crushingdigital

The course that launched a
thousand tech careers

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some of our success stories

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Full access to my course, unlimited one-to-one's with me, profile reviews and full support.
We won't stop until you get the job!Price: $1499*

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Career Health Check

Book in for a 1hr complete health check. We will review all your profiles (e.g. LinkedIn, GitHub, Résumé, Portfolio etc) and give you practical, actionable advice on how to stand out in the market and get the job you want.
Price: $99

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Mentorship without the price tag

The Academic plan to allow you access to every lecture (2x per week)
Price: $199 (one-time)

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In addition to the all the other benefits with the course, the course fee will grant the customer 24 weeks of support and mentorship. Failure to adhere to the course rules will result in ejection from the course, without refund. Upon successful completion of the course, but without securing a job offer, the customer will have the option of a full refund.

The full video course is now being offered for FREE!

All prices are exclusive of VAT, where applicable

Duration

You will be mentored and tutored for 24 weeks, including lectures, 1:1's, profile reviews and more.

Library

A collection of templates and examples for developer resources such as résumés, cover letters, emails, banner images and more.

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If you are unsatisfied, 14 day money back guarantee is offered. No questions asked.

Profile Reviews

Asynchronous reviews of any profiles (e.g. Résumé, LinkedIn, GitHub). Reviews are requested by completing an online form and delivered via a video review with feedback, tips and suggestions, where applicable.

Group Mentorship

Weekly group sessions which are in depth, intensive and tailored lectures and discussions with lots of Q&A.

One to One's

A 1:1 Google Meet session (or similar) to discuss anything you like!

Job Offer Guarantee

Do the work, get the job!

Before embarking on the course, we will discuss the role you wish to secure. Upon successfully completing the course, if you have not secured a job offer in line with what was previously discussed on the engagement call or a role to your satisfaction, the option to request a refund will be available to you.A full refund will end our journey. I will be sad if this EVER happens. However, if you wish to continue working with me and have ongoing mentorship, you may be offered to downgrade your plan to the Mentorship plan. If you decide to go this route, you will receive a partial refund as compensation to bring you in line with the Mentorship plan.Failure to adhere to the terms and conditions may result in the student being ejected from the course without refund. Switching plans may be offered at the discretion of the course owner.

Who is it for?

Anyone in Tech from junior through to CTO

Is it only for software developers?

No! I've also helped people in DevOps, QA, Product Ownership and Project Management. Essentially, anyone in Tech!

What people say

What is it?

What you need to know/expect

How to Negotiate Your Salary in Tech (And Why Most Developers Leave Money on the Table)

Here's something I've observed across thousands of hiring processes: most developers don't negotiate and the ones that do, do so badly.I understand the non-negotiators. You've been through the application process, the interviews, the anxiety. When the offer arrives, the last thing you want to do is rock the boat. What if they take it back? What if they go with someone else?Here's what I need you to understand: they won't. And by not negotiating, you're almost certainly leaving money on the table — potentially thousands of dollars a year, compounding for the rest of your career.Let's fix this.

Why Companies Expect You to Negotiate

The salary in an offer letter is rarely the final number. Most hiring managers know this. When a company makes you an offer, they've typically built in room for negotiation — a buffer. When you accept the first number, you're not being agreeable, you're just leaving that buffer in the company's pocket.I've been on the hiring side. The people who negotiated professionally never gave us a bad impression. In fact, the opposite is often true. A developer who understands their value and advocates for it clearly demonstrates the kind of confidence and self-awareness that good teams want.Negotiating doesn't make you difficult. It makes you someone who knows what they're worth.However, you have to do it nicely!

Before You Negotiate: Do Your Research

Going into a salary negotiation without data is like going into a technical interview without knowing anything about your chosen tech stack. You might get lucky. You probably won't.Research current market rates for your role, your stack, your level of experience, and your location (or the company's location if remote). Use multiple sources:

You're building a case. A number with data behind it is far more compelling than a number you pulled from thin air.

When to Bring Up Salary

Timing matters, but it seems every AI tool is telling people that the longer you wait, the more leverage you have. I disagree .... kind of.Early in the process, if asked about salary expectations, it's entirely reasonable to deflect. Something like: "I'm still learning about the role and the team — I'd prefer to get a fuller picture before we discuss numbers. Is there a budgeted range for the role?"This keeps your options open and often gets the company to anchor the conversation themselves. If they say a number first, you have something to work with. If you say a number first, anchor toward your upper range, but don't overshoot.

The Negotiation Itself: What to Actually Say

This is where most people freeze. They're afraid of saying the wrong thing, sounding greedy, or damaging the relationship. So let me make it simple.Step 1: Express genuine enthusiasm. You're not negotiating because you don't want the job. You're negotiating because you want to start this relationship on the right foot."I'm really excited about this opportunity — the team and what you're building genuinely appeal to me. Before I formally accept, I'd love to discuss the compensation."Step 2: Counter with a specific number, backed by data."Based on my research into the market rate for this role at this level in [location/remote], I was expecting something closer to £X / $X. Is there flexibility to move towards that?"Don't give a range. Ranges signal that you'll settle for the bottom number. Give a specific figure — and make sure it's slightly higher than the minimum you'd accept.Step 3: Then be quiet.
Silence after a counter is powerful. Don't fill it. The person on the other end is processing. Let them.

It's Not Always Just About Base Salary

If the company genuinely can't move on base pay — sometimes they really can't, particularly in larger organisations with strict pay bands — shift the conversation.What else is on the table?

Getting an extra week of annual leave and £1,000 training budget might be worth more to you than a small base salary bump, depending on your situation. Know what you value before you walk in.Setting salary review dates and cadence is a power move. The earlier you set this, the better your life will be!

What About a Pay Rise at Your Current Job?

Same principles apply, but with added nuance. You have data they don't: you know how much it would cost them to replace you, you know what you've delivered, and you know what the market is currently paying.The best time to ask for a raise is not during your annual review. By then, budgets are often already set. The best time is after you've delivered something significant — a successful project, a launch, a major problem solved.Book time with your manager specifically for this conversation. Don't ambush them in a corridor. Come in with a clear summary of your contributions and a specific ask.And if they say no? Ask them what would need to change for the answer to be yes. That tells you whether there's a path forward — or whether it's time to look elsewhere.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Pay in Tech

The fastest way to increase your salary in tech is usually to change jobs. Internal raises in most companies average 1–5%. A well-executed job move can get you 15–30%.That doesn't mean job-hop every six months — there are real reputational costs to that. But if you've been in a role for 18–24 months, delivered well, and your salary hasn't kept pace with the market? It might be time to test what your value actually is.The market will tell you honestly. Your current employer might not.

About the author: David Roberts is a tech career mentor, a former developer and CTO as well as a former recruiter who has helped hundreds of developers negotiate better salaries and land better jobs. Check out the VIP program

How to Optimise Your LinkedIn Profile as a Developer (What Recruiters Actually See)

Let me tell you something that most developers don't want to hear: your LinkedIn profile is probably invisible.Not broken. Not offensive. Just invisible. Recruiters are out there searching for developers every single day, and if your profile isn't set up correctly, you simply won't appear in those searches. It's like turning up to an interview in a room where nobody can see you.I've spent years on the recruiting side. I've searched for developers, filtered candidates, and decided in seconds whether a profile was worth clicking on. What I'm about to share is what actually goes through a recruiter's head — not the polished advice you'll read in a LinkedIn help article.

The Recruiter's Reality

Before we get into tactics, you need to understand something about how recruiters work. They are under pressure to fill roles quickly. When they search for candidates, they're not reading profiles in detail — they're scanning. Fast.The average recruiter spends less than 10 seconds deciding whether to click on a profile from a search result. That means your headline, about section and your profile photo are doing almost all of the work before anyone reads a single word you've written.Get those wrong, and the rest of your profile doesn't matter.

Your Headline: The Most Important Real Estate on Your Profile

A good headline details 3 things1. The kind of developer you are
2. You main tech skills
3. Any other valueSo, consider the following:
"Front End Developer | React | TypeScript | Next.js | AWS Certified"Your headline is 220 characters of prime real estate. Use them. A good headline communicates who you are, what you do, and — ideally — what makes you different.

Your Profile Photo: Yes, It Matters

This is the part of the conversation nobody enjoys. Should people be judged on their appearance? Absolutely not. Does it happen anyway? Yes, unfortunately it does — especially in client-facing roles.You don't need to look like a model. You need to look like someone who turns up, takes their work seriously, and would represent a company professionally. That means:

If this feels like a lot of effort, it's one photo. Take it seriously.

Your About Section: Stop Writing a CV

The About section is where most developers go wrong. They either leave it blank (a crime) or write a formal summary that reads like the opening paragraph of a cover letter from 1995.Here's my advice: write the About section like you're explaining to a smart person why they should be excited about you. Your hedline covered the required tech, Now, use the About section to cover the nice-to-have tech. Then talk about what you build. Talk about what problems you love solving. Talk about where you came from and where you're headed. Let your personality come through.You have 2,600 characters. Use as much as you like but sweat the first 4 lines. Nobody will click the 'more' link if the first 4 lines does not entice them to do so.

The Featured Section: Your Secret Weapon

This section sits high up on your profile and supports images, links, videos, and posts. Most developers either ignore it or use it to pin a post nobody cares about.
What you should put here:

The Featured section is your opportunity to stop telling people you're good and start showing them. Evidence beats claims every time.

Experience: Write Impact, Not Job Descriptions

Under each role, don't just list your responsibilities. Nobody cares that you "worked in an agile team" or "collaborated with cross-functional stakeholders." Every developer says that.What you built will help and we'll get to that, but first the reader is trying to find out where, when and how you've been using the tech. Sweat the first few lines and detail the tech used within the projectNow you can tell me what you built. Tell me what improved because you were there. Numbers help enormously — reduced load time by 40%, built a feature used by 10,000 users, refactored a system that saved the team 5 hours a week. If you can quantify it, quantify it.If you're just starting out and don't have a job to list, list your projects as experience entries. "Personal Project — E-commerce Platform | Built a full-stack shopping application using..." That is experience. Frame it accordingly.

Activity and Visibility

LinkedIn rewards people who use it. We're not using it for that reason though. We are going to drive people to our profiles.So, you don't need to post every day. But one thoughtful post per week — sharing something you learned, a problem you solved, a tool you discovered — compounds over time. When someone arrives at your profile they see continued dedication to exploring your craft. Now that's proactivity and it makes you memorable.And when a recruiter lands on your profile and sees that you've been active and engaged, it signals something important: this person is in it. They're learning. They care about their craft.That matters more than most people realise.

The One Thing That Ties It All Together

Every section of your LinkedIn profile should be telling the same story. Not the same words — the same story. Who are you, what do you build, why should someone hire you?If your headline says one thing, your About says something else, and your experience section doesn't match either, you create doubt. Doubt is the enemy. Doubt makes recruiters click away.Consistency builds confidence. And confidence gets interviews.

About the author: David Roberts has reviewed hundreds of developer LinkedIn profiles and helped the people behind them land great tech roles. Get a career health check here

How to Break Into Tech With No Experience (The Honest Guide)

Let's not sugarcoat it: breaking into tech is hard. It was hard before AI started eating junior roles for breakfast, and it's harder now. But it's absolutely still doable — and I say that as someone who has interviewed thousands of developers, rejected most of them, and helped hundreds land great roles anyway.The problem isn't that you lack experience. The problem is that most people trying to break in are making the same predictable mistakes. I'm going to tell you what those are, and more importantly, what to do instead.

Why "Just Build Projects" Isn't Enough

You'll hear this advice constantly. Build projects. Put them on GitHub. And yes, you should. But here's the thing nobody mentions: a half-finished to-do app that looks like a tutorial clone does more harm than good.Recruiters — and I was one of them — see dozens of identical portfolios every week. A weather app built in React. A CRUD app with no README. A GitHub account with 12 repositories, all forked, none documented. These don't say "hire me." They say "I followed a tutorial once."Evidence wins. That's the principle behind everything I teach. You need to show what you can actually do, not just that you attended a bootcamp or finished a course.

The Problem With Most Bootcamp Grads

I've reviewed the LinkedIn profiles and CVs of hundreds of bootcamp graduates. The patterns are painfully consistent.They all have the same projects. They all have the same LinkedIn headline ("Junior Developer | Bootcamp Graduate | Open to Work"). They all apply to the same job boards. They all wait.The market is flooded with people who learned to code. The developers who stand out are the ones who learned to present themselves differently from everyone else. Most bootcamps don't teach this. Some don't even try.One of the instructors I've worked with told me that within 5 weeks of a 26-week bootcamp, 33% of students engaged with my programme had already received job interviews. Think about that — they hadn't even finished the bootcamp yet. The ones who weren't getting interviews were just as technically capable. The difference was in how they were presenting themselves.

What Actually Moves the Needle

Build one project properly, not ten projects badly

Pick a side project — ideally something in your niche or previous career. Are you a former teacher? Build an app for teachers. Ex-nurse? Build something for healthcare. Your domain knowledge is an asset most bootcamp grads don't have. Use it.However, what it does is less important. It wants to be a project that is never finished. Each day, ask yourself "what do I suck at in coding?". Now, go and fix that!The project needs to evidence you continually up-skilling and closing the gaps.Make the README exceptional. Explain what the project does, why you built it, the technical decisions you made, and how to run it. Add screenshots. If you can deploy it live, do that too.One polished project beats ten abandoned ones every time.

Treat your LinkedIn like a product, not a CV

Most developers treat their LinkedIn as a digitised résumé. That's a waste of one of the most powerful tools you have. Recruiters are searching LinkedIn every day for candidates to fill open roles. If your profile isn't optimised for that search, you're invisible.Your headline matters more than you think. Tell people the type of developer you are (Front End, Full Stack etc) and then detail the tech you use. Tell people what you do and what value you bring. Your About section should read like you're talking to a human, not filing a form, but it also needs to tick the boxes.Your mission is to check off as many of the nice to have skills as possible.

Get in front of people before a job is even posted

The best opportunities rarely make it to job boards. By the time a role is advertised, there's already a queue forming. The developers who get hired fastest are the ones who showed up before the queue existed.How? Network — but not in the desperate, cold-DM way that makes everyone cringe. Find people working in companies that interest you. Follow them, comment on their posts, add value to their conversations. Become a recognisable name before you ever send a message.This sounds slow. It isn't. A few weeks of genuine engagement can open more doors than six months of applying to job boards.

Stop applying to every job and start targeting

Most people in a job search treat it like a numbers game. Apply to 100 jobs, hope 3 respond. I understand the logic, but it's flawed. A scattergun approach produces scattergun results.Instead, identify 20–30 companies you actually want to work for. Research them. Look at who works there on LinkedIn. Look at what they've built and what their tech stack is. Tailor your application specifically to them.You'll apply to fewer roles. You'll get more responses.

The Experience Paradox — And How to Solve It

"Every entry-level job requires 2 years of experience." Yes. It's maddening, and it's not going to stop being maddening. But here's the thing: experience doesn't exclusively mean paid employment.You can demonstrate experience through demonstrating (as detail above) that you are continually learning, growing and evolving your skills as a developer.Also consider:

What you're doing is building evidence. Proof that you can do the work. That's what's really being asked for when someone demands "experience."

The Mindset Shift That Changes Everything

The best developers rarely get the job. I've seen technically brilliant people fail to land a role because they couldn't communicate, their profiles were a mess, or they came across as arrogant in interviews. I've also seen developers with average technical skills absolutely nail their job search because they understood how to present themselves.This is the insight that took me years to fully appreciate. The hiring process rewards presentation as much as ability. That's not unfair — it's reality. And once you understand that, you can do something about it.Your job search is a marketing exercise. You are the product. And it's on you to make sure the right people notice you, understand your value, and want to work with you.Get that right, and the experience question becomes a lot less scary.

The Mindset Shift That Changes Everything

Breaking into tech isn't about having all the answers before you start. It's about taking consistent, smart action — and making sure the right people can see it.You can do this. But you have to do the work differently to everyone else.

David Roberts has mentored hundreds of bootcamp graduates into their first tech roles. If you want to know exactly how to stand out after a bootcamp, check out the FREE course!

Is a Coding Bootcamp Worth It in 2026? (An Honest Answer)

I get asked this question more than almost any other. And I understand why — a bootcamp is a significant investment of time and money, with no guarantee at the end of it. So is it worth it?The honest answer: it depends. But not on the bootcamp. On you.I've worked with hundreds of bootcamp graduates. Some have landed incredible roles in weeks. Others are still job searching a year after graduating, baffled as to why it isn't working. The bootcamp itself rarely explains the difference. What does?

What a Bootcamp Actually Gives You

Let's be clear about what a bootcamp is and isn't.It is an accelerated route into the fundamentals of software development. In 12–24 weeks, you'll cover enough ground to be genuinely useful on a development team — if you're a quick learner and you put the hours in.It is not a guarantee of employment. It is not a substitute for years of experience. And it is definitely not the finish line.Here's the thing that most bootcamps quietly gloss over: what they teach you is how to code. What they don't teach you — almost without exception — is how to get hired. And those are very different skills.

The Problem With Most Bootcamp Grads

I've reviewed the LinkedIn profiles and CVs of hundreds of bootcamp graduates. The patterns are painfully consistent.They all have the same projects. They all have the same LinkedIn headline ("Junior Developer | Bootcamp Graduate | Open to Work"). They all apply to the same job boards. They all wait.The market is flooded with people who learned to code. The developers who stand out are the ones who learned to present themselves differently from everyone else. Most bootcamps don't teach this. Some don't even try.One of the instructors I've worked with told me that within 5 weeks of a 26-week bootcamp, 33% of students engaged with my programme had already received job interviews. Think about that — they hadn't even finished the bootcamp yet. The ones who weren't getting interviews were just as technically capable. The difference was in how they were presenting themselves.

What Actually Determines Whether a Bootcamp Works for You

Your projects matter more than your certificate

The certificate proves you attended. Your portfolio proves you can build. Recruiters don't get excited about the name on your bootcamp — they get excited about the work you've done.Build project that close the gaps and demonstrate growth and proactivity. Document the journey. Deploy them if you can. Make them look like something a real team might actually ship.

Your LinkedIn needs to work before you graduate

I mean this. Don't wait until you've finished the course to start optimising your profile. You should be building your presence online from week one. Recruiters are searching LinkedIn right now for developers with your skills. If your profile isn't ready, they're finding someone else.

Applying to big companies straight out of a bootcamp is usually a mistake

This is counterintuitive, but hear me out. Large companies — especially FAANG-type firms — have rigorous hiring processes designed for people with CS degrees and years of experience. They're not optimised for bootcamp grads.Smaller companies are far more likely to take a chance on a motivated junior developer. They care more about what you can do right now and how quickly you can learn. Apply to 50 small companies and you'll do better than applying to 10 big ones.

Your network is a shortcut you're probably ignoring

Most bootcamp grads spend 100% of their time applying to jobs and 0% of their time building relationships. This is backwards. Some of the fastest hires I've seen came through connections — a comment on someone's LinkedIn post, a conversation at a meetup, a message that wasn't a cold pitch but a genuine question.People hire people they know, like, and trust. Start becoming someone worth knowing.

The Skills Gap That Nobody Talks About

Here's the uncomfortable part. Many bootcamp graduates aren't technically ready for a professional role at the end of the course. That's not a criticism — it's just the reality of trying to compress years of learning into months.The graduates who succeed treat the bootcamp as the beginning of their education, not the end. They keep building. They keep learning. They find people more experienced than them and ask good questions. They don't stop just because the course is over.The ones who struggle treat the certificate as a destination. It isn't. It's a starting point.

So, Is It Worth It?

If you treat a bootcamp as a launchpad — and you're willing to put in the work before, during, and after — then yes. Absolutely worth it.If you're expecting the certificate to do the heavy lifting? You're going to be disappointed.The bootcamp gets you to the starting line. Everything else — your portfolio, your LinkedIn, your network, your ability to interview well — determines whether you actually win the race.

David Roberts has mentored hundreds of bootcamp graduates into their first tech roles. If you want to know exactly how to stand out after a bootcamp, check out the FREE course!