Job Search Strategy For SDE Bootcamp Grads
I belong to several women in technology groups both nationally and in the Seattle area. In the last few years one of the biggest explosions we have seen is that of coding bootcamps. But I’m hearing from recent graduates (the last 6 month or so) that they have been having a difficult time finding jobs; everyone is looking for real world work experience, but it is hard to crack that first opportunity.
Part of it is due to a predilection by Seattle hiring managers for CS/technical degrees. We have a large state school with one of the top 10 CS engineering programs in the country in our own backyard. On top of that, a very large portion of our hiring managers come from companies like Microsoft and Amazon, which hire large numbers of CS grads, but also include a significant number of visa candidates that they hire.
USCIS regulations state that H1-B holders must have Bachelor degrees, and that all new hires into the same role must adhere to the same requirements. (An employer may say “or equivalent experience” but that does not help the bootcamp graduate).
There is a definite bias towards full CS fundamentals (algorithms, binary trees, data structures) and even “front end” roles have a significant element of full stack to them, because most companies expect developers to be able to test and debug their own code througth the entire stack. There are plenty of free/inexpensive online resources for strengthening your back-end knowledge like Udemy, Coursera, Harvard, etc. Since you are not working, take advantage of these courses to build up your skills. Practice your skills on Leetcode, and participate in Github projects (put your Github id on your resume — it is the equivalent of a portfolio.)
There are some strategies that bootcamp graduates can employ in their job search.
-Use LinkedIn to find other bootcamp graduates in companies you are interested in, reach out to them and ask them about their experiences; how did they get their foot in the door?
-Employee referrals are huge; see if you can find someone you know at a target company.
-Don’t look at the large enterprise companies. Concentrate on smaller companies, especially startups.
-Find internship/ apprentice programs; your career services office should have a list of local programs. In Seattle there are are a couple including the Microsoft LEAP program.
I have written extensively about how external applicants are subject to some stringent legal requirements for larger employers.
But the corollary to this is true: those regulations don’t apply to internal transfers.
So keep this strategy in mind: find a role such as a Customer Success Engineer, or a Technical Support Engineer/Specialist role to get your foot in the door. If you go this route, I recommend choosing a company that is a software product/web development company. The reason for that is you will have the opportunity to learn how the product is built from the ground up in a support role, you will see the innovation behind it rather than just “maintaining”, you can be privy to updates and expansions, and you will be able to dig into the code. You will also have more opportunity to move onto a development team; you can make internal connections with Engineering Managers and their teams.
Networking online is still the best way to get your foot in the door. In this particular case, recruiters are may or may not be of assistance because we are bound by the legal requirements in place. Hiring managers, Sr. SDE’s, and TPM’s are going to be your target audience in this case. As always, the key is to have a targeted strategy. This includes a definitive ask (can you tell me if your teams hire bootcamp graduates with solid portfolios?) and some tech questions about the product/s they deliver. (Hint: you can find out about the technology they use by looking at their job board, even if roles are for CS graduates.) Read their whitepapers, sign up for a free product demo. Know as much as you can about their product/s before you start reaching out.
Also keep in mind that we are probably looking at another 6–8 months of remote work due to the pandemic, so don’t limit yourself to your current geographic city/state — but remember that on a distributed team you will be much more on your own for figuring things out and “getting it done”. (And keep in mind that other areas of the company may pay more or less than where you currently live; use salary.com or payscale.com to figure out wage ranges where the company is located if they weren’t a distributed team before the pandemic hit.)
I know it is frustrating, but hopefully these strategies may help you uncover some new opportunities.
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Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
