It's hard to give advice without knowing which region you are living in.
What other education do you have, previous work experiences etc?
SAS programming is a technique. What kind of role are looking for - system developer, data analyst, SAS maintenance responsible...
You could try to look for an internship.
Some larger consultancies may have the possibility to onboard junior developers into larger project or in maintenance organisations.
Analyst can mean many different things, so if you may apply if the specific role description seems to suit you.
Programmer - yes, since you have taken a cert.
Sounds like you need a mentor 🙂
What industry work experience do you have if any? If, for example, you already have experience in the finance industry then leverage that - go for data analyst roles in the finance industry. That will increase your chances of being hired.
Newbie employees often make the mistake that employers only hire on the basis of technical skills, like SAS. That is not correct. Equally important are your industry experiences and personal skills and attributes. Employers will focus these as software skills can be more easily picked up on the job.
Companies look for two types when hiring:
You fall into the second category; you need to show you can learn quickly, and mostly on your own (requiring less time and attention of the other SAS developers). Your resume should show a strong background in overall programming (other languages, shell scripting).
If you are lucky, you find a place where they test you by giving you a simple problem to solve.
In the meantime, hone your SAS skills by solving problems here on the community, and learning from the solutions provided.
Are you ready for the spotlight? We're accepting content ideas for SAS Innovate 2025 to be held May 6-9 in Orlando, FL. The call is open until September 25. Read more here about why you should contribute and what is in it for you!
Learn how use the CAT functions in SAS to join values from multiple variables into a single value.
Find more tutorials on the SAS Users YouTube channel.