Hello! I am seeking some advice.
I am working towards a front-end web development job. So far I have knowledge in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, as well as jQuery and Bootstrap. I’ve been creating mock sites as a learning experience and to build a portfolio. I have about 5 projects done at this point.
At what point am I ready to apply for a job? I’ve read mixed responses to this question, including the opinion that much of the learning takes place on the job itself.
Thank you for your help.
Well typically employers want to know one thing… can you do the job and do it well. They determine this by a few factors…
Now as you can imagine companies will take these in varying degrees. If you are churning out wicked code and making awesome things, they may not even care you have been doing it it for only 6 weeks (the idea behind bootcamps). If they see you have been doing it for a while and your work is good, that too proves you are steady and can most likely handle many problems (experience).
Only you will really know when you are ready to post for jobs but if you have great work to show and have been coding for some time, you can certainly start posting for jobs. Post for entry level jobs, try to meet the minimum requirements they are asking for and let them see your portfolio. If they want to speak with you, they will then contact you. Worst case scenario is that they don’t call. Either way, you keep working on your skills and building up your projects until they start calling. 
Always look to grow and continuing learning. Don’t just learn HTML/CSS and then stop practicing. Keep at it. Add more features, build out more apps, try new tech. All this shows employers you are worth interviewing.
There are skills an employer will need that you might not think about.
For one, they need the opposite of the ability to work by yourself. They need someone that can work with people to develop requirements. Implementing requirements are often easy compared to determining them.
For another, entry-level positions are typically maintenance, not development. Employers want someone that can update systems developed by others; sometimes many others. They want someone that can develop and/or modify applications in a manner that is compatible with others. Others in this site can help you with that. Others can also help you learn about debugging, which might be what you spend most of your time doing as a maintenance programmer. A maintenance programmer might spend most of their time fighting fires and rarely (especially in the beginning) have the luxury of developing something new.
Hello,
I will suggest starting to apply for the job. If you’re ready, they’ll hire you. If you’re not ready,
they’ll tell you to come back. It doesn’t cost anything to apply for a job. While applying you will
gain a lot of experience that will help you with your next job interview.
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