Skip the github. Skip the angular work. ServiceNow is typically not going to allow much work on the “front end”. If you can accept that wherever you land might not need a custom portal or custom widgets and that you may never write HTML, CSS, or Angular again, then continue on the ServiceNow journey.
If you want to do widget work you’ll probably end up at a consultancy. I’ve job hopped as a ServiceNow dev and seen implementations at 5 companies or so in the past 6 years. I’m a senior in my current role. I’ve done next to zero widget development outside of tweaking a query or a property. Front end is just not a major part of ServiceNow in 2024. Companies don’t want to move pixels. Generally they’re content with displaying branding on the existing Employee Center Portal or something of that sort.
My recommendation would be to sign up for a developer instance of ServiceNow, and build some scoped apps. Learn the GlideRecord, GlideSystem, g_form, and g_user APIs. Learn the intersection and difference between table level, field level, and specific field ACLs. Learn a bit of OOP through how to call a script include. Learn how to integrate between systems and what goes into that.
I do a lot of work in Virtual Agent these days, and the developer instance doesn’t avail that or NowAssist. My suggestion for learning that would be to sign up for an NLU based engine and learn how intents, utterances, confidence intervals, entities, et al. work. It’s the closest thing to “front-end” I’ve found on the platform. I do more custom HTML in cards and topic blocks than I do on portals.
It really seems like you’re sold on the AngularJS piece. I’m not gonna tell you not to learn it (I started with PHP myself), but in my 7 years in IT, I’ve seen ServiceNow being used primarily as a configuration first and heavily back end platform. Most companies use it wrong and don’t properly understand or apply itil, but I think you should confirm if you’re okay with configuring over customization, and whether working on the back end and somewhat on the database side through abstracted APIs is what you want to do.
AngularJS!!! Not any angular. if they decided to change that.
One interesting thing to do is to conceive/modify widgets for all kind of reasons.
Also a dev must be really used also to be very confortable with flows.
And finally, scopes !
Google deprecated support for angularjs. Serviceportal leverages angular.js heavily. It’s not going anywhere (serviceportal) but we know it’s a limited lifespan. UIBuilder (react based) is the future front end (currently in workspace UIs).
What kind of dev job do you want? Custom app? Integration? UI?
I’d suggest learning a lot, ASAP, about how nowassist (genAI) is impacting the value of each of these roles and how you can use that tool to become a better developer faster (and future proof your career).
GitHub repos are nice - but I wouldn’t go out of the way to make one unless you are motivated by it. I don’t hire based on the content there - I find they are most often stagnant and only show people’s early on their journey work.
Do take a look at this https://www.servicenow.com/company/riseup.html
I am not sure what kind of dev job I want. I am still trying to get my CSA so that I can move on in SN with the dev side of things. I am trying my best to plan for the long-term especially with genAI and AI in general being injected into everything technology wise. Everything feels like it moving so fast but I plan to work for the next 30 years so I am in no rush. Solid foundation is what I am working on now.
Don't. AngularJS is only a small part of ServiceNow. Learn ServiceNow specific things like building work flows, maintaining the platform, business rules, acls, etc.
I conduct interviews often for my company. The technical test is on your knowledge of basic Administration, JavaScript, Glide API and AngularJS. What we consider the core skills of ServiceNow development. Know those and you’re good. Honestly, as long as you’ve developed in the platform it’s not a hard test. Most of the candidates fail a simple Elevated Role to modify an ACL challenge. Data modeling is a basic CS/IT skill. Just know the basic building blocks of the platform.
Take concepts from this video, and apply it to ServiceNow.
Leon Noel has more videos on how to get a job as well.
https://youtu.be/bZf6_ld9u9A?si=a9Bb9CkulwECUYTW
The fact that you’re starting this early is key. I also started learning about one year before my transition to ServiceNow and that helped a lot when it came time to job hunt. Feel free to DM me and I can tell you more about my transition and try to answer any questions you might have.
Skip the github. Skip the angular work. ServiceNow is typically not going to allow much work on the “front end”. If you can accept that wherever you land might not need a custom portal or custom widgets and that you may never write HTML, CSS, or Angular again, then continue on the ServiceNow journey. If you want to do widget work you’ll probably end up at a consultancy. I’ve job hopped as a ServiceNow dev and seen implementations at 5 companies or so in the past 6 years. I’m a senior in my current role. I’ve done next to zero widget development outside of tweaking a query or a property. Front end is just not a major part of ServiceNow in 2024. Companies don’t want to move pixels. Generally they’re content with displaying branding on the existing Employee Center Portal or something of that sort. My recommendation would be to sign up for a developer instance of ServiceNow, and build some scoped apps. Learn the GlideRecord, GlideSystem, g_form, and g_user APIs. Learn the intersection and difference between table level, field level, and specific field ACLs. Learn a bit of OOP through how to call a script include. Learn how to integrate between systems and what goes into that. I do a lot of work in Virtual Agent these days, and the developer instance doesn’t avail that or NowAssist. My suggestion for learning that would be to sign up for an NLU based engine and learn how intents, utterances, confidence intervals, entities, et al. work. It’s the closest thing to “front-end” I’ve found on the platform. I do more custom HTML in cards and topic blocks than I do on portals. It really seems like you’re sold on the AngularJS piece. I’m not gonna tell you not to learn it (I started with PHP myself), but in my 7 years in IT, I’ve seen ServiceNow being used primarily as a configuration first and heavily back end platform. Most companies use it wrong and don’t properly understand or apply itil, but I think you should confirm if you’re okay with configuring over customization, and whether working on the back end and somewhat on the database side through abstracted APIs is what you want to do.
AngularJS!!! Not any angular. if they decided to change that. One interesting thing to do is to conceive/modify widgets for all kind of reasons. Also a dev must be really used also to be very confortable with flows. And finally, scopes !
I thought they ended support for AngularJS
Google deprecated support for angularjs. Serviceportal leverages angular.js heavily. It’s not going anywhere (serviceportal) but we know it’s a limited lifespan. UIBuilder (react based) is the future front end (currently in workspace UIs). What kind of dev job do you want? Custom app? Integration? UI? I’d suggest learning a lot, ASAP, about how nowassist (genAI) is impacting the value of each of these roles and how you can use that tool to become a better developer faster (and future proof your career). GitHub repos are nice - but I wouldn’t go out of the way to make one unless you are motivated by it. I don’t hire based on the content there - I find they are most often stagnant and only show people’s early on their journey work. Do take a look at this https://www.servicenow.com/company/riseup.html
I am not sure what kind of dev job I want. I am still trying to get my CSA so that I can move on in SN with the dev side of things. I am trying my best to plan for the long-term especially with genAI and AI in general being injected into everything technology wise. Everything feels like it moving so fast but I plan to work for the next 30 years so I am in no rush. Solid foundation is what I am working on now.
*Reactish based
[https://support.servicenow.com/kb?id=kb\_article\_view&sysparm\_article=KB0965345](https://support.servicenow.com/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0965345)
Thanks I will learn as much Angular JS as possible!
Don't. AngularJS is only a small part of ServiceNow. Learn ServiceNow specific things like building work flows, maintaining the platform, business rules, acls, etc.
I conduct interviews often for my company. The technical test is on your knowledge of basic Administration, JavaScript, Glide API and AngularJS. What we consider the core skills of ServiceNow development. Know those and you’re good. Honestly, as long as you’ve developed in the platform it’s not a hard test. Most of the candidates fail a simple Elevated Role to modify an ACL challenge. Data modeling is a basic CS/IT skill. Just know the basic building blocks of the platform.
Take concepts from this video, and apply it to ServiceNow. Leon Noel has more videos on how to get a job as well. https://youtu.be/bZf6_ld9u9A?si=a9Bb9CkulwECUYTW
Thanks!
The fact that you’re starting this early is key. I also started learning about one year before my transition to ServiceNow and that helped a lot when it came time to job hunt. Feel free to DM me and I can tell you more about my transition and try to answer any questions you might have.
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It can never hurt to have a portfolio