How I Got a Job Two Weeks After My Coding Bootcamp

This is a guest post from Randall Kenna. Enjoy.

Dear new developer,

Two weeks after I graduated my coding bootcamp, I had an offer. Two weeks after that, I started my first engineering job at a small startup.

Here are some of the strategies I used.

Treat your job search like it’s your job.

I was exhausted after I graduated from my bootcamp. But I had spent more than$15,000 on tuition and living in San Francisco so I knew I needed to get a job quickly to prove the financial investment was worth it. It was so tempting to just spend those two weeks napping on my couch and recovering from the most grueling process of my life but using the momentum I had from graduating the bootcamp was critical. I had read about a lot of students that had let their skills get rusty and it had taken 6–12 months for them to find a job.

From the hours of 9AM to 6PM, I was job hunting. I was obsessively updating my resume, finding new jobs, reaching out to connections, finding meetups to attend, and honing my skills. After 6PM, I wouldn’t respond to recruiter emails or do any prep work for interviews. I used that time to recuperate and prepare for the next day.

Optimizing my LinkedIn

The company that I ultimately ended up taking an offer at actually found me through my LinkedIn. For all the applications that I sent and meetups that I attended, they ended up finding me and asking me to come in for an interview.

I filled out my LinkedIn with my prior jobs to show that even though I didn’t have a ton of engineering experience, I had a past career where I had been paid to code a little in some of my past jobs. I added every course I had taken and every certification that I had gotten during the bootcamp to show that I was very interested in engineering and it wasn’t just a job to me.

Quickly moving on from companies that weren’t a fit

A few companies had interview processes that were equivalent to Google. They wanted a coding bootcamp graduate to be able to solve complex algorithms that even a software engineer with a CS degree and years of experience would have struggled to complete.

I would have spent so much time preparing for just one interview at one company when instead I could use that time to go through the interview process at several companies. I told the company that the process was far too intense for a junior engineer and moved on.

You don’t have to use this strategy however if you’re willing to put in a lot of time learning algorithms and focusing on building some CS foundations. Some people in my cohort focused on their algorithm skills and it took a little longer to find a job, but they started out with a better title and higher pay.

Build a coding portfolio

Thankfully, my coding bootcamp had helped me create a large portfolio with several applications. I was able to take this to prospective companies and discuss what I had learned during the project. In my final project, I had focused mostly on frontend so I took that work to companies and detailed exactly what I had worked on.

If you don’t have a portfolio yet, just get started on something small and push it up to GitHub. Each time you create a new project, challenge yourself to make it a little more complex than the last project.

Proving I was eager (and desperate) to learn

Two companies told me I could build a project in the framework that I was most comfortable in. But I knew that if I spent a little time learning the framework that they used, I would improve my odds of standing out.

Over the weekend, I taught myself the framework one company used and built a small (and very barely working) app that used it. I was able to discuss the principles of the framework and even though my app broke during the demo, I got the job.

This was a risky strategy because I ended up not spending any time learning the other framework for the other company but it worked out in the end when I received an offer from the company.

Focusing on my strengths and not my weaknesses

I knew that I wasn’t going to do super well at companies that focused on algorithms and prioritized having a CS background, so I intentionally found companies that wanted to focus on mentorship and had real world interviews.

In the interviews, I discussed how I had prior career experience that would benefit them if they hired me and I had been coding at those jobs as much as I could.

It definitely wasn’t easy but anyone can get a job in coding if you treat your job search as if it’s your job and keep improving your skills.

Sincerely,

Randall

This post was originally published at RandallKanna.com.

Randall Kanna is a Senior Software Engineer at BaseHQ, speaker and O’Reilly author. She’s formerly worked at companies such as Eventbrite, and Pandora.

Don’t be afraid to “fail”

This is a guest post from Cierra Nease. Enjoy.

Dear new developer,

“Failures” as a new developer are plenty — but you might be asking, why is “failures” in quotes? To fail something is dependent upon one’s perspective. The only true failure is to quit working towards success. Every failure brings a small success in that you learn what the right answer is not. How can you problem solve without a way of marking off solutions that do not work? A failure is simply a solution that didn’t work at that specific time.

We can all talk about how learning and growth come from having failures, but it’s hard to remember that when you feel like you are a failure. Failures do not inherently make the person a failure, and it can be hard to make that distinction in the moment. Sometimes we need someone else to remind us of this.

I’ve had a lot of people in life reiterate this concept to me. The most recent person was a fellow developer named Mike on the Denver light rail. It’s funny what will happen when people participate in communicating and interacting with each other, but that is for another blog post entirely. For now, let’s go back to Mike. Mike overheard me talking to another passenger about being in a bootcamp. When I finished my conversation, he handed me a card and said he’d love to answer any questions I have about becoming a developer. I elaborated on some of my bootcamp experience, which happens to be full of failures.

Mike expressed his number one piece of advice for any developer, telling me: “whatever you do, don’t be afraid to fail.” We started talking about this in depth, and it really resonated with me for the rest of the evening. As a new developer, you really only see senior developers’ successes. Each developer goes through their own learning process which does include failures.

The failures that lead to success don’t stop when you become a “better” developer. If you are looking for a point when you quit failing as a developer, then you are looking for the wrong thing. The more you fail, the more you learn. The more you learn, the more you grow. The more you grow, the better the developer you become.

As a newer developer, I look forward to all of the opportunities to learn, grow, and accept my failures as the wrong solution instead of accepting them as a personal characteristic.

Sincerely,

Cierra

Cierra Nease is currently studying software development. She blogs at Cierra Codes 101.

It will turn out mostly fine… if you have the passion

This is a guest post from Jenn Chu. Enjoy.

‘Passion is one great force that unleashes creativity, because if you’re passionate about something, then you’re more willing to take risks’
~Yo-Yo Ma

Dear new developer,

I’ve always taken the quote above to heart… fast-shooting myself into the named camp of ‘Career Switchers` when talking about entry into the world of development. I’ve majored in Mechanical Engineer, spent 10 years in the Oil Industry, and just the last year and a half, really immersed myself into development.

I started at a Bootcamp part-time, got the certificate, quit my job, moved to a new city, worked as a Bootcamp TA and then finally landed my first job as an Associate Developer. It definitely wasn’t an easy journey, but I was passionate about this new life decision and I became obsessed. If not for the passion that led to a slight obsession, it would have been 10x harder to get to where I am.

For a new developer starting out, I’d love to tell you that it will turn out just fine… it mostly does… if you are passionate and have the drive. Learning new technology is not the only thing you should do to give you the edge. You must also go out, meet people, network, make projects, breathe… and then repeat. Learn the technology by finding out how it works more so than just watching tutorials. Meet the community and find coding and project buddies. Make projects for ideas to improve your life, or the life of others.

What I found most helpful in this whole process is having a mentor. Find a like-minded individual that is genuine and genuinely wants to be invested in your new journey. There is so much experience and knowledge that can be shared between both individuals, it truly is a beneficial experience for all involved.

Again, never stop learning, doing, networking and above all, doing what you do, what you are passionate about. The light at the end of the tunnel starts to get brighter and brighter with each passing day, have faith and take the risks! Life is too short otherwise.

– Jenn

Jenn Chu is a software Developer passionate about good design and building simple solutions that will enhance the end user’s experience. She is most excited to bring the diverse community together through collaboration, communication, and connections.