So you graduated from a coding bootcamp — congratulations! You’ve taken a massive step towards your goal of becoming a software engineer. But what comes after, and what does the tech job search look like?
PREPARING FOR THE JOB SEARCH WHILE IN THE SOFTWARE ENGINEERING IMMERSIVE
Codesmith’s post-graduate support includes grouping students into job search support groups, weekly and monthly job search check-ins, and unlimited access to hiring support engineers. In preparation for the job search, lectures on writing your resume, setting up your online profiles, and successfully interviewing begin weeks before graduation, increasing in frequency and becoming the main focus of your last week in the program.
You are grouped with four or five fellow residents for a post-graduation job search support group. You will continue to have morning standups with your group to share your interview experiences, encourage each other for the day to come, and review algorithm problems.
It’s a unique experience to share the stressful job search with others going through the same thing you are. Some of us in our group had tough algorithm challenges that felt disheartening. We talked about how we felt and decided to meet daily to pair-program through some of the problems we were receiving in technical interviews. Not only are we all technically much better at solving algorithm challenges, but we have continued to polish our technical communication and increased our confidence going into interviews. It would have been tougher to stay motivated and continue practicing problems alone.
WORKING WITH HIRING SUPPORT ENGINEERS
The school is committed to your success after graduation. To this end, you have unlimited access to hiring support engineers, who will help you polish your resume or online profiles, for your first and subsequent job searches. They are software engineers currently working at top tech companies and therefore understand the hiring process and any technical questions you might have. You can request a mock phone screen, algorithm, or system design interview. Lastly, when you start getting take-home assessments from companies, the support engineers can provide code review for your work.
With the continued daily support from classmates and hiring support engineers, graduation doesn’t feel like a dividing line between being in or out of the program. I wake up and complete an algorithm challenge before meeting with my classmates to discuss the job search process or an interesting algorithm or system design. The rest of the day, I research companies and apply to jobs with Codesmith style applications — you’ll have to go through the program to learn this gem.
“Codesmith is less of a school where you say goodbye to your classmates and go your separate ways after graduation, and more of a community of engineers that continue to support each other.”
CONNECTING WITH THE CODESMITH ALUMNI NETWORK
The alumni network is a thriving community of engineers who were in your shoes a few years ago and now work in top companies worldwide. They are exceptionally welcoming, offering to provide guidance, referrals, and encouragement to each other. Additionally, there are alumni-led continuing education lectures and networking meetups. After Codesmith, you will have all the technical and social tools to land your dream job.
Blog written by Miguel H, Codesmith FTRI Cohort 4.
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Hear another Codesmith Immersive program grad’s journey navigating the hiring program in preparation for the job search by checking out Allison’s blog.