I have been creating projects with django and have seen other projects on Github, one that stands out that I am sure that everyone has heard about is WagTail CMS → https://github.com/wagtail/wagtail or even another django project is InvenTree → https://github.com/inventree/InvenTree. I am wondering what real world projects look like in a professional setting maybe in a small to medium sized company creating web sites. And as a junior web developer applying for positions do I need to have code that looks like the code from the WagTail CMS Github or InvenTree Github, maybe not the size but the complexity. Or can it be like the one from here → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t10QcFx7d5k&t=8312s maybe just a bit more complex since it is kinda beginnerish, maybe like the one here in this video → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbNNESIxJnY&t=499s, or maybe somewhere in the middle of those two videos… but I think the idea is said enough. And also if anyone can point me to some video on YouTube or maybe a Github repo that shows what a junior backend web developers code should look like. Thank you. And keep in mind I am asking from a backend developer perspective.
First of all;
the only person who can tell you when you’re ready to apply for a job is you. There’s no “do X and you’re ready”.
Never assume ‘everyone’ has heard about anything. I’ve never heard of either of the projects you’re talking about, and i’m not interested enough to click on random github links.
90% of real world projects for small-to-medium sized companies are quick turnaround small project sites like the ones you’ve probably been developing for years.
If you’re coming with a code portfolio, #1 the job posting will almost certainly have asked for one, and #2 this isnt a standard CV form sort of situation. You should present code you’ve worked on (that you can legally disclose and show, obviously) that you feel is representative of the work that you do. Nothing more, nothing less.
What are ‘quick turnaround small projects’ ? And yes I will keep all this in mind!
Well it depends a little on what sort of company it is exactly, but things like… spinning up a small-business website for a local business; random webpage requests for personal projects; fixing someone else’s work from prior iterations of similar such projects…
Okay well thank you for your advice!
As a senior developer who’s been looking at resumes/interviewing junior devs, I can tell you a bit of what we’re looking for.
First of all, experience in the language we’re working in doesn’t matter (though some exposure does help). In fact, we’ve found that we’ve been able to train up our people in our process and had fewer bad habits to break.
That being said, we do like to see code generated by the candidates, and we’re looking for:
- Is it finished? I want to see completed projects to show they will finish what they start.
- How does the developer think?
- Are they logical and thoughtful in their approach to the code?
- Do they apply good general coding practices (i,e, naming conventions, OOP principles, etc), or do they use a brute force approach just to slam something together?
- Do they know how to document their code?
- Do they have appropriate comments within their code.which would explain a process or business rule?
- Or do they throw inane comments in that add no value
- Or (even worse), do they fall into the false idiom that all code should be self documenting.
- Have they dealt with pull requests and merges (not a deal breaker but a bonus)
- Have they worked with others (i.e. did a pull request on an open source project or something similar)? This one’s important as I want to see how they explain the issue they ran into as well as how they resolved it.
Wow. Thank you for this! This was very informative! I’m guessing by what my question I asked and your answer is that I don’t need to have code that looks like the Github repo from Wagtails CMS… and maybe even that every interviewer is going to look at different things differently. I have been seeing on reddit posts and questions from Gemini AI. And they talk a little more in detail of “good” code being readable, maintainable, testable, scalable, and have good security practices, what is your opinion on that as a Senior web developer? I think you covered readability, and maintainability though as to some of your things you look for in a junior web dev! And thank you so far for giving my such great input!
No, you don’t need a full blown project like Wagtails, but having something to show would be helpful.
All good topics to have knowledge of, but each organizations definition of maintainable may be slightly skewed towards their end goals, and I personally wouldn’t expect a junior dev to have a great grasp of how to handle scalability as the approach can change as the scope changes:
- does the code need refactoring? Or does the code need to be rewritten to approach it differently?
- does the table structure need refactoring?
- are additional physical resources (servers/networks/etc) needed?
Okay then! You answered everything I needed to know and asked! Thank you for that!
Something that beginner developers usually do not realize is that as a beginner they are more likely to be given applications that have already been developed than to be asked to develop a new application. They might be asked to find a bug but they will likely be asked to make modifications. Existing applications might be a mess.
It would be interesting to get Dave Maxwell’s comments on that, especially if I am wrong.
Agreed. A good shop will (or should) typically assign junior developers maintenance work before they’re given any new development. This allows them to get exposure to the existing coding standards and approaches. Ideally, they’ll have a senior developer to mentor them, giving guidance on how to approach the tasked assigned to them, and refocusing them when they start going down the rabbit holes all developers can go down.
I would consider this an opportunity. All legacy code bases develop a “smell” after a while if they aren’t maintained consistently - which unfortunately happens a lot as sales like to sell the new and shiny. And legacy code often sits as there are more pressing matters to deal with. So a junior developer is an opportunity, again with Senior dev mentorship) for the legacy code to start to get refactored and tuned up to latest coding practices, while allowing the seniors to concentrate on the work that the sales teams are pushing forth, or the customers are asking for.
“a while” for me usually is about 24 hours. 