How to Get a Developer Job When Entry-Level Seats Are Shrinking | Agustin Barrientos

Getting a developer job is harder when fewer companies are hiring juniors. I walk through the research behind that change and the seven-part plan I give people trying to get into the industry. Read the full article, save the checklist, and find the resources mentioned in the video: https://agustinbarrientos.com/writing... I'm Agustin Barrientos, a frontend engineer and UI/UX designer with about 15 years in the industry. In this video, I cover what to put in your portfolio, how to study without getting lost in tutorials, when certifications are useful, where to meet other developers, and how to practice interviews and organize your applications. If you're finishing a degree, learning on your own, coming out of a bootcamp, or changing careers, this is the advice I'd give you. CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction 08:10 Portfolio 15:23 Study 21:44 Certifications 26:20 Networking 31:59 Hackathons 38:20 Interviewing 42:07 Applying 44:02 Adjusting the plan to your circumstances 45:13 Comparing yourself to other developers STUDIES AND DATA Canaries in the Coal Mine? - Erik Brynjolfsson, Bharat Chandar, and Ruyu Chen. Stanford Digital Economy Lab, 2025, revised 2026. https://digitaleconomy.stanford.edu/p... Generative AI as Seniority-Biased Technological Change - Seyed Mahdi Hosseini Maasoum and Guy Lichtinger, 2025. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.c... Are referred candidates more likely to get hired? - Joel Westmark, Ashby, 2025. https://www.ashbyhq.com/talent-trends... COURSES AND CERTIFICATIONS Google's web.dev courses: https://web.dev/learn MDN curriculum: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/c... The Odin Project: https://www.theodinproject.com/ Google Associate Cloud Engineer: https://cloud.google.com/learn/certif... BOOKS Don't Make Me Think, Revisited - Steve Krug: https://sensible.com/dont-make-me-think/ The Design of Everyday Things - Don Norman: https://jnd.org/books/the-design-of-e... Cracking the Coding Interview - Gayle Laakmann McDowell: https://www.crackingthecodingintervie... Beyond Cracking the Coding Interview - Gayle Laakmann McDowell, Mike Mroczka, Aline Lerner, and Nil Mamano: https://www.beyondctci.com/ COMMUNITIES AND HACKATHONS Google Developer Groups: https://gdg.community.dev/ Crafter Station: https://crafter.run/ Code Brews: https://codebrew.tech/ AI Tinkerers: https://aitinkerers.org/all_cities codebar: https://codebar.io/ Major League Hacking: https://www.mlh.com/events hack0.dev: https://hack0.dev/ More events and resources are linked in the article above. INTERVIEW PRACTICE Gemini Live: https://gemini.google/overview/gemini... interviewing.io: https://interviewing.io/ FIND ME Website: https://agustinbarrientos.com LinkedIn:   / barrientosagustin   GitHub: https://github.com/agustinbarrientos Daily.dev https://daily.dev/agustinbarrientos