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5. The Skills You Need to get Hired

One of the major upsides of breaking into the tech industry is how accessible it is to self-learn.

You don’t need a fancy degree, you can teach yourself using YouTube videos, online courses, tutorials, and documentation. But this freedom comes with a serious downside: decision paralysis.

When you’re just starting out, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Should you learn Python or JavaScript? Frontend or backend? React or Angular? What about databases? DevOps? AI? The sheer volume of buzzwords, tools, and conflicting advice can make it hard to know where to begin—or what actually matters to employers.

The goal of this chapter is to cut through the noise.

The goal of this chapter is to give a roadmap of the technical skills real software engineers use every day, and the skills you need to learn to get hired.

The Structure of This Chapter​

In this chapter, I have broken down the skills you need to learn into three levels of technical proficiency, each building on the last.

These levels are of my design and are not official industry standards. I am not a professional educator, so I cannot guarantee that this is the best way to learn these skills.

The skills are organized in a chronological order that reflects how I believe you should try to learn them, However, this is not a strict order. You can learn some of these skills in parallel, and you may find that you need to revisit earlier skills as you progress.

You should complete all the skills in each level before moving on to the next.

  • Level 1: Programming Fundamentals - The core concepts and skills you need to write basic code.
  • Level 2: Simple Web Applications - How to build simple applications with a frontend, backend, and database.
  • Level 3: Production-Ready Applications - The tools and practices needed to build real-world applications that are maintainable, scalable, and deployable.

How To Use This Chapter​

The goal of this chapter is NOT to give detailed tutorials on any skill or technology. Instead, it’s only a list and a justification of the skills you need to learn to get hired in tech.

It’s meant to be a high-level overview that helps you understand what’s important and why.

You will need to do your own research and find your own resources. But this chapter will give you a clear sense of direction and help you prioritize what to focus on.

There's A lot Here, Do I Need To Learn Everything?​

No, you don’t need to learn everything in this chapter to get hired.

It's completely possible to get your first job with likely just a bit more than Level 2: Simple Web Applications.

However, if you find that you are struggling to get interviews or offers, it would definitely help if your resume articulated that you have the skills in Level 3: Production-Ready Applications.

To put it in perspective:

  • I would expect an intern to be aware with all of the skills in Level 2, and some of the skills in Level 3.
  • I would expect a junior developer to be very comfortable with all of the skills in Level 2, but only use some of the skills in Level 3.
  • I would expect an intermediate level developer to be familiar with all of the skills in Level 3, but not be an expert in all of it.