How a CS graduate with zero professional references shipped 3 production features at a UK EdTech SaaS platform and walked away with references that broke through the no-experience barrier.
Computer Science Graduate – Strong grades, zero professional references
Lagos, Nigeria
Role: Junior Frontend Developer
Duration: 60 days
Amara had just graduated with a strong computer science degree — solid grades, impressive personal projects, and genuine passion for building software. But every job application hit the same wall: "Can we contact your previous manager?" She had no one to list. No internship, no part-time role, no manager who had watched her write production code. In a market where every graduate claimed coding skills, she had nothing to prove hers.
A UK-based EdTech SaaS company building a scalable learning management system (LMS) used by universities and corporate training teams across Europe.
A junior frontend developer to build student-facing dashboard features — real product work with daily code reviews from their Lead Developer.
Sarah (Lead Developer) ran daily code reviews. The Product Manager defined requirements. The Founder watched weekly demos of new features.
Real users depended on these features. Code had to pass review, meet standards, and ship to production — not a spec exercise.
"Interviews changed when I could say 'ask Sarah at EdTechCo about my React work on their LMS platform.' Real engineers vouching for real product features I shipped — that broke through the no-experience barrier."
— Amara, Lagos
Amara applied to a fintech startup building payment infrastructure in Lagos. The interviewer called Sarah. Sarah confirmed Amara had written production React code, shipped 3 features, and improved noticeably over 60 days. The PM confirmed she translated requirements into working software. GitHub showed real commits on a real product. Amara was hired.
Daily code reviews from Sarah meant every line of production code was supervised — exactly what references verify.
Three different people (developer, PM, founder) saw her work from different angles — building a layered reference network.
Every feature was committed to the company repo — a verifiable, timestamped record of real contributions.
This hypothetical scenario shows how real product experience creates referenceable credentials. Your path to professional references could start today.