How new developers can turn rejection into opportunity

Annemarie Visser learned frontend web development and became a full-time Junior Developer in only 5 months.

The secret sauce?

Anne embraced rejection and turned it into opportunity.

With only a few months experience, Anne sent her resume to 25+ companies full well expecting them to reject her. It sounds unorthodox but here is why it worked.

With each rejection, Anne politely asked "why?" and with the answers she got, dramatically accelerated her learning.

Because Anne was resilient to rejection, she learned what employers are looking for and where her blind spots were. As a result, she was able to focus on improving in the areas that matter most using the Frontend Career Path.

It's uncomfortable to face your weaknesses head-on but Anne knew what most people won't accept: Embracing discomfort is quickest path to success!

Anne was uniquely brave in this way and proved to us all that the worse someone can say is "no".

Of course, they might also say "yes"!

To Anne's surprise, she got an offer much earlier than she had anticipated. Now she is earning to learn which, we think, is a dream scenario for any aspiring developer 💸

True to character, Anne asked "why?" when she was hired and shares the reasons with us in this interview!

In this interview, I also asked Anne about:

• How Anne learned to code while raising a newborn 👶🏻
• Some examples of specific feedback she received when rejected
• Why Anne made a portfolio early and how number of projects isn't as important as you might think
• How Anne stood out against the competition for her specific role (Anne could communicate her thought process much clearer)
• Anne's top tips she WISH she knew at the beginning

Episode source