“I’m learning to code, when will I be good enough to get a Junior-level job?”

This is a question I get a lot in my tech communities.

There are three keys for me:

• TRUST
• SKILL
• TASKS

— — —

SKILL

How can I guess what my “skill level” is?

You can do plenty of job interviews, and see what people want, what you like, and how much they offer you.

You can show up with MOOCs’ certificates or shipped software.

You can stalk people or companies you want to work with/for, guess or ask what they need, and work on this.

Or you can use any list of skills. Here are three tips:

• The Programmer Competency Matrix http://sijinjoseph.com/programmer-competency-matrix/

• Why Rails is hard (a list of skills you should have) https://www.codefellows.org/blog/this-is-why-learning-rails-is-hard/

• Any company talking about their Open Salary or Compensation Policy Of course, Joel Spolsky made his point long ago: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/08/30/fog-creek-compensation/