Gain Mastery by Building & Collaborating in Dentry

Finding entry-level roles in tech is hard. Getting the Job is even harder. The barrier to entry in tech is clearly increasing. We'll try a solution to see if this works. There's no harm in trying.

Over the last 2 years, I've had the opportunity to recruit engineers, designers, technical writers, and other fields across various tech. One thing that stood out while trying to recruit beginners is mileage. There isn't enough work done yet, to show basic competence, even though this is subjective. Organizations are open to hiring total beginners but we know that applies to organizations with bandwidth and resources to cater to the learning overhead.

The Problem

Bootcamps offer a great path to entry because they provide the graduates with the opportunity to work on real-world projects during the study. The same goes for robust programs like the Udacity Nano-degree. A shortcoming of these is the cost. Most are expensive to get into. The barrier to entry for a self-taught individual or someone switching careers to tech is even higher. The problems clearly are:

1. Bootcamps and robust programs are expensive
2. There are not many job roles for junior levels (if any)
3. Beginners are mostly stuck in the tutorial hell when they should be building
4. Proof of work/ basic competence is required and should be demonstrated to get available roles

A lot of new entrants share this pain. Maybe it's time we tried learning intentionally by building.

A Solution

A solution that worked for me as a self-taught engineer, developer advocate, and product manager was to build, write, volunteer, and collaborate with anyone creating value. These did a number of things for me:

• I had proof of work in some open-source project, live side-project, and a ton of technical articles.
• I'm able to show a great level of understanding through teaching and sharing knowledge
• I built a network through volunteering and helping others
• I get gigs through referrals which in turn gives a recommendation on completion

Dentry.io

With these in mind, I was learning to use Redwood.js some weekends ago and decided to build the MVP of Dentry.io, a listing for anyone in technology to post projects or roles to which anyone can contribute (especially beginners), and also recruiters (and anyone) can share open roles for beginners and new entrants to tech.

Please post any open projects or entry-level roles you come across.

This way, beginners have a lesser time finding open roles. Also, they can contribute to real-world projects and gain the required experience to get a foot in the door.

Dentry is community-focused and we have a safe space for beginners in a Discord server, to intentionally build, collaborate, and share. Anyone is free to join and we'll work to ensure it's indeed a safe space and misconduct isn't tolerated.

Dentry is an MVP because it currently has the bare minimum to validate and solve the problem of opportunities for beginners. I'll accept any feedback to make it better. No feedback is bad feedback for me so send it in!

We currently do not verify any roles posted so kindly take care when applying for any posted role. If you find any spam role, please share it with me asap.

You can sign-up to receive updates on roles and projects posted here. I promise I won't spam you. ;)

I hope with this, we gain mastery by building, collaborating, and truly rise, by lifting others.