How I Job Search

Yes, I'm unemployed. No, I don't think that makes me unqualified to write this post.

I completed Flatiron School's software engineering bootcamp in December, 2020, and on January 3, 2021, I officially declared my job search.

"Officially declared? Is that, like, a thing?"

Generally speaking, no. You can just, you know, search for a job. But Flatiron has a money back guarantee that requires its graduates to keep up with a certain amount of networking, coding, and blog posting each week. It's a lot of work, but it's keeping my nose to the grindstone and has undoubtedly helped me make more progress than I otherwise would have.

"But you said you're unemployed...so what does 'progress' mean?"

There's a whole bucket of idioms for what I mean by "progress," from "irons in the fire" to "points on the board." I'm talking about connections made, interviews conducted, code challenges completed. That sort of thing. There's no way around the brutality and demoralization of the job search; simply put, it sucks. But, in my experience, there are a few things that make this process a lot less of a bummer.

1. Figure out where you fit.

When I started Flatiron's bootcamp, all I knew was that I was training to be a full stack software engineer. What I know now is that

• unless you're a senior engineer at a startup wearing a lot of hats, most dev jobs aren't really "full stack";
• compared to other junior devs looking for jobs, my engineering skills and experience are paltry at best; and
• I have a robust interpersonal skillset that has nothing to do with, but would be very valuable in, an engineering or tech-adjacent position.

If you're like me and you're finding yourself at the end of a bootcamp, struggling (and probably failing) to keep your head above water psychologically, try to remember that you were a whole talented-ass person before you made this transition. You weren't doing eight hours of heads-down coding before, and you might not even enjoy that now. There's a whole ecosystem of jobs out there for people whose engineering skills are a (valuable) subset of their larger skillset; it would behoove you to be open to them.

2. It's a numbers game (sort of), and you've got to get yourself out there.

This one might be sort of obvious, but despite how overwhelmingly depressing the nameless, faceless application submission process is, you've just got to do it. Here's how I've streamlined that process:

1. I only apply to jobs I want, even just a little bit. There's no point in feeling the sting of a rejection from a job you didn't even care about.
2. Most of the time, I don't write cover letters. This might be controversial, but if there's a substantial chance my resume isn't even going to be looked at, I'm certainly not going to spend hours perfecting a cover letter.
3. For jobs I do want, I write a passionate and personal cover letter. I don't believe in templates; I think there's an unavoidably impersonal, copy-and-paste quality to those cover letters. But then again, I've got an English degree, so writing a good cover letter is something that's in my wheelhouse.

3. The job posting is just a starting point. You've got to build relationships.

This is really the crux of my job search process, and I think it's what's gotten me in front of interviewers more than anything else. When I see a job posted at a company I'd like to work for, the first thing I do is apply on the company website. Only after I've applied does the work really start.

Once my application is in, I reach out to everyone who's remotely related to that position. In general, I try to focus on

1. people who'd be on my team, and
2. potential supervisors.

This is something I learned from my past life as a comedian: you simply have to show up. No matter how many tapes I sent to producers, I was much more likely to be booked if I knew the person booking the show. I'd go hang out, meet the people involved in the production, and follow the show online. More importantly, I'd come back. And that, more than anything, was what got me booked. You just have to show up.

I don't mean that showing up is all you have to do, but it's the baseline. Unless your skills and experiences make you the undeniably perfect person for the position, you're not going to be considered unless the right people know you and like you. It's a fact of life, and it's a fact of the job search.

I start by contacting people I have any connection with: maybe we went to the same bootcamp, or the same college, or know the same person. I spend a lot of time looking through LinkedIn profiles for anything to which I can relate or connect. Because in-person networking events aren't happening right now, this is how I'm building relationships.

And I say "building relationships," not "making connections," because more often than not, I keep in touch! For example, if I meet someone who refers me to someone who reaches out with some sort of opportunity, you can bet I'm letting that someone know! If someone helps me, I keep them updated with my progress. I think this is an essential step in the job search, but it's one many people have a hard time with. It's easy to feel like you're bothering someone, or to feel guilty asking them for help. But you just have to get over that, because it's damn-near impossible to get a junior dev job on the quality of your resume alone.

4. I don't actually know what I'm talking about!

This could all be totally wrong. Like I said, I don't have a job. But I've got an internship, and I'm interviewing, and I'm doing code challenges, and I know a ton of people at a bunch of companies I never thought I'd know. And that's pretty cool to me.