How Frontend Hiring Works and Why It Works Against Beginners
In the previous section, we determined that there aren’t a huge number of job offers, but they do exist. However, as soon as you start sending out your resume, you’ll encounter the problem of “broken hiring.” Official reports rarely mention this.
The issue is that in Russian IT, the first stage of selection usually happens without human involvement. Many large companies use ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems) — automated resume screening systems. They were designed to lighten recruiters’ workloads and quickly filter out all unsuitable candidates.
The screening criteria can be literally “killer.” If a job posting says “React developer” but your resume says “worked with React.js” or “react,” the system might not recognize the match and could reject your application without understanding the context. In addition to keyword filtering, due to the oversupply of specialists, companies are increasingly requiring “1–3 years of experience” even for junior positions.
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And this is where beginners hit a dead end: they have no commercial experience, and freelance work or personal projects are usually not counted. In the end, your only hope is to get an internship or search for the rare positions willing to hire without experience. Alternatively, you can go another route — “add” years of experience to your resume to get past the automated filters. Essentially, this means lying for a chance to get an interview.
Then the candidate enters a long, vicious cycle: they start sending out hundreds of resumes hoping to meet the formal requirements somewhere, while employers, in response, tighten their filters and bring in AI assistants for screening. It becomes almost surreal: one set of bots sends out applications, while another set rejects them. Only the few whose resumes actually reach a human recruiter will get a chance to do a technical interview and talk about their experience (even if they don’t have any).
Where Frontend is Headed and What to Expect for Those Entering the Profession Now
First, let’s return to HeadHunter and look at job postings for “HTML layout designer.” A layout designer is a specialist who takes a finished design mockup and translates it into code — without business logic or architecture, focusing on accurately reproducing the interface in a browser. This is one of the first skills every frontend developer learns. You’d think this is exactly the kind of work that neural networks should be best at. But in practice, it’s not that simple.
How to Make a Decision and Not Make a Mistake
Throughout this article, we’ve described the realities of modern hiring and haven’t shied away from tough topics like competition and “padding” experience. It’s important to us that you understand in advance the difficulties you might face during your training. However, we cannot give a definitive piece of advice: today, there are indeed many obstacles in frontend, but the barrier to entry has risen in almost every field. At the same time, IT remains a prestigious and well-paid field.
To help you decide more easily, first, look at how much frontend developers earn and compare that to your expectations. We’ve published a separate article on salaries, so we won’t repeat that here.
If the money seems acceptable, think about the following:
- Are you ready for one and a half to two years of study without a guaranteed result?
- Can you regularly dedicate time to this?
- Do you have a financial cushion or a stable income to study comfortably while simultaneously looking for your first job?
Finally, decide how you will break through the “broken hiring” system: by building connections and methodically applying only to suitable vacancies, or by taking the risk of “padding” your experience to get past the automated filters.
