title: Beating the odds

date: 2016-05-14

tags: News

author: Charles Webster

layout: post

Beating the odds

Congrats! You just completed your boot camp! You spent the last 12/16 weeks of your life busting your behind and you came out victorious. You can make cool applications, you can configure a webserver, and you even understand how miserable/important it is to write unit tests.

Unfortunately, the boot camp you just completed isn’t operated by Uncle Sam. There is no guaranteed position waiting for you after family day. You still need to convince someone other than your Mom that you and your skills are worth taking a chance on.

Yes, it is true. The tech field is growing. The need for developers appears to be growing each year. Learning to code is becoming very popular and it has never been easier/cheaper to get started. The vast amount of online resources available is mind-blowing. Boot camps are becoming more popular, and alternatives like FreeCodeCamp (sidenote - FCC has a pretty awesome curriculum and a great community) are keeping the dream alive. Oh and don’t forget about the constant stream of new Computer Science grads hitting the streets. What does this mean for people like you and me? It means that there are more people competing for those entry-level positions.

The good news is that you are Awesome. You were an amazing Soldier/Marine/Airman/Sailor and you will become an amazing developer. It just takes some time and a little elbow grease... You’ve dealt with deployments, long training exercises, endless 24 hour shifts, and soul-robbing safety briefings. You can land that first job.

Let’s take a look some tips that I found helpful during my recent search. The suggestions are in no particular order.

Disclosure - These suggestions may or may not apply to you and your situation/location. Please read them all but cherry-pick only what you feel is best for you and your bottom line. I am certainly no expert and currently in month two of my first developer gig. The market for developer gigs is highly dependent on location. A fresh boot camp grad located in Boise will likely have a different set of challenges than a grad located in the Bay Area. My experience took place in a mid-sized city on the West Coast with a relatively large number of boot camp grads.

1. Portfolio page > GitHub page

Having an organized GitHub account with a solid commit history is absolutely essential. You must show employers that those cool acronyms you put on your resume are actually backed up by real work. However, looking at code on GitHub is boring. Often times your resume will be screened by HR and may get weeded out before it ever gets in the hands of a real human developer. A well designed portfolio site can help increase your chances. Your portfolio site should be clean and easy to navigate. Avoid free domains and get a real “.com” domain. “FirstnameLastname.com” or something similar looks way better than, “firstnamelastname.myfreewebhostingdomain.net”

Display all of your projects that you are proud of. Don’t just include a screen capture. Configure your applications so that the user can run them from your site. Include some brief comments for each application that highlight the technologies/ skills you used to create the application. “Card game built with JQuery, uses AJAX calls to pull user data from back-end, etc…” Include a link to the GitHub repo that houses the code for the particular application. Plaster your new URL on all of your resumes/job postings/LinkedIn. Check your site regularly to make sure everything is functioning properly!

You can register a domain name for a year for $10ish dollars and use a service like AWS for free hosting.

2. Network!

Trying to find a job sucks. Go hang out and commiserate with others in your same situation. Even small cities have all sorts of weekly/monthly tech meetups. These meetups serve multiple purposes, Meet up with others in your same situation. Trade notes on who is hiring, interview tips, and contact information for hiring managers. You may be a Ruby cat and your buddy may be a C# nerd. Look out for one another and send job postings his/her way when you see something that fits their talents. Learn! Meetups are great for getting out of “code bubbles.” In a boot camp setting, all of the students will tend to do things in a similar fashion based on what the instructor does or doesn’t do. Bust out of these routines and check out how others from different backgrounds tackle the same problems. Meet people that are actually doing what you want to do. Pretty self-explanatory... Ask them questions until you are blue in the face.

3. Craigslist?

When I first began my job search, I had numerous people tell me to avoid finding jobs on Craigslist. They told me that it was full of scams and flaky people. They were partially right. Craigslist does seem to attract all sorts of crap but it can also be a gold mine! Make sure you are still hitting up the big boards (indeed, glassdoor, dice, etc…) but also check out Craigslist daily. The scam postings are pretty easy to recognize and you can protect yourself by doing a little research on the company before you send in your information.

The Craigslist job section seems to attract smaller companies with less bureaucratic human resource departments. Therefore, if you get your application in ASAP (First 24-48 hours after it was posted) there is a very good chance that your resume will be viewed by a real live person instead of a resume-eating algorithm. (Sidenote- You should be responding to all job postings shortly after they are posted. I never had luck with postings that were more than a couple weeks old)

Craigslist postings also tend to require just a resume and cover letter. Anyone that has had to slay the Taleo dragon will understand how important this is.

4. Go big or go home!

You now have an awesome portfolio site, your resume is legit, and you tailor cover letters to the job posting. Start pumping out those applications. Get your numbers up! The more applications you put out there, the greater chance you have of getting a call back. Unless you already have a job you need to treat your job hunt like it’s a full-time position. Apply to all positions you feel qualified for. Be advised that many postings are written by non-technical people and are simply a wish list for the “perfect” candidate. Be honest on your resume and in your interactions with the company but don’t be afraid to apply for a position that requires “3-5 years experience” when you have 1-2 years experience.

5. Branch out

Maybe your boot camp focused on Ruby/JS/HTML. Perhaps it was Python/Django/JS. Or maybe PHP/JS/HTML? You are probably looking for the junior “web developer” position but don’t forget about the wide world of IT, QA, and mid level technical support positions! Check out indeed for QA and “technical support engineer” positions. Many of these positions will have you working with code on a daily basis and offer great opportunities for growth. Spending a year or two doing QA can be an awesome way to get your foot into the developer side of the house.

6. Intern

If you can afford to spend a couple more months without an income, look into internships. I have a met a number of people that rocked out during an internship and were offered a position with the company. Even if the company decides to not offer you a position, you will still be able to list this real world experience on your resume. If the company you are interested in doesn’t have an internship program, ask them if they would like a free intern for 6-8 weeks. Follow up job denial e-mails with a “thanks for considering me, perhaps you wouldn’t mind having me as an intern?” letter. Some internships will be reserved for students currently enrolled in a computer science/software engineering program but there is no harm in asking.

7. Do not stop programming

Yes, boot camp is over. Yes, you are stressed out because of the job hunt. No, you can not stop coding. I don’t know about you, but after a few days away from the keyboard I start feeling a little foggy. Stay sharp and create more projects for the portfolio site.

8. Do the standard stuff

Don’t forget about all the easy stuff that the Military taught you. Right place, right time, right uniform.

Good Luck!

*Charles Webster is a junior PHP developer and an open source fan. He is an Army veteran and currently resides in Portland, Oregon.*