---
title: Increase your marketability
date: 2018-03-12
description:
  Some tips of things that I've done that have helped me get where I want to be
  in the industry.
meta:
  keywords:
    - javascript
    - career
bannerCloudinaryId: unsplash/photo-1513568917837-e5be8262f18f
bannerCredit: Photo by [Geoff Greenwood](https://unsplash.com/photos/Dj5evF5JCjI)
---

My heart aches for the dozens of engineer's I've met so far **this year** who
have had such rough luck finding their first full-time job. I'm regularly asked
for advice on this subject and I'm afraid the best I can offer is ideas rather
than solid experience-based recommendations. (I got my first job in an
[interesting and unique series of events](https://github.com/kentcdodds/ama/issues/1)).

With that said, whether you are looking for your first job or have been doing
this for a while, I'd like to give you **three ideas of what you can do now to
increase your marketability as a developer**.

### Maximize the impact of time spent on experience

There's no shortcut to gaining experience. Everyone must put in the time. But
you can maximize the impact of the time you put in by teaching as you learn to
solidify what you learn. Last week's newsletter was all about solidifying what
you learn. I recommend you
[give that a read](https://tinyletter.com/kentcdodds/letters/solidifying-what-you-learn)
if you haven't already. The basic premise here is that learning comes in three
steps:

1.  Consume information to be made aware of what's out there to learn
2.  Build something that you want using the technology you want to learn
3.  Teach what you learned in the process of building

You need each step to really learn. Teaching is the step that solidifies what
you've learned which maximizes the impact of the time you spend on leveling up
your skills and experience.

### When in Doubt, Make it Public

This phrase comes from
[a blog post by Jeff Atwood](https://blog.codinghorror.com/when-in-doubt-make-it-public).
In that blog post he
[quotes Brad Abrams](https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/brada/2006/04/10/pm-tip-11-information-is-the-currency-of-program-management)
who says:

> _If no one knows you did X, did you really get all the benefits for doing X?_

In all the process of learning, you have opportunities to make as much of it
public as possible. The teaching bit is the easiest and most obvious to make
public, but the consuming and building parts of learning are also possible.

- Teaching co-workers something over lunch? Record your screen as you do it and
  put that up on YouTube.
- Answering a co-worker's question via slack? Publish it as a blog post, or make
  a fancy [carbon](https://carbon.now.sh),
  [Polacode](https://github.com/octref/polacode) or just a normal screenshot and
  tweet it ([like this](https://twitter.com/wesbos/status/962067758816018432)).
- Want to chat with the creator of an open source project, but know they're
  busy? Tell them you'll make it worth their time by recording the conversation
  and making it available for them to use in their docs! (Like what I do for
  [my tech chats](https://kcd.im/tech-chats))
- Building an interesting component for your app? Livestream it! I live streamed
  a bunch while [building and improving downshift](http://kcd.im/livestreams).

Making things public is generally not a whole lot more work than keeping them
private, and it does wonders for getting your stuff recognized (though it can be
a little intimidating, but you can do it!). When it comes to getting the work
that you find interesting, it's not what you know or even who you know. **It's
who knows what you can do.** The more people who know what you can do, the
better chance you'll have of getting the opportunities you're looking for.

<callout-success>
	_Tip: diversify where you publicise things to reach a wider audience._
</callout-success>

(I should add a disclaimer here that you should check over your employment
contract before making things public as it may preclude you from doing some or
all of these things... If that's the case, then maybe finding another job would
not be a terrible idea).

### Be kind

Nobody wants to work with someone who's unkind. You could be the smartest, most
skilled developer in the world and everyone knows about it, but if you're not
kind, lots of people will pass you by. Aside from that, being kind to others is
one of the things that can help bring true happiness and fulfillment in life
(not the subject of this newsletter, but truthfully that should be a major
factor in everything we do).

You want to make yourself more marketable? You want to make it so you get the
projects/work/jobs you find enjoyable? Be kind, make what you do public, and
maximize the impact of the time you invest in your experience.

I hope this is helpful to you! Good luck!
