The Self-Taught Computer Scientist

Data Structures
192
Climbing the Freelance Ladder
One thing new self- taught programmers struggle with is applying for jobs without any experience. 
They face the classic problem: they need experience to get a job and need a job to gain experience. 
I’ve come up with a solution to this problem that my students have had a lot of success with: I call 
it climbing the freelance ladder. I used the same method to get a job as a software engineer at eBay 
without any experience at a traditional company.
Before I got my job at eBay, I worked as a freelance programmer. The key to my success was I didn’t 
start trying to get big jobs. I started with small jobs on a platform called Elance (now Upwork). If you 
aren’t familiar with Upwork, it is a site for freelancers. Employers looking for contract work post a 
project, and contractors bid to do the job. There are other sites similar to Upwork, such as 
Freelancer 
.com
 and Fiverr. My first job paid something like $25 and took me several hours: not a great hourly 
wage. Fortunately, the job paid me much more in experience. The client was happy with my work on 
the project and left me a five- star review. That made getting my next project a little bit easier. Again, 
I worked hard and earned another five- star review. I worked my way up to bigger and bigger projects, 
eventually landing thousand- dollar projects.
When I interviewed at eBay, I didn’t have any prior programming experience at a traditional 
company; however, during my interview, I focused on talking about all the freelance projects I had 
worked on. My interviewers at eBay felt my freelance experience made me a great candidate, and they 
ended up offering me the job. If I had tried to interview there with no prior programming experience 
at a traditional company and without my freelance background, I doubt I would have gotten the job 
that kicked off my entire career.
If you want to work as a software engineer but don’t have any professional experience, don’t start 
interviewing yet. Sign up for a platform like Upwork and start trying to get any job you can, even if 
it pays only $25. Then, work your way up the freelance ladder by earning five- star reviews and bid-
ding on projects that pay more and more. When you’ve accumulated an impressive amount of expe-
rience, you are ready to apply for your dream software engineering job at your favorite company.
How to Get an Interview
I got my first job as a software engineer through LinkedIn. LinkedIn is still a fantastic resource for 
getting hired. Once you’ve gained some experience by climbing the freelance ladder, I recommend 
spending time updating your LinkedIn profile. Make sure to include your freelance experience as 
your most recent job and put your job title as software engineer. Consider reaching out to some of 
the companies you did work for and asking if they would consider endorsing your programming 
skills on LinkedIn.

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