I recently got the chance to speak to the graduating class at the University of Miami’s Coding Bootcamp about marketability in today’s market. The students found it helpful, so I decided to put this guide together for others.

So you’re fresh out of school, coding bootcamp, or transitioning into software development. Or maybe you have a few years of experience and want to work for great companies with cool digital products.

You spoke to your friendly neighborhood recruiter friend and he told you to spice up your LinkedIn profile to get you noticed.

He was right.👌🏻

Maybe he went further and told you to have a “professional photo” and fill your job descriptions to your heart’s desire…

Getting warmer…

Ok, so maybe he stopped there…😕

But you still find yourself applying to a zillion jobs, not getting to first or second rounds, not getting interviews with the companies you want, getting nowhere…

Fear not, I put together this guide to assist in your career in this ever evolving digital landscape.

It’s ever evolving because, more and more, we are making decisions on first impressions, on the web.

Let’s start by thinking who makes the first of these decisions regarding your career… yeah, exactly!

Recruiters spend less than 5 seconds skimming a candidate’s profile in order to make a decision on passing or continuing.

90% of profiles don’t make it past 5 seconds. 😱

That’s why it’s important to have a "focused" profile and build a solid "reputation" online. I’ll talk mainly about two platforms here: LinkedIn and GitHub.

LinkedIn is not your online resume, it's your online reputation.

Recruiters use the LinkedIn platform more than any other platform to search for candidates.

Within 5 seconds, they’ll look at your name, picture, headline, last 3 roles, companies you worked for and tech stack keyword relevancy.

Here’s my point: Optimize what you want to be known for. This is especially important when you’re starting a new career or a just few years in.

Don’t misinterpret my context, this is not about advertising yourself as something you’re not. It’s about realigning your experience and interests and making them presentable to your target audience. It’s also about building on additional experiences (more to come on that.)

📢 So lets get to it....

LinkedIn Headline - Update your headline to make your interests and focus clear. This would be also help you get found/not be skipped immediately. 2 out of 5 seconds to go 👍

Example : Front-End Developer | Passionate about UX/UI | Java | Angular.js | React.js | Ex-Sales

Tip: If you are broadcasting yourself in these 3 technologies, build your online reputation around it. Also, don’t spam apply to every “Software Developer” role you see out there. Hone in to those that align to these interests. This would help you increase your odds of even getting noticed for the "right opportunities".

Summary - Write a paragraph and focus on your experiences and interest. Mention the tech stack and the type of applications you’re passionate about and/or experienced on. If you’re coming out of another industry, briefly explain that experience in no more than 1 or 2 sentences.

List here your popular GitHub repositories with a focus on those experience and/or interests.

Be mindful that Recruiters that focus in sourcing engineering talent, have a hard time determining how technically proficient the potential candidate is at a particular language. This is especially true with junior-level talent. Let them see some visuals of your work… application features, UI mockups, etc, so if you can, attach media to your profile.

📣 If you need to take anything from this article, it is….

Github – Get yourself one (if you don’t have one already) and focus on three or four main languages . Start building your reputation by contributing to repositories, learning and getting community reputation in those languages. This may seem like a time waster, but it actually builds experience and reputation.

Top companies source for leading talent based on GitHub reputation.

This is your 10 second moment.. 🙌🏼

Work Experience – Don’t copy and paste job responsibilities from that job description you got when you first applied (yuck!). In simple words, write two or three sentences about what you do and the project. As you would explain it to another human. Then write two sentences explaining your environment or tech stack.

Example : I worked in a micro-service based infrastructure utilizing Java Spring Boot, Docker, Kubernetes, Netflix OSS (Zuul, Eureka), Elastisearch, Logstash, Kibana, etc. Front-end is Angular & material, back-end Java, utilizing a robust CI/CD pipeline built on top of Jenkins and interacting with various AWS cloud services such as EC2, Lambda, etc.

This is helpful for the recruiter in determining what environments you’re coming from and how relevant it is to the position he’s trying to fill. The more concise you can be, the better.

If you don’t have any experience in tech, I would put the boot camp experience in your Work Experience and tittle “Front-End "or whatever" Developer”. Simply because it needs to be shown on top of everything else. If not, you just won’t get found or just get skipped immediately.

Recruiters will see you’re just getting into the field (and that’s OK), so hopefully you demonstrated in those 5 seconds, you’re worth having a further look (focused profile, media, repositories, etc.)

If you have other non-relevant experience, I would do a healthy split in content 70/30. I would even go as far as putting only titles of those roles. The other non-relevant information can really cloud your page.

🙏🏽 Endorsements – Get some endorsements from your colleagues at the Boot Camp and return the favor, if you can.

🙋 Recommendations - Get some recommendations from your instructors or program managers at the Boot Camp, if you can.

🎓 Certifications – Not a must, but certainly helps early in your career.

Recruiters do searches on certs all the time. I would look into getting the AWS and Azure Certifications, Agile, etc. Make sure it’s relevant and specific. As your career progresses, get certifications regarding architecture, agile, product owner, product management, etc. Whatever it is the track you want to take. This is a great way to demonstrate interest without having the experience.

For example, ITIL, doesn’t have nearly as much weight as it did years ago. Focus on the ones that are hot now. Do your research.

Ok so now you've gone past hopefully what would be a minute or two of first impression. You get an inmail, you have an initial dialogue with the recruiter...

Cultural fit and personality is 70% of the job.

This is also true in tech roles.

You will get many shots at impressing recruiters, so if you get this right along with asking the right questions, they can in turn socialize your background with the hiring leaders they support.

Interview with a solution-based problem solving mentality. 💯

Ask questions around what problems and needs that particular group or team has. Recruiters won’t know much about specific projects at a granular level (most don't). But ask about it, anyways. This not only shows your level of interest, but prepares you to think about “solution-driven” conversation when talking about their needs or problems. Stay relevant to that.

At the end of the day, you’re going to be hired to solve a problem.

If you're looking to get into Fortune 500 or that new hot startup on the bloc, you have to be mindful of three things: experience, with who, online reputation and schooling.

If you don't have much experience, or don't come from a top 50 engineering school, focus on your online reputation and "with who" you work for. This is especially true in industries. For example, in media, I recruit talent almost exclusively with that experience and/or top companies in that industry. Be cognizant of this when taking new job offers.

If you stick with one industry or a type of platform, you become "qualified applicant" 1 out of 50, instead of 1 out of 10000 "cookie-cutter developer".

In summary:

You first have to get past the first 5 seconds by demonstrating quickly your focus and interests. Aim at building a solid Github reputation to demonstrate technical prowess. Focus on 3 or 4 languages max. Don’t apply to everything under the sun that is not aligned with your interests and focus = higher conversation rate. This will also help you land the right opportunities for you. Stick with one industry or platforms to become a subject matter expert versus other "cookie-cutter" talent pool. Get a shot at “asking the right questions” and preparing with “solutions-driven” conversation.

To new developers - What has been your experience in landing job offers you want?

Recruiters/hiring managers - what are your thoughts on some tips mentioned here for new developers? what would you suggest?