LANDING A

JUNIOR
DEVELOPER JOB

The Beginner's Guide to

LANDING
A JUNIOR
DEVELOPER
JOB

The Beginner's Guide to Landing a Junior Developer Job 1

LANDING A
JUNIOR
DEVELOPER JOB

INTRODUCTION

Everywhere you look these days, you see articles, blog

posts, infographics, and tweets about how in-demand
developers are—and how much money they make. . .
and about how fascinating their jobs are. . . and about
all the innovative products they create.

And you probably want in on the action—who could

blame you?

But, when you stop and think about it, what EXACTLY
does a developer even do? And how would you go
about landing a job as a developer? What skills would
you need?

If you’re looking to get started in the tech industry,

this checklist will set you straight on how to get
started as a junior developer, with insider information
and practical tips for landing your first job as a
developer.

IN THIS GUIDE, YOU’RE GOING TO LEARN:

The responsibilities of a junior developer

The role of a junior developer on a tech team

The titles of junior developer jobs you can look for

The skills you need to become a junior developer

What you can create with junior developer skills

The real-life jobs you can get as a junior developer

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LANDING A
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DEVELOPER JOB

WHAT IS A junior DEVELOPER?

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LANDING A
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DEVELOPER JOB

THE BASICS

Let's start by defining web developer: They use

programming languages like HTML, CSS, JavaScript,
Ruby, and others to tell a computer or device to display
the site or app they have in mind. Every single website,
app, and piece of software you use daily was created
by a developer, from Snapchat and Instagram to
Buzzfeed and CNN.com.

Often (and in this guide), “junior” is used

interchangeably with “entry-level.” It means that
you are starting with fresh skills that you’ve honed
independently and on smaller projects, but you
probably don’t have much experience working on a
development team...yet!

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LANDING A
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DEVELOPER JOB

THE ROLE OF A junior DEVELOPER

Constantly grow your knowledge and skills

Proactively learn about tools, processes, and

products

Diligently follow coding standards

Always look for ways to help the team

Happily take on any tasks that need to be done

Openly communicate with all team members and

departments

Willingly accept feedback and improve as needed

Consistently meet goals and deadlines

Actively contribute suggestions and ideas

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LANDING A
JUNIOR
DEVELOPER JOB

RESPONSIBILITIES OF
A junior DEVELOPER

Write and mark up code

Debug and refactor code

Create and run tests

Implement new features and improve current

features

Participate in and support deployments

Write and maintain documentation

Take part in planning and development

meetings and projects

Collaborate with other teams and departments

on issues, requests, and support

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LANDING A
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DEVELOPER JOB

NAMES & TITLES

As a junior developer, you could have a variety of
different titles depending on the size of the company
you work for, the specific role you’re playing there,
and the actual level of work you’ll be doing. For
example, a Code Tester or QA Tester still needs junior
development skills—even though that’s not apparent
in the job title.

To get the low-down on all the positions you could

take as a junior web developer, check out this list and
remember these titles when it comes time for the job
hunt.

Junior/Entry-Level Developer Rails developer

Junior/Entry-Level Programmer WordPress / PHP Developer

Junior/Entry-Level Coder Software Developer

Developer Mobile Developer

Developer Trainee Application / App developer

Web Developer QA Tester

Front-End Developer QA Engineer

JavaScript developer Code Tester

Ruby developer Tech Support Engineer

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THE SKILLS YOU NEED TO

BECOME A junior DEVELOPER

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LANDING A
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DEVELOPER JOB

THESE ARE THE EXACT SKILLS YOU

NEED TO KNOW TO GET A
JUNIOR DEVELOPER JOB:

HTML

CSS

GIT/GITHUB

JAVASCRIPT/JQUERY

PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLS

js

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DEVELOPER JOB

HTML & CSS

HTML, or HyperText Markup Language, is the

language used to create structure and content
like text and links. CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets,
is the language used to format and style HTML.

WHAT CAN YOU BUILD WITH IT

Web pages

Websites

Apps
Games

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LANDING A
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DEVELOPER JOB

GIT AND GITHUB

Git is a version control system for keeping track

of changes to code and documentation (Think:
Track Changes in Microsoft Word), and GitHub is
a web-based tool for using Git.

Both Git and GitHub are crucial skills for working

on a tech team.

WHAT CAN YOU BUILD WITH IT

Store code and documentation

Copy and contribute code and documentation

Track changes to code and documentation

Collaborate with other developers

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LANDING A
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DEVELOPER JOB

JAVASCRIPT AND
JQUERY

JavaScript is a programming language used to make

web pages interactive, and jQuery is a popular JavaScript
library that makes it possible to achieve JavaScript effects
using less code.

And these days, JS frameworks—systems for building

websites that make use of JavaScript and jQuery—are in
high demand.

WHAT CAN YOU BUILD WITH IT

Forms

Menus

Dialogues

Interactive elements on a webpage

Dynamic web pages

Web / mobile / desktop apps

Games

UI effects

Widgets

Interactions

Responsive layouts

Custom plugins

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LANDING A
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DEVELOPER JOB

PROJECT MANAGEMENT
TOOLS

Project management tools are software or

applications used by teams to coordinate tasks
and schedules. Popular systems include Asana,
JIRA, and Basecamp.

WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH IT

Keep track of issues to be handled

Assign tasks and monitor progress

Plan and monitor schedules

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DEVELOPER JOB

SPECIAL SKILLS
Once you have the basics down, you
can start getting more specialized skills
for specific jobs.

SASS/LESS

MOBILE DEVELOPMENT

FRONTEND & JAVASCRIPT FRAMEWORKS

WORDPRESS/PHP

RUBY ON RAILS

PYTHON/DJANGO

DATABASE MANAGEMENT (USING SQL AND NOSQL)

AUTOMATED TESTING (TDD,BDD)

AGILE WORKFLOW (SCRUM)

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LANDING A
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DEVELOPER JOB

CSS PREPROCESSORS

WHAT IT IS
CSS Preprocessors like Sass and LESS are
extensions of the CSS language that make CSS
cleaner and easier to maintain.

WHAT CAN YOU BUILD WITH IT

More organized, logical, and efficient

stylesheets

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LANDING A
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DEVELOPER JOB

MOBILE DEVELOPMENT

Mobile development draws on CSS and JavaScript

to build websites that are optimized for a variety
of devices, like smartphones, tablets, and laptops.
You'll also need to learn best practices for these
optimizations, not just the coding languages.

WHAT CAN YOU BUILD WITH IT

Websites and applications that transition seamlessly

from device to device.

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LANDING A
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FRONT-END & JAVASCRIPT

FRAMEWORKS

A framework is a collection of code libraries

that make developing websites and applications
faster and easier and code more consistent and
compatible. Bootstrap is a popular front-end
framework, and popular JavaScript frameworks
include AngularJS, Backbone.js, and Node.js.

WHAT CAN YOU BUILD WITH IT

With these frameworks, you can quickly create design

templates and responsive layouts or single-page
applications.

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LANDING A
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DEVELOPER JOB

WORDPRESS/PHP

WordPress is a Content Management System

(CMS), and PHP, is the scripting language used
for WordPress.

Wordpress powers around 50 percent of the

web (so if you want to add some freelance work
to your junior dev job, knowing how to program
Wordpress sites is key.

WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH IT

Create, customize, and manage content-based

websites.

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LANDING A
JUNIOR
DEVELOPER JOB

RUBY ON RAILS

WHAT IT IS
Ruby on Rails, or Rails, is a web application
framework designed to work with the Ruby
programming language.

WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH IT

Build mobile and web applications

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LANDING A
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DEVELOPER JOB

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LANDING A
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DEVELOPER JOB

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DEVELOPER JOB

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