So, you’ve graduated from a software engineering bootcamp and you’re ready to tackle the job search process…but where to begin? After exiting a highly regimented and structured environment, it can be hard to know how to proceed to get the most out of your days. There are innumerable ways you could spend each day, after all! Have no fear, as this guide is here to help you chart a course to victory!
You have a few things to juggle during this time. You have job applications, of course. You’ll need to be actively applying and writing cover letters and cruising for postings. You have algorithm practice for those dreaded technical interviews. HackerRank, Codewars and leetcode will be your friends here. You also have skill upkeep and projects! You’ll want to code often to not only keep your skills sharp, but to keep that GitHub lean and green! And last but not least, you’ll have networking!
So job applications are pretty straightforward. You’ve probably done a few of these before now so I’ll keep it brief. Set a goal for yourself and stick to it. For me, it’s 5 easy-applies on LinkedIn and at least one ‘real’ application per week day! The easy-applies are for volume. You can knock them out quickly and chum the waters with your presence. You never know, your resume may be just what they’re looking for! A ‘real’ application is more traditional and involves lots of research, a bespoke cover letter, and some outreach to key members of the organization with personalized notes! When you see how much effort can and often does go into these, you’ll understand why my goal is 1 per day. By all means, do more if you have the stamina!
Technical interviewing isn’t always about being ‘correct’ when presented with a code challenge. In a lot of ways, a technical interview is as much cultural as a cultural interview is. The interviewer is usually, in my experience, more interested in how you approach a problem then they are in seeing you regurgitate an answer you memorized from HackerRank. They want you to talk through your process, and they want to see how you think! Ultimately, you may not always have a solution in a sitting. But as long as you’re in the right neighborhood, and you expressed how you would proceed to overcome blocks, you should be just fine! That said, practice will help you feel confident and competent here, so get a few challenges from the aforementioned sites and work on a few each day. Keep a repo for them and get a few free commits on GitHub while you’re at it!
Skill upkeep is crucial post grad! You just mainlined code for weeks on end and if you stop completely your skills will deprecate! There’s nothing wrong with taking some time to celebrate and relax post-grad, but you should get back in and write some damn code sooner rather than later! Build and burn some React projects. Read up on AWS. Check out what Python is all about. Blog about it! Employers want to see you coding (see: GitHub contribution chart) and they love to see you continuing to learn. Exploring new tech post-grad is a great way to stay engaged with programming, develop new skills, and keep your skills/mind sharp! You don’t want to get tunnel vision on the job search and land a job only to find you’ve forgotten how to use React at all. Keep coding!
Networking might seem cheesy and a bit daunting, but it may very well be the most important thing you do to get you a job. Ideally, you’ve been ingratiating yourself with your new community. You’ve been going to meetups, you’ve been getting coffee with people, and you’ve been making yourself visible. Networking early and often is a surefire way to plant seeds that you can sow at a later date, for example; now. If you haven’t been networking, the best time to start is immediately. Create content for your LinkedIn, attend some meetups (regularly) and make some friends! You never know who might think of you when it comes time to hire a junior dev! Ask for advice, reach out, and meet people, because at the end of the day you can be an absolute ace programmer but if nobody knows you, it might be for naught.
Hopefully this helps you navigate your post grad life, and eventually, gets you a coveted job!
