How I Landed A $114k Job As A Programmer At NBC (By Improving My Coding Skills)

I know a lot of developers are searching for their next job as a programmer… Without any success. #programmingjob #programming #programmer

Believe me, I was there too. A few years ago I was working as a junior developer in a company that I didn't like. I've always dreamed about becoming a web developer and not doing it was literally killing me.

Then, it came the moment I quit my programming job. I had no job but I had the desire to become a web developer.

I started applying to lots of programming jobs with literally NO SUCCESS. Although I was getting some responses back from some companies, I failed at the majority of my interviews.

I had two choices, I could sulk and complain that it would be hard to get a job, or I could improve my web development skills so I could be as best prepared as possible. So if you know me I really only had one option that point: I had to improve my skills.

Over the course of months, I committed to improving my coding skills. Day after day, whether I liked it or not.

Then, I got a call from NBC and ended up landing a $114k programming job.

Wanna know more about how I did it? Watch this video and find out!

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Transcript Of The Video

Antonio Cuccinielllo: Hey, guys. I'm Antonio. If you think you're struggling with finding a job as a programmer, I completely understand you. Let me tell you how I got the programming job of my dreams by improving my coding skills.

Let's get right into the story. We've got to go a few years back. At this point, it's about two and a half years ago. I was a junior software developer at SRI International. I was actually getting to work on some cool iris detection technology. While the tech was cool that I was working on, it was not really what I wanted to do.

I always had this idea in my head that I would be some sort of web developer. So, in my spare time, I started to learn Node.js, because at the time, it seemed like everyone was looking for a Node developer.

A year goes by at that job, and I just quit. I am not happy, and I am not a web developer. I also wanted to make more money. I wanted to move to New York City, and get one of those awesome jobs that have the laid-back culture, where you can like work from home or play ping-pong at work, and you're not overworked with tons of hours of things to do.

Now, from where I was, I had a lot to learn. But I was cocky. I thought that I could get a new position as a web developer in three months, no problems. After all, I had a degree in computer engineering, right?

So, like anyone else, I started my journey by applying to a bunch of jobs. At the time, I only had one side project that was built using Node.js, so as you can imagine, job after job overlooked me. I want to say that out of every 25 applications, I might have gotten one positive email back. But, that didn't even matter because shortly after that, failed in the interview.

So, I had two choices. I could sulk and complain that it would be hard to get a job, or I could improve my web development skills so I could be best prepared as possible.

If you know me, I only really had one option at that point. I had to improve my skills. So I went out and I bought the book, “Cracking the Code Interview.” I committed myself to doing one problem every single day. Not only that, but in order to understand the technologies that I was using, I decided to create a second side project, this time using things like React and Node.js, and Postgres.

This way, when I got questions that were full stack, I could answer those as well. To me, it was a solid plan. Now, I did this every single day, rain or shine, whether I wanted to or whether I didn't. But it didn't matter. I had to do it because I knew that my success depended on that alone.

After the consistency of doing this every single day, I started noticing success in my interviews. They started going farther and farther. I was passing questions that normally I would blank on, 100%. As you can imagine, this boosted by confidence, and got me to work even harder. I was seeing the success that I was looking for.

Now, 13 months later, I'm interviewing at NBC Universal. I had already got shut down by 30 interviews at this point, in over 500 job applications. The first round interview was on the phone. The recruiter told that it was just an in-person interview, but halfway through the interview, everything seemed to be going fine.

And then they asked me to get on the computer. I was like, “Oh, no! I'm about to get totally screwed.” I hope on my computer and start to share my screen. They ask me this question, “Given a string, write a function that gives you the longest consecutive number of characters that did not have a repeating character.”

At that moment, my mind lit up. I remember I did this exact problem in Cracking the Code Interview. Not only once, but twice! I was able to get the problem done in 10 minutes, after only one fix. I was so relieved. I had two more interviews for that position, and I nailed them, and I got the job.

This company was great, because it allowed me to work from home, minimum once a week, I had a flexible schedule, allowing me to get in when I want and leave when I want, I had snacks when I wanted, everyone was laid-back, I got to play ping-pong all the time. I was making $114,000 a year. That's $14,000 more than I originally even wanted. And it was right outside New York City, so I could live in New York and commute out.

What's the takeaway for you? I decided to take action, to improve my coding skills every single day. I was doing problems from the book, learning brand-new topics, and then coding new parts of usable applications every single day. That's what got me there.

So, if you're looking for the job of your dreams, you must make sure you are at the level necessary to get that job. You've got to do the dirty work of understanding how the code actually works by doing it and studying. That's how to increase your technical knowledge.

If you want to learn more about nailing a job as a programmer, make sure to check out the videos on screen right now. Let's hang out here on Simple Programmer, where we make the complex simple. Have a great day, everyone.