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Essentially I'm a Python developer who so far has successfully managed to build two personal projects:

  • An executable tool that helps the user with the making of an NFT collection and its metadata, by merging layer PNG images from a given path in a specific order (It uses the following libraries: Pandas, Itertools, and PIL)

  • An automated web scraper that finds new cryptocurrency projects launched on Binance Smart Chain, by reading blocks and filtering possible candidates according to some quantitative restrictions, for then storing that information in CSV files on a cloud environment and finally sending that information to a [Telegram] Channel via the Telegram API (it uses [Selenium], [Pandas], [JSON], and [NumPy]).

I really want to know which job positions are more related to my current developments described above? My goal is to get a notion of potential titles of jobs I could apply for.

I was thinking of QA Analyst/Engineer, but I'm not sure because I don't know anything about databases, so I'm open to listening what other developers have to say or suggest here.

DarkCygnus
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Noah199520
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    What have either of those got to do with QA? – Simon B Jan 11 '22 at 16:41
  • Delivering quality in the services, manual & automated testing with selenium, just to mention some.... @SimonB – Noah199520 Jan 11 '22 at 18:07
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    How do I choose an appropriate job title? may have some useful advice, and the point where it stops being useful may also be the point where it stops being within the scope of this site. You need to talk to people (other than us), do some Google searches for different job titles, search job sites for technologies you've used to find matching job ads, read through job ads, decide what you actually want to do, etc. Although why not just stick to "Python developer" (and "Software developer/engineer")? That fits your Python development experience. – Bernhard Barker Jan 12 '22 at 00:25

4 Answers4

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You have demonstrated through your personal projects that you have some talent and could possibly be quite a good software developer with some experience. But personal projects are not the same as professional experience, which it seems you have yet to gain.

I would target entry-level software development jobs. Look for ones that don't require a great deal of experience upfront and are willing to let you use your natural aptitude to grow into the role. Once you are in the field, you can decide where to take your career from there. Software development is a big, exciting world!

QA (Quality Assurance) tends to be about taking software other people have created and applying manual and automated tests to ensure it meets the specifications and end user requirements that yet someone else has set out. It is itself a deep discipline, and it would be rare for any personal project to give you much practice in it. It also tends to be, though not always, a discipline people move into after they already have some software development experience. You have to know the basics of professional development methodologies before you go checking other people's work. I wouldn't bother looking at QA roles right now. It doesn't sound like that's what you are looking for anyway. 

Aaron Cicali
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Seth R
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  • Hmph, so Software Development may be my thing atm, all right, I will also check that world, thanks for the feedback @Seth R – Noah199520 Jan 11 '22 at 22:15
  • Hmm, starting QA people usually are just "software testers", and those don't need to be programmers at all. (I guess QA comes in many facets.) – Paŭlo Ebermann Jan 12 '22 at 00:37
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You don't have a (programming) job, therefore you don't have a job description. "Hobbyist progammer".

Philip Kendall
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    My feeling is the person is quite inexperienced in what programming jobs actually are…nor do they know what to simply look for when applying for programming jobs as they clearly arn’t formally trained. It doesn’t help to state the obvious they arn’t a programer. It’s obvious they’re looking for the name of what kind of job titles those skills they have would be, and this answer is just plain pendantic and unhelpful. They should be for looking for entry level jobs, internships etc. They already know they’re a hobbiest. – DrMrstheMonarch Jan 11 '22 at 19:11
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    @Philip I get what you are trying to say (if one has no current job, it's misleading to come up with a Job title to put on resume, rather mention you have no current job/title). However, the question OP seeks help with is another, which was not clear on the post. I edited the question to make this clear, and commenting under this answer to let you know about this possible misunderstanding, which I'm sure is not ill-intended nor aiming to be rude. – DarkCygnus Jan 11 '22 at 22:21
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    @DarkCygnus I understand what you're saying here, but as the original poster(?) has now marked this question as a duplicate of a question about someone who actually has a job... – Philip Kendall Jan 12 '22 at 12:27
  • Thanks for the follow up @PhilipKendall anyways, your answer brings up a relevant point and warning not to make up titles. Cheers :) and yes, when "community bot" closes as dupe is because OP accepted the suggested dupe. – DarkCygnus Jan 12 '22 at 17:40
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QA? Noooooo. If you're looking to get into a development role, your current level of expertise would be "junior developer".

Developing executable tools is cool, but you'd have more traction in the job market in developing something that has a web interface. In an interview setting, it'd be far more valuable as a show-piece. You don't have to learn a ridiculous amount about web development and layout, because you can employ a framework like Bootstrap to make things nice and pretty for you.

As an alternate, develop apps, though I am ignorant of how Python would factor into doing that.

The database thing will be a real valuable asset to you. In the non-Microsoft tools space, this translates to MySQL and Postgres. There are lots of commonalities between the two. If I were hiring, I'd lean toward an applicant with RDBMS skills.

Xavier J
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Sounds like you've got a great start! I agree with others that you need some professional experience (though that's easier said than done). If I was hiring, I would be putting you more in an internship role from the sounds of your projects (though they may be more intricate than I believe they are).

The best thing I ever did for my career is to build myself a resume website. From your experience it looks like you may be interested in backend development or data science. With a website, you can showcase your work in a user friendly way. If things are written out in python you could use django or flask as a backend so the scripts will run without much conversion. This way you can hand in your website url with your resume and they can play around with your work. You shouldn't have to learn more than a bit of html and css to make it look half decent (or go big and maybe find a love for frontend development) but you would learn if you like backend for sure.

I really like django for beginners and still use it for large scale projects professionally to this day. It helps with some of the database abstraction as well as has easy templates and great docs. Go try it out! Whether you love or hate it, you'll learn a ton and hopefully end up with something nice to show future employers. The downside to django is it is a little harder to deploy for a beginner but I'm sure you can figure it out (learning docker is big in web-dev too). If you don't want to run your work (just want pictures of results) at first you can just make a static site (only html, css, and javascript) and host it on github pages as well. Having some way to display your work is better than most people have.

Last suggestion is to learn git if you haven't. I always like to look at peoples GitHub page to see their projects. This is another easy way for you to display your work, and that you would be good to work with. Frankly, it sucks to work with people that aren't very accustomed to git and it's best practices. You can also feature your resume website on your GitHub so not only can they look at the pictures, they can see how you did it too!

Keep in mind this is all from a full-stack developer so I may be a bit biased on the website, but everybody likes easy access to see what you can do. Have fun!

stuhops
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