I know Java/Spring framework, can I get a job?

I am seeing the following kind of post lately.

Job availability of Java developer

I know spring framework, can I get a job

Many people have replied on this. I also felt like I should reply on this. My point of view is elaborate so I have decided to write a blog about it.

When you want to get a job, programming languages and frameworks are not the most important thing. First thing you need to know, which I believe is basic of programming in general.

First you need to have good understanding of data structures. Make sure you know what is array or what is list in which scenario you should use one or the other. You can ask yourself, many of the things an array can do can also be achieved by list then why not use only list. There are other data structure in the Collection framework you need to know what those are and how those works internally. You don’t need to know every detail of how it works ( if you can invest time then know all detail then please do) but having an overall idea is good enough to apply them in practice efficiently.

Next comes to the OOP. Again it's not programming language specific. Learn what are concepts OOP stands for. E.g. Class, Inheritance, Polymorphism e.t.c. Have a clear idea about these.

Now let's talk about programming language. I am going to talk about Java but it is the same for other languages as well. Learn why this language is created. What are the obstacles it overcomes. Why you should use it. Lambda function and stream API released in Java 8 on 2014. If you are a java programmer do not tell anyone that you don’t know about them. Learn about these and understand it clearly.

If you have good knowledge about above then come to a framework. Since I am talking about Java, I have to talk about Spring framework. Learn what is the fundamental of Spring framework. Learn about what are the benefits of this framework. Do not just memorise it, try to understand them clearly. I know if you are new then you will not understand it on the first go. You have to constantly come back and ask question what is this I am using and why. What is Dependency Injection and Bean. These two are the very basic thing you need to learn clearly within spring framework.

When you go to an interview, the interviewers are going to ask you these basic question. And if you can not answer this question then why would someone hire you. From my personal experience. Over the last 2 months I have taken over twenty interviews and among them I could only shortlist tow candidates. Most of them could not answer basic data structure and OOP question clearly.

There are other things like good algorithm knowledge and software design pattern e.t.c you should know as well. But I believed above mentioned basic topic you need to know clearly first. If you have a clear knowledge of the above mentioned topic, then I am pretty sure you will not have any problem getting a good job.