I am not going to lie to you, the market has been rough out there. There are layoffs across different companies, which creates competition that makes people, who are new to tech, harder to get their foot into the door (since you are competing with those with more than 10+ years of experience).
Not only that, AI is making it harder for everyone to stand out since everyone can use AI to do anything. People are using AI to make their Resume stand out, and projects have a higher standard than before.
As a person who has been in Tech before and during the AI Era, I have seen this in real time. It's quite fascinating and scary to think about how tech is moving fast. Although I know what I was up against, I never thought how fast technology can change overtime within a few years.
I recently sat down and thought about those who are trying to get their first job in tech or even currently trying to find a job. Knowing that some are deep into their career and definitely those who are new in tech. Either way, the market is tough especially for newcomers.
This makes me ponder the question: How can you stand out in Tech?
Let's investigate further.
The Answer with many Branches
In other words, no clear straightforward answer.
Before AI, the advice given to you was to make projects that demonstrate your learning, use the tech stack that companies are using, leetcode, etc.
Now with AI, you can do all of these things really quickly. Regardless of the project, you can easily vibe code it in seconds, tech stack doesn't seem to matter if you can vibe code it, and leetcode...well...
What I am trying to say is that advice of standing out in tech changes overtime. Too quick actually where it's hard to determine which advice is "correct".
It's hard to know if the advice was useful because you tend not to get feedback, especially in actual interviews since you tend to either get ghosted or rejected. Sure, you could argue on getting feedback on sending your friend's resume, mock tnterviews and such. However, their advice is based on their experience. Everyone's experience is different and it's highly likely that it would not apply the same to the place you are applying for.
Following the Herd
I want to bring in a game analogy that best demonstrate the tech market right now, which is Yu-Gi-Oh!
The main idea of Yu-Gi-Oh is you having a good deck. I can talk about the mechanics such as Normal and Special Summons, Link Summons and such but to keep it simple, let's keep it as that.
In the Yu-Gi-Oh community, you tend to hear about which deck is currently the "meta" (popular) in terms of win rates and usability. Overtime, the meta changes as new cards gets release, ban-lists, etc.
Let's say you have a deck that is currently popular in the competitive space. Two days later, turns out that the official ban-list makes your deck obsolete and a new meta deck emerges as a result. Therefore, you switch to a new deck and discard the old one you have. If you are playing Yu-Gi-Oh in real life, this cost money since it's not cheap to build a deck, especially from scratch. Same thing if you are playing online such as Master Duel.
Now bring this analogy to the tech market. You listen to what everyone else is saying and you start taking that advice. Maybe everyone else is saying that Python is in High Demand. As a result, you spend your time and effort into learning Python and building projects with it. Then, people quickly start to say that "Python is no longer in demand. It's now JavaScript". As a result, you then learn JavaScript with your time and effort..again.
Do you see the problem? I hope you do xD
The issue is that you are following what everyone else is doing. It doesn't have to be a programming language, it can just be anything. Mixing in to a fast paced tech market makes it dangerous because we are blindly following advice due to our eager of not falling behind. This can range from hoping to find a tech job before graduation to finding a tech job to pay necessities.
My Point?
AI can do anything, the job market is cooked, tech is moving fast...
This sounds hopeless for sure, because how can you stay up-to-date at this speed?.
You don't
Maybe the small 1%. However, I have witness many individuals who have successful accomplish their mission in tech with the impossible odds in their hands. Many people I know from college got their first role in tech despite in the AI era and those who are seeking employment eventually found another role in tech. Either way, they aren't perfect.
They only know what they need to look for because they know themselves and what works for them.
Early on in my career, I have fallen into this mistake where I always follow what everyone else is doing. This ranges from making sure your GitHub Contribution Graph is all green, Resume follows this strict quota, etc. If I heard someone use a method that works for them, then I put myself in disillusionment that it will work for me, which it doesn't.
I realized later, even recently, that I have been doing what everyone else is doing. If you think about it, your not really standing out if everyone else is doing it.
I realized the question was never "What do I need to stand out". It's What do I need for myself to standout?
Although there is no clear answer of how you can stand out in tech, there are a few things you can think about that help you get a good start to think about. These steps are in order and is based on what it has helped me.
1. Self-Reflection
There is a video I watch that I believe best describe the feeling in the tech market:
Though, the one thing I want to mention in this section is this quote:
There are only two ways people change.
Heavy Self Reflection and Improvement
They are forced to change by circumstance.
The unfortunately reality is that I see a lot of people, time to time, where they do the bare minimum just to get by. A great example is students doing the minimum just to get a degree.
No internships, no projects, no connections...
Maybe it flies by in the 1900's, but this is not feasible in this era. The expectations has never been higher and it's expected for each individual to do more than what it's required for them.
A good start is to think about what you will be in 5 years. It doesn't have to be a correct answer of course, but think about "If I bring my current knowledge, the same as is, into 5 years time, will I be satisfied?"
2. Take Advice as a Grain of Salt, regardless of how useful it may sounds.
This is really important. The advice given to you may not always fit to what you are needing.
Back then, I had the notion that decorating your resume helps you stand out in the market. Although it's true in a sense, I found out the hard way that it doesn't really apply to the tech market specifically. Decorating your resume causes the ATS to not parse properly, which leads to rejections even though you are qualified for the position.
The point is: If you are given an advice, stop and think about it before taking on that advice. If it turns out it doesn't work for you and it doesn't benefit you, don't do it and find an alternative.
3. Use the Environment to your Advantage.
Just Look around. See what everyone else is doing and use that to your advantage.
I will give you a freebie one (but it's gonna go obsolete so lol).
Everyone is Vibe Coding a Full Stack Application. Maybe it's a Full Stack Restaurant App for example. You see a lot of people doing something like this since you are snooping at everyone's GitHub.
With the information presented to you, how can you stand out? Maybe instead of building a Full-Stack Application like everyone else, maybe start building that rarely anyone is building, like Arduinos!!
There you go. Surprisingly believe it or not, this is a small example. This can scale all the way to the whole tech market in general. The whole idea is to look around and see what is happening currently and use that to your advantage on making yourself stand out.
These three things should allow you to get a good start on thinking about "What do I need for myself to stand out"?
Maybe these advice doesn't work for you directly, and that's okay. I want you to at least start and think about where you are currently at, and make goals for yourself to stick to.
For me, I realized I needed to put myself out there. I know that cold applying to companies is not the solution and I thought to myself ways to gain connections. One of which is blogging! Almost one year later, I am grateful of where I am at now!
Keep in mind that this is optional. No one told me to do this other than myself. If there is something you are seeing and telling yourself that this is optional, do it anyway. I learn that you may never know what opportunities comes later. If it turns out that ultimately nothing happens, at least you did it, learn and grow from it instead of no progress.
Instead of following of what everyone else is doing to stand out, maybe start knowing yourself. That way, you know what you need to do.
That is what makes you truly stand out and someday, someone will see that.
I want to hear what you think! Was this advice helpful? Any thoughts? Feel free to also comment below of where you are at in tech and if you need any assistance! Also, if you have any advice in tech, I would love to hear from you as well!
See ya later :D
Top comments (29)
I used to play Yu-Gi-Oh a lot too! 😸
Blue-Eyes White Dragon 🐉 was always one of my favorites, and I loved thinking about different combinations and combos around the cards I had.
But over time, power creep changes the game. A card that once felt incredibly strong can eventually lose its place in the meta.
Sometimes, if you want to keep getting stronger, you do have to let go of things that worked in the past.
But I don’t think that means the time spent learning them was wasted.
The fundamentals you built along the way become the foundation for whatever comes next, and some old cards can still find a place in a new deck.
At the same time, if everyone only built the strongest meta deck, I don’t think Yu-Gi-Oh would have become nearly as interesting.
Part of the fun was watching characters like Yugi or Joey build around their own style, enjoy the game, and sometimes win precisely because their decks felt like theirs.
I’m not sure this analogy applies perfectly to everyone in tech 😹, but maybe standing out is some combination of fundamentals, adaptation, and individuality.
We need enough fundamentals to understand the game, enough flexibility to adapt when the meta changes, and enough personality to avoid becoming just another copy of the same deck. 😸
Hey Nyao! Indeed, having the combination of fundementals, adaptation and individuality is a great combo! I gave you a gem not only because of the analogy expansion, but what led up to the standing out in the first place.
In order to be good at Yu-Gi-Oh, you need to know how to play. For me, I started playing Duel links using a Six Samurai Deck. Then, went over to Master Duel to play that deck there lol. It's still my favorite deck, though recently I bought myself a Blue Eyes Structure deck (which I heard can be played in locals). It's at least a good starting point for me to play in the TCG xD
Adaptation is critical because it shows if a person can adapt to a fast pace environment. I feel like the notion "I can work in a fast-paced environment" is taken literally in tech space. Action speaks louder than works, so if you can do it, you can do it lol.
Individuality makes one unique, which makes sense since you mention Yugi and Joey. They have their own style and their own ace card like Yugi's dark magician and Joey's Red Eyes Black dragon.
Thanks for sharing Nyao!
Well you clearly have talents, because this article is very entertaining! I would say you already know how to stand out from the crowd :D
Jokes aside - the only thing I can say (and it's not very original, but still) is that, as a developer, you should have your 'basics' covered - have a good grasp of the fundamentals, because those won't quickly become obsolete ...
And yeah, developers who have a good grasp of when (and how) to use AI in the SDLC (software development lifecycle), and in organizations in general, will have an edge - but, how to acquire those skills ... ?
Hey Leob!
Thanks for the advice! I can agree it's still important to learn fundamentals and knowing your roots!
This is tricky because one, you need a team and two, you need feedback. I would say join a community that cares for your development and seek out to see if someone can work with you, following the SDLC, and provide feedback on it. Mentors are really useful for this case. Overall, a lot of researching, which is expected since I am not expecting everyone to cut corners (which I don't recommend regardless of the small win).
lol appreciate it xD
Thanks again :D
Point is, the "fundamentals" are sort of an immutable/unchanging body of knowledge and skills, and provide a steady foundation - it's something you can always fall back on ...
But knowing how to use AI effectively? Those skills are highly sought after by companies, and are what can potentially make you stand out as a developer - the problem though is that in this area (AI) everything is still fluid and in motion, and definitive answers are hard to come by - and boot camps etc don't really teach it ...
Everyone is still looking for answers and partially reinventing the wheel when it comes to AI - that's why it's hard to become "good" at it (and how do you even gauge that, how good you are at it) ...
Indeed. I saw companies are falling back with AI because of the cost usage and how developers are spending tokens more than a developer's salary, which is insane!
Though, I guess a good skill is using those tokens effectively and how you are using AI.
It’s a good question whether it’s worth standing out from the crowd. I’m trying too, even after more than 40 years in IT. What worked for me was entering competitions. I started more than two years ago with this program:
dev.to/pengeszikra/a-l-i-e-n-s-o-l...
Of course, I didn’t win, and practically nobody saw it, but I’m persistent. After a while, I started making increasingly useful things. Along the way, I also got over how few people look at what I make. So I keep going. Right now, I’m putting together my entry for this competition:
https://start-developer-competition-26.devpost.com/?ref_feature=challenge&ref_medium=discover
I also wrote two articles about CVs. Again, what works for me won’t necessarily work for someone else: dev.to/pengeszikra/single-line-cv-...
But at least the app that came out of it is useful to me:
dev.to/pengeszikra/devto-articles-...
And if you’re just starting out, go for it and try to find your own way of expressing yourself. In a way, development is an art form too, perhaps just a little more modern than the classics.
Thanks for the advice Peter! It's always good to know yourself than to just simply copying others!
By being yourself! Everyone can copy the same projects, the same resume templates, and even the same AI prompts now, but nobody can copy you. Your story, your interests, and the way you think are the one thing that can’t be vibe coded. I also love your point about self-reflection, because you can’t really be yourself until you know who you are. Yugi didn’t win by copying the meta deck, he won with his own. Great post, Francis!
Exactly, ignore the part that Yugi "allegedly" cheated in the anime lol, he is himself! You are you and what makes you unique is you! That part is no longer that if you start copying others. What IS okay is learning from others and getting that aspect and figuring out how it will fit you. Thanks Maame and thanks for the Gem!
No p :)
Standing out is less about volume than a portfolio of evidence: a system you shipped, a decision you can explain, and a failure you can diagnose. In an AI-assisted market, being able to show the constraints and trade-offs behind the result is more durable than simply producing a polished demo.
Right. It's all about ensuring you can show what challenges you face and why you built it the way you did! Thanks Alex :)
Exactly—the strongest portfolio stories make the constraint visible, not just the outcome. Showing how you narrowed a trade-off or recovered from a mistake gives people a much clearer signal of judgment than a polished result alone.
The Yu-Gi-Oh meta analogy works so well. Chasing the meta deck means we start over every season, and when we build a deck we understand card by card, we adapt to any ban-list. In tech, the closest thing to that deck might be writing and talking about what we learn: a blog post or a small meetup talk shows how we think, and every hiring team can read that.
Indeed! Thanks Kate!
The meta deck analogy works well, especially the cost of switching when the ban list changes: chasing whatever stack is popular this month means rebuilding from scratch every time. The players who last tend to understand why a deck wins, not just which deck wins, and that carries over when the meta shifts. In tech terms that might be knowing how systems fail rather than which framework is hot. Which of your three points do you think newcomers skip most often?
Hey Gautam!
I would say that self-reflection is the most skipped thing. We tend to be so busy on chasing trends in order to "fit in" or to show off, but we fail to realize that all your doing is chasing a mask, not the actual value your getting from it.
At the end of the day, your still you in the current state. Nothing changed. Having that self-reflection allows you to understand your strengths and weaknesses and knowing what you actually need. You already stand out, you just need to embrace that.
Thanks Gautam!
The third step, use the environment to your advantage, is the one I found most practical. The vibe-coding example makes the point well: if everyone is building the same full-stack restaurant app, building the rarer thing is not just contrarian, it is where the open space is. I also liked the five-year question in the self-reflection section. Asking whether I would be satisfied bringing my current knowledge forward five years is a much sharper test than asking whether I am keeping up, because keeping up has no finish line. The advice-as-a-grain-of-salt point pairs with that nicely: a method that worked for someone else is data, not a prescription.
Thanks for sharing!
A lot of gifts! :)
Indeed there is! Having Gifs in articles makes it look nice :)
Thanks for stopping by Star!
Your writing style is very nice, I want to be like you! :D
Thanks Star! Glad I am a great role model :D
Cool profile pic!!
Thanks! My friend made it for me specifically! A mix of MHA and Super Mario Galaxy theme lol
This looks really beautiful! Your friend must have spent quite a lot of time making it. By the way, I honestly couldn't recognize you at first with your new profile picture lol
Fair enough! It's not really you expected lol. Though, much appreciated and letting him know that too!