In articles on JavaRush, we never tire of repeating that knowledge of the Java language, due to its global popularity, provides enormous opportunities for employment and a successful long-term career. And this is true - there are many vacancies for Java developers, and their number is only growing. According to statistics from one of the leading agencies in the field of IT recruiting, Collabera, from the beginning of 2017 to the end of 2018, the number of vacancies related to Java increased by 80% - from 3.5 thousand to 6.2 thousand. So, Java , due to its demand in mobile applications, solutions for Internet of Things devices and many other trending niches, is only gaining popularity. The demand for Java coders is growing, and learning this programming language is difficult, but possible thanks to a lot of documentation and convenient tools (including JavaRush, of course). It would seem that everything is fine, and Java developers can only enjoy life, thank fate for choosing this particular language, and look to the future with optimism. This is partly true, but the real world still makes harsh adjustments, and finding work is often not very easy for young Java developers. And it also happens that reality hits green Java juniors, who in rose-colored dreams already see themselves as highly paid pros, in the stomach with the boot of high requirements when hiring. For example, the reluctance of employers to hire people without experience and extensive knowledge of a bunch of technologies and frameworks. Therefore, today we’ll talk about what top employers expect from Java juniors, where it will be easiest for a beginner to find a job, and without what knowledge and skills they will not succeed in finding a job.
Portrait of a Java June: what do companies expect from a novice coder?
So, what do companies expect from an aspiring Java developer? Often, expectations can, and will, vary widely from company to company. And here, many people with experience recommend simply asking a question about the requirements directly to the recruiter or HR manager of the organization that posted the vacancy. As a rule, employers make no secret of what they expect from a Java engineer and how the interview will be conducted. If you measure the “average temperature in a hospital,” at a basic level it all comes down to two things: knowledge of the basics of Java programming, and the ability and willingness to learn or deepen your skills. Many experts and experienced programmers, as well as employers, note that it is the latter that is most important. When hiring a novice Java developer, the employer is usually aware that the “junior” still has only basic knowledge of the language and its technologies, and he only has to develop an understanding of the processes in the development team and the company as a whole. However, a new coder is almost always expected to work hard to master all the necessary skills as quickly as possible. This is where the notorious “soft skills,” such as the ability to interact within a team, work ethics, as well as motivation and discipline, come to the fore. If we talk specifically about the technical requirements for a Java junior, then most job descriptions will present a whole list, but some gaps in the resume, formal education and experience can very often be compensated for by a willingness to learn quickly and not ostentatious enthusiasm.
Java Core
As for the above list of requirements, the very first in it will of course be Java Core - knowledge of all the fundamental principles of Java, which includes the basic constructs, operators and data types of Java, understanding of the principles of an object-oriented programming language and how they are implemented in Java, and also an understanding of multithreading and a number of other things that form the “core” of this language.
IDE
Having confirmed knowledge of the “basics,” the future Java engineer will need to demonstrate knowledge of the IDE (integrated development environment), an understanding of its basic capabilities, knowledge of the differences between the main IDEs, as well as the ability to compile, run, debug and test files, and refactor code.
Version control systems
Knowledge of version control systems and the basic principles of their use is also required even from an inexperienced developer, because he will still work in a team.
Java API
Knowing the basic Java APIs will also be critical in an interview and will most likely help you get the job. The most important APIs that you need to know first are the Java Collection Framework and the Java Concurrency API.
You can learn more about the knowledge tree of a Java developer in this material from JavaRush: Java. Action plan . In addition to technical knowledge and skills, knowledge of English also plays an important role when considering a candidate for a junior Java coder position. In short, you need to know English, at least at a strong Intermediate level. Well, besides this, we should not forget about the importance of a confident and effective presentation of oneself, along with the knowledge, skills and abilities that, at the very least, are still available. That is, about your resume. “Junior developers should not play by the same rules as experienced coders. If you've seen enough minimalist-cool one-page resumes from experienced developers, you shouldn't repeat this approach. Add any experience you have to your resume. You may be lucky and an employer will look at your resume and see a mention of some feature that is also used in the company's products,” advises Johnny Le, senior developer at Instructure. “One of the benefits of programming is that you can create dozens of your own projects all by yourself. So make several of your own, albeit simple, but full-fledged programs - a time tracker, a project management system, a calendar, etc. And add them all to your resume. It is important for an employer to know first of all whether you can develop this kind of product, and not who it was developed for or whether anyone uses it. So try to write on your own and any complex functions you have heard about. This will allow you to feel much more confident at the interview, even without extensive experience as a developer in a team,” the expert added.
Which companies most often hire Java juniors?
If we talk about the companies that most actively open vacancies for Java Junior developers, then most often these, of course, will be the leaders of the IT sectors in their countries. Companies with the highest turnover and high demand for skilled developers can afford to hire en masse coders with little or no experience for relatively little pay, allowing them to gain experience and knowledge to later advance through the ranks of the same company. So, in Ukraine, the top 5 IT companies hiring junior specialists look like this: SoftServe, EPAM, GlobalLogic, Luxoft and Infopulse. This is stated in a study by the specialized resource DOU.UA, which was published in April 2019. According to the study, 45 top companies in the Ukrainian IT sector in 2018 hired a total of 4,360 new employees (this means IT specialists of all areas with up to 1 year of work experience or no experience at all). SoftServe collaborated most actively with newcomers - in 2018 it hired 400 more juniors than in 2017 (1,148 versus 719 employees). As for Russia, we were unable to find data on the number of Junior-level developers hired in this country when preparing this material. However, an analysis of vacancies for “juniors” on recruiting sites allows us to identify the following companies as the most Junior-friendly employers: G5 Entertainment, Luxoft, EPAM, Emergn, Mail.Ru Group and ALM Works. In Belarus, Junior Java developers are actively hired by companies such as Kyriba Corp, EIS Group, Seavus and Playtika.
In which cities is it easiest for a Java June to find a job?
In which city will it be easiest for an inexperienced Java developer to find a job? This is another pressing question both for those who are still learning Java and thinking about looking for a job in the near future, and for those who are already actively viewing vacancies and sending out their resumes. In general, the most employment options for Java Junior are in large cities, where, as a rule, the offices of all major IT companies are located. In Ukraine, according to the same relatively recent study by DOU.UA, green and undeveloped developers are most often searched for in Kyiv, Kharkov and Lviv, and these three cities showed approximately equal figures in terms of the number of juniors hired in 2018. Also, the top five cities with the largest number of vacancies include Odessa and Dnepr. As for Russia, in this country the top cities where it will be easiest for a Java developer, including an inexperienced one, to find a job are as follows: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Nizhny Novgorod and Yekaterinburg. This is according to a study by the recruiting portal HeadHunter. This top also includes Kazan, Perm, Ufa, Samara and Voronezh. In Belarus, the absolute majority of vacancies for Java developers, including Junior ones, are located in Minsk. You can also find work in Vitebsk, Mogilev and Grodno, but in these cities, frankly speaking, there are not many vacancies.
Expert opinions
But let's return to the main topic of this material - the expectations of employers when hiring Java Junior developers and how to meet these expectations. A few quotes. “It is a very common opinion that the requirements for a Java Junior developer from employers are extremely high. This has a pretty strong impact on many candidates during a technical interview. Thinking the bar is higher than it actually is, they feel insecure, exaggerate their experience and embellish their skills, which is often why they don’t get the job,” said Ken Mazaika, CTO and co-founder of Firehose. “Being honest and knowing the areas you need to improve in will only increase your chances of getting hired. For companies, hiring junior developers is more of an investment with long-term potential; they do not expect any special return from it. Therefore, they do not expect junior developers to write any complex functions and will not demand too much during the first few months,” the expert added. “One of the most common traits of the really great Java programmers I've hired is that they all tend to work on different side projects on top of their day job. These could be open source projects or personal projects. They don't even have to be Java-based, but having them will greatly improve your chances of getting hired,” said Kevin Hayen, an experienced Java developer and CTO at Let's Be Chefs. “Often, when hiring Java programmers, we give preference to those who have learned a lot on their own. Often these are the people who are truly passionate about programming. We need people like that - programmers who live and breathe code. And many technical knowledge and elements are easily acquired on the job,” said Craig Dalziel, business manager at Pearson Frank.
The devil is not as scary as he is painted
To summarize, the main thing should be emphasized: getting a job as a Java Junior developer is not nearly as difficult as it might seem at first glance, especially after studying vacancies with a long list of requirements. It is enough to know the basic principles of Java, have a desire to learn and improve, and have at least a little practical experience. You can get it in many different ways, including using a course from JavaRush - it includes more than 1200 tasks, and their solution will take 300-500 hours of pure programming practice. This is a very impressive number to add to your resume without any modesty, not to mention the fact that this course will prepare the aspiring coder for most of the tasks that employers pose to Java juniors and the questions that are often asked in interviews.
This is where the notorious “soft skills,” such as the ability to interact within a team, work ethics, as well as motivation and discipline, come to the fore. If we talk specifically about the technical requirements for a Java junior, then most job descriptions will present a whole list, but some gaps in the resume, formal education and experience can very often be compensated for by a willingness to learn quickly and not ostentatious enthusiasm.
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