a candidate. Here is an example from the actual application:
You should have:
- Preferably 5+ years software development experience including Ruby.
- Experience of writing apps using Ruby on Rails or a similar framework.
- Experience of database technologies (e.g. MySQL or PostgreSQL).
- Good knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
- Experience of using Git for source control.
- Experience of software development best practices such as pairing and code review.
- Experience of or an interest in learning about infrastructure and operations, mainly in the context of Amazon Web Services.
- Good interpersonal skills and the ability to work with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Fluency in English and the ability to work in the UK without sponsorship.
I can imagine this being quite intimidating for job seekers who may not fulfil some of the requirements on this list, especially junior developers. There appears to be a lot here and if you’re just starting out then perhaps your ‘imposter syndrome’ may kick in and deter you from applying.
My advice would be, instead of being intimidated by this, take advantage of the information provided. Read through the application and see if you can identify which requirements are (maybe) a must-have and which are should-have / nice-to-haves
According to the application, there are some mandatory requirements (in my opinion):
- Fluency in English
- Ability to work in UK without sponsorship
In terms of technology, I can see that you will need some experience of the following:
- Ruby
- Ruby on Rails (or a similar framework)
- Database technologies i.e. MySQL / PostgresSQL
- Html / CSS / JavaScript
- Git
The rest is difficult to judge how much you would need in order to satisfy the employer’s requirement, i.e.
- Interest in learning about infrastructure and operations (AWS)
- good interpersonal skills or experience of best practices.
In my mind, those can essentially be ignored, they really ought to be in the ‘bonus/nice to have’ section of the job application.
And finally, the one that tends to stand out most is the number of years of experience you ‘should’ or ‘ideally’ have.
I’ll run through my thoughts of each category and how I would deal with each if I were applying.
Mandatory Non-technical Requirements
Requirements like “ability to work in UK without sponsorship” are likely to be deal-breakers for the employer if they added these in to the job spec. Other things like “fluency in English” also may fit into this category, if they need you to be able to speak English well, then that may be non-negotiable.
So its worth looking elsewhere if this is the case, although it doesn’t hurt to ask!
Technology Requirements
So here I think is where the experience level can be flexible a little bit, the reason being, is that you don’t actually know what the employer requires you to work on at this stage. You have an idea of the tech stack however, and so this is where you can use this knowledge to your advantage. Obviously if you have no experience with requirements like Ruby or Ruby on Rails, then perhaps the role isn’t necessarily for you, but at the same time it doesn’t mean you can’t learn it in the meantime.
Ruby / Ruby on Rails - I’m assuming that the applicant will have at least some experience of this, if the applicant specialises in a different technology their chances of success when applying for other roles related to that would be greater. But lets say the applicant has little (but some) experience, the employer/interviewer can only really gauge your skill level on either the technical test or the verbal interview (either face-to-face or phone). This is actually one of the reasons why technical tests are usually part of the application process, its easy to say how good you are at something on paper, you’ll still need to prove it. Having some code examples or personal portfolio would also help.
Database technologies i.e. MySQL - It would be advantageous to know some SQL, but developers using frameworks like RoR tend to rely on the migration features anyway. So I wouldn’t worry too much about it at this stage so long as you know the basics, and again, its something that you can learn meantime.
HTML / CSS / JavaScript - Seeing JavaScript placed in the same bullet-point as HTML and CSS suggests that its used but not widely within the tech stack, again its worth having some experience in it. I would think that it can be learned on the job (if the application is successful) and therefore not to worry about limited knowledge on it at this stage either.
Git - It would be good to learn the basics of version control for sure. Can be learned while applying or on the job, not necessarily mandatory.
Additional thoughts on this
My point is that I wouldn’t think of these are deal-breakers if you cannot fulfil the requirement. It is unlikely the employer will completely reject your application if you, for example, had some experience in Ruby but none in MySQL. Same with having experience with Ruby on Rails but no experience in version control with Git before.
Also, if there is a gap in your knowledge base, learn while applying for these roles. The better your knowledge, the greater your success rate.
Preferably x years of experience
This is the one I think deters people the most. In my opinion I consider it to be too arbitrary. I’m not saying we should ignore it, it does give some indication what level they’re expecting which should be in line with the expected salary. But its possible to have 0 years of professional experience but self-taught enough to be able to perform well in the role. So I would bear this in mind and apply anyway, doesn’t matter if you have 1, 2, 4 or 7 years of experience, just apply for the job.
Even if the chances for an interview are low, say 5%, the odds for an interview is 0% if you don’t apply at all.
Summary
It doesn’t hurt to apply. Remember that your odds for an interview is 0% if you don’t.
A lot of this is based of my own personal experience and my advice is that you might as well apply to see whether you will be considered for the next stage (which could be a technical test or face to face interview).
There is no guarantee that you will get to that stage even if you did fulfil each requirement. Its also possible that you may only fulfil only some requirements and there may be leeway with the employer.
If they need the role to be filled, they may be willing to at least have a conversation with you, which is your opportunity to convince them to make you an offer.
Also, don’t forget that you will likely be competing with other people as well, so don’t stop there, apply for many other job applications. The more you apply for, the greater your success rate. Maybe one of them will convert to an interview and potentially lead to an offer.