Finding a job after a coding bootcamp — Creating opportunities
In my previous post about finding a job, I concluded that the best approach was to spray and pray. However, in order to do that, you need a solid stream of places to apply. Here are some of the resources I used during my search and my experiences with them.
Meetups
As I previously discussed, meetups are pretty amazing for a number of reasons! Every company that hosts a meetup is hiring. It’s far cheaper to lend out your space and pay for some pizza & beer than pay a headhunter referral fee.
Many of the people that you meet there will also at companies that are currently hiring. It requires you to be social and talk to people, but hopefully you’re capable of that, especially when discussing interesting topics & ideas within programming.
And did I mention: free beer, pizza, and a chance to learn something new! Ultimately, I ended up with a number of great contacts and interviews out of meetups, so I’d put this one high on the to do list.
Job fairs
Obviously everyone at job fairs is hiring! Be careful though, as it’s easy to get sucked into talking to each booth for too long. In the end most of the companies tend to blend together. Also, unfortunately most of the time, the people at the booths are recruiters rather than engineers so it’s often hard to get the most thorough sense of the company.
My suggestion is to visit each booth briefly, figure out what they’re looking for and get a business card from everyone one of them. Then follow up!
Also, I think this was the only time asides from in person interviews where it made sense to have a hard copy of your resume present. Although, not everyone collects them, some booths did and followed up based on it.
LinkedIn job postings
This is definitely a small pool of offerings, but I discovered that the companies paying for a spot on there were very serious about hiring. I ended up with a great response rate and even offer out of it. However, I felt like once you did one loop through the listings there wasn’t too much after that. So good as a one off, but no much replay value. Also, don’t get sucked into any listings by CyberCoders there, as it’s a giant waste of time!
AngeList
AngelList was the best resource in my opinion. It’s also how I found my current job at Hearsay Social. There’s a great list that lets you filter by company size (a pretty important factor). The response rate wasn’t as high as something like LinkedIn job listings, but it was also very easy an quick to send off messages.
There’s a limit to the amount of text you can send into a message, so my standard was a lean paragraph explaining my background and asking what they were looking for. It essentially allowed me to send off requests easily with very little time investment, adhering to the spray and pray. And the response rate was very high for this strategy!
WhiteTruffle
WhiteTruffle seemed quite similar to AngelList, but much smaller. I did get a few good responses from it, so I would suggest checking it out. However, it definitely shouldn’t be your main source of applications (although maybe it’s grown a bit more by now).
Bootcamp Associates
I imagine this varies quite a bit between bootcamps, so I can’t speak for all. However, they’re a good start since they’re obviously considering hiring bootcamp graduates.
When I was at App Academy, there were about 4–5 during our demo day. That number has grown now from previous visits I’ve done to demo day. The companies also change during each cycle, as they’re looking to hire a few junior engineers then hold off for a while before they have enough seniority to mentor a new group of junior engineers.
Although bootcamp associates are a great way to get some of your first interviews, I most likely wouldn’t count on them being your final stop during the search.
As far as I’m aware, some of the other bootcamps have to pay a rather hefty referral to the bootcamp. Although it may not seem like it, chances are part of that is coming out of your salary, so be careful of getting low balled this way.
Headhunters and recruiters
When it comes down to it, nobody will work harder for you than yourself! There were a few headhunters and recruiters that I approached me throughout my search. However, no leads ended up coming out of them.
One even took the liberty of changing my resume adding stuff that I didn’t necessarily want on there, adding her company’s logo, and destroying the layout. As somebody with a visual background, it’s new sloppy look bothered me.
Another suggested there was no way I’d get an offer above a certain amount, which was proven wrong by a strong margin. This reminds me of an idea presented where homeowners and their real estate agents are at a conflict of interest. A house selling for $100k accepting an offer at $80k would mean a ~$20k loss for the homeowner, but only $1–2k loss for the real estate agent, which probably wouldn’t make up for the extra time and effort the agent would have to put into selling it. Hence, the agent is eager to have you take a lower offer since they don’t lose much.
I think that companies are also skeptical of recruiters. Like the bootcamp referral fee, some of it could be coming out of your pocket. Ultimately it’s much nicer to find a company organically and reach out to them yourself. There’s really no need for the middle man in this scenario.
That’s not to say don’t let them send your resume around a bit, but definitely don’t rely on them. I often wished I’d sent my resume myself than through them.
PS: Also if they ever ask you what other companies you’re applying at, don’t give them that info.
Hacker News monthly who’s hiring
Hacker news is generally a great source for information! They also have a monthly job posting thread. For example December 2014. Companies that are on here are probably relatively smart and likely to be the sort of people you want to work for. Also, in any contact with them, definitely do mention that you spotted them on Hacker News (back to showing off your love of programming)!
Conclusion
There are a ton of other places to find opportunities. There are a lot I missed as well, I’m sure. But keeping on searching! Also, don’t forget to apply to Hearsay Social, as we’re hiring. Shameless plug!
Originally published at newtonry.tumblr.com.