Junior & intermediate website developer job application turned down

Community
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Hi all,

I have been pasisonate about my website development skills for awhile now and i have thought about doing freelancing but since my parent run their own business they have always thought i should attempt to work for an offical website design company to gain website development experience.

thats not a problem for me as it good idea so i can learn real world projects and skills but the only problem that really annoys me is when i see a Junior website developer job position opens up i go ahead and attempt to apply for it.

The only problem is that there is not much for my area of experience what i am saying to this is that in the description they are asking for is they are looking for a junior to intermediate website developer

i have and some experience with website development i was working for a company in town for 12 months working with flash and facebook development.

and this is in the description to what i attempted to apply for


We are looking for someone who:

- Has a working knowledge of HTML/CSS, PHP, JavaScript and JQuery.
- Has ability to follow design standards, including style guides, templates, style sheets, and file-naming conventions.
- Must be able to juggle multiple projects and manage deadlines.
- Is fluent in written and verbal English. Required as you will be liaising with clients.
- Takes initiative and has the ability to work self-proficiently.
- Works well with others.

Some on-job training provided if necessary. All applicants must provide a cover letter that includes addresses of 2 of their favourite websites.

20hrs/week 3 month contract, with option to extend both hours and period to the right applicant.

Now seems a pretty easy job to meet and ive got some basic skills on JQuery but for some reason i am not able to crack the case as to get my foot in the door so i can learn the skills

There exact response was simply


Hi William

Thanks for your application. Great work with the Facebook games, a very good area to be in! Unfortunately you do not have the specific experience we are looking for.

All the best for the future!

Kind regards

Now what kind of experience are they looking ive even said to them in an email response after that that i am quiet happy to work for free for a week so i can show my skills to you guys no response back

So this does annoys me what kind of person are they looking for and what can i do to improve my skills even though i havnt been able to even land a Junior website development job

Reason i am getting pretty annoyed is simply most of all the php website development jobs around in my country are either located in the north island of NZ and i am currently in South Island or NZ (New Zealand)

So to that if i do want to apply which ill proabbly not get but to relocate which is not what im wanting to do.So what should i do when i try to learn the basics im pretty experience in website development and ive been told im there but not quiet there i have alot of skills but how can i put my skills to work if i cant get my so call foot in the door

Does anyone have any advice for me should i continue working on personal projects and maybe some how make them so i get reconise how can i just make a make up company for a make up client or somthing?

What do you guys think?

You can find my Resume located at http://willbc.net/resume/ which has option to download in pdf format aswell

Thanks,

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I think your aiming to high. With under a year experience an entry level position is most appropriate. The response you received back is probably just some canned script for people lacking experience, skill set or is just not what they are looking for. I wouldn’t look to much into what has been said there. The fact of the matter is that your not qualified for a junior position.

Some issues with your resume:

The entire experience area seems padded. It is all unrelated to web development except for that one job.

You should elaborate about what you actually did at Cerebralfix considering it is your only job related to the industry. Also, it should be placed at the top. You have to think like an employer. If you were to see the most recent experience as something unrelated what would you think.

Only include higher education achievements for education. No one cares which high school or whatever you attended. It just looks like padding.

Nest issue, personal references as friends. Don’t do that. Though really on a resume “testimonials” are not appropriate. Again… looks like padding. Especially testimonials from “friends”. I mean… unless its me most friends try to support each other regardless of how much their work sucks. So if anything… ditch the friend association.

The wrok reference section should probably be disclosed once people ask for it. The normal way to do that is to place “references available upon request” near the bottom of the resume.

Something I don’t understand is how you go from being a developer to an intern for Cerebralfix. That is what it looks like considering the experience section has the same job but different date. Just looks wrong. You shouldn’t have gone from being full time? to an intern. That is a red flag. Also, the internship should be under experience not education. So you really only have one thing under education the diploma.

The entire resume comes off as someone trying to compensate for lack of experience. That is the overall problem. It is ok that you won’t have a lot of experience, you shouldn’t be padding you resume with useless dribble. Instead you should focus on applying to more appropriate jobs and perhaps fixing up an objective statement rather than that quite generic summary? I have had summaries on my own resumes but it has always been about the beliefs I hold true to my heart when it comes to the profession… not random buzz words. If your going to make a summary make it true to you as a web processional and your achievements, beliefs, etc as they relate.

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Hi Odds,

Thanks for the reply

When you mean i am not qualified for a Junior position how can i become qualified for it?

the reason above for cerbral fix is abit confusing basically how it work is i started off as an unpaid internship for about 6 months then after i was working on there for 6 months there switched me over from being unpaid and paid and they also gave me an offical title “Facebook Game Developer”

so are you saying if i rebuild my resume remove the things you suggest would thar aid me better in getting a foot in the door?

Thanks,William

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Find an entry level position and get some experience there.

I wouldn’t bet my life on it but it can’t hurt. Remember a resume is advertisement. The advertisement should be as concise and meaningful as possible to those looking at it. So remove anything that goes against that or find a better way to consolidate that info yet still include it.

What you should do is break it apart into two separate positions. One as an intern and the other as a well… web developer. I mean if you were doing web development than it would *probably be best to use that terminology than “Facebook Game Developer” because that seems like a very specific skill. Where as, web developer *could encompass the same responsibilities but is more meaningful to most people who would probably be viewing your resume. Each position should than have either a lengthy summary/bullets of responsibilities and achievements. That is really where your current resume fails to be useful. A single generic jargon line isn’t going to get you anywhere. Especially with so little to show for professional in regards to the web industry. Perhaps it is here where it would be appropriate to list some games developed with technologies and problems they solved or business grosed for the company from your work.

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You have to look at it from the employers perspective - for this particular job which is primarily about html websites, you have nothing demonstrable in this area. A couple of tiny thumbnails of work that don’t link to anything, and are mostly about a different skill set that might be entirely redundant to this business.

As somebody that has done a reasonable amount of hiring and selection over the years:

Portfolio, portfolio, portfolio!

A primary selection criteria is evidence of passion for the craft, and this can only be proven by portfolio and creative activity. The chicken and egg excuse of no work experience/no portfolio (or weak college course portfolio) doesn’t cut it.

Anybody can make a few simple sites, themes, templates or mockups or write a blog on web technology and design. Go register some domains and make some sites, write some articles. One thing I have seen a lot of with regards to young designers fledgling portfolios, is that they might have a few band sites, gig flyers, gaming clan stuff - heavy on ‘funky’ or ‘urban’, but light on minimal, classic, business like, good white space and typography - things that are actually useful to most business owners.

In interviews I always want to see some insight into a candidates thought process in approaching designs, why they chose what they did, what they rejected, tools and technology choices. You could make things easy for potential employers by having some case studies that outline these for a design you have made.

Also, avoid certain failure in the application process - make sure you thoroughly read the job application, stick to what you’re asked for, make sure any responses you submit are perfect in spelling, grammar and professionalism. I’m always amazed how many job applications fall at this first hurdle.