The two co-founders of Algence are IT Managers with decades of experience in the tech industry. We’ve hired hundreds of software developers and data engineers over the years, and we get the most questions from candidates fresh out of college or a coding boot camp, looking to make their break into the industry.

Here are some insiders tips land your first job in software development.

Your resume should be thorough, specific, and list languages and technologies. We don’t believe the old advice that your resume should fit on a single page. Think about the medium through which someone is reading your resume. Is it on a physical piece of paper? No, they probably have a giant computer screen for it. The harsh reality is that most people on hiring committees are really busy, and so they are very likely only looking at your resume for the first time headed into the interview.

Your resume should be designed to give the reader threads to pull on during an interview, for example specifying the exact technologies and languages in which you feel you are proficient. Do you see them listed in the job description? They should be in your resume.

One approach to consider is hiring a resume writer. This individual will conduct a mock interview with you, recording all your answers to a variety of different questions. They will then distill all that information down into a readable resume, designed to pass the first round of AI cuts that all major firms now use to limit the number of applicants their recruiters actually see.

You should have a Github or another way to show your work. A lot of people can bluff at length about writing code and shipping great products to customers. Not very many people come into an interview with specific examples, inviting the interviewers to go check things out themselves. If you can possibly show your work without violating your current company’s proprietary information, then you absolutely should.

Do you have a side project? Show it off! So many people have side projects and hustles in the technology industry, it almost looks bad if you don’t.

Your attitude counts for a lot. As important as it is to demonstrate your proficiency in certain tech skills, your innate curiosity and drive to solve hard problems counts for a lot as well. This is often a tiebreaker for some candidates that can tilt the scales toward a positive hiring decision. Why is that? Who would you rather have on your team, someone who is very smart and knows a ton, but doesn’t work well with others? Or someone who is relatively new to the field, but is also intelligent and can figure things out? The latter will likely have a higher term ceiling at the company.

Your appearance also counts a lot, but not as much as you might think. We think you should put some thought and effort into how you appear at an interview, by which we mean a virtual or remote setting. We’ve interviewed candidates who are clearly at a coffee shop, sitting outside on a busy street, reading from some notes or receiving help from someone else in the room. We didn’t hire any of them.

You should plan to conduct the interview from a quiet location, probably with a generic non-distracting background image on.

Does it matter what a candidate wears? Not so much. A suit & tie are probably overkill for an entry-level developer role, but a button-down or collared shirt are good options. We’ve hired plenty of developers who wore t-shirts to the interview. We hope they were wearing pants! But the bottom line is that you don’t want your appearance or background to distract from the interviewers’ desire to get to know you and how you approach work.

Pro tip: send a follow-up thank you email. You would be amazed how many people do not do this. It is another chance to make an impression on the interviewers, express your gratitude for their time, and reiterate your interest in the job. Another tip: link to your Github or side project one more time and refer back to some content from the interview.

Are there any questions you want answered from IT managers? Send us an email at admin@algence.com.