The Challenge of the Unpaid Full Time Job
An unpaid full time job is rough. I’m not talking about internships, and I’m not even talking about parenting. That is a full time job that has on call hours that are unheard of. I’m talking about finding a job.
I’ve previously been lucky enough to find jobs through referrals. In my past life as a teacher, getting into the TDSB or any school boards for that matter was more difficult than getting a meeting with Michelle Obama, so I decided to leave the country, which started a 4 year journey of learning and growth. It was amazing, I wouldn’t trade a single experience, but the instability through each experience was exhausting.
But even with my deep-seeded fears of the job market and the economy, I still made a leap into another career — the current day gold rush — web development and everything tech related.
I was lucky enough to land a junior developer position at Riipen, which was a great experience. But I hit a point where I felt I needed to go back to foundations and focus on JavaScript and the basics of programming to excel in Web Development. When I ended my time at Riipen, I wasn’t sure how to move forward. I spent a lot of time meeting new people, learning about their industry and trying to figure out my next step. Even during my volunteer experience in SriLanka, the job search was on my mind. I continued to study JavaScript everyday (I highly recommend JavaScript: The Good Parts by Douglas Crockford) and it started coming together in my mind in a way that I didn’t understand before.
But the job search. I initially tried to document my process on Instagram, but it became a bit too emotionally challenging to do so after some time. I don’t intend to go through this process again for some time to come, so I wanted to share my process and my perspective as an interviewee. I hope this helps you through your search as well!
Frame of Mind
As I met with a lot of different people, I came across some great advice about developing my career and finding the right fit.
Give yourself room to figure out what you want to do. Try to stay on a regular work schedule. Wake up every day at the same time.
-Stacey Feero, TWG
Honestly, she gave a lot of great advice. But I would say that giving myself time was crucial in helping me stay motivated. As hard as it is, remember that your value as a person is not dependent on your employment status. Don’t be embarrassed, just keep going and give yourself space to breathe.
Take a Break
Plan breaks for yourself. You are only human and looking for a job is a job without any end time to the day. At some points I would continue to work until the point I felt too tired to keep going which was unhealthy. I also felt bad for not being productive. So its just much easier and better for your own sanity to plan breaks into your schedule and relax when you intend to.
Emotional Support
The emotional roller coaster that is finding a job is exhausting. You get an email that says you got an interview and you’re on top of the world. Then the next day you get an email that says they’ve decided to go a different way. Even if you weren’t particularly interested in that organization, it still plays on your emotions. Then you hear that someone just got a promotion or hired at Apple or NASA and they’re about to take a trip to Mars. There’s a lot going on in the world. Take a second, feel that emotion, but after that move on. If it wasn’t meant to be it wasn’t meant to be. Just keep working, applying and stick to your strategy.
I was lucky enough to have two people I spoke with weekly about my process and the ups and downs of the job search. If you’re able to, find people you can talk to specifically about your struggles. If there isn’t anyone, journal and be your own biggest fan. It does wonders to have emotional support and encouragement.
Tools
Trello — Organizational Management for the Win
As soon as I knew I’d need to move into a different role, I started my Job Search Trello board. I kept a list of companies that interested me, that seemed to have an interesting culture (read diversity and inclusion), or that people had recommended. I found the board useful because I was never short of companies to apply to, and I can now recommend those organizations to other people who are looking for their next move.
My other categories on my Trello board included places applied to, social media links and jobs to go after. As soon as I applied to a job, I’d note the date and keep track of the status.
Google Drive
I used Google Sheets to keep track of each interview, the stage it was in and the types of questions I was asked. This helped me evaluate and compare the different companies and keep track of information I learned from each one. I found this to be immensely helpful because I could get a quick overview of my progress in the job search. Andrea Chan has an awesome template that I would have used if I knew about it earlier.
Strategy
As soon as I got back from SriLanka, I was ready to work, so you can say I was well motivated to find another position. Not to mention the fear of permanent joblessness, but fear can be a great motivator sometimes. My cousin says everyone feels this through the job search process, so maybe I’m not completely strange?
Slack Community Groups
I’m a part of quite a few community groups so I monitored them religiously. I’m a part of TorontoJS, UX Research and Women Who Code. I strongly encourage you join these groups if you’re a developer. Slack groups in general are a great space to get the low down on the lived experience of working at a particular organization. Find groups that are popular in your industry. I got several interviews through job postings, so I’d say its a viable strategy.
Reflection and Planning
I am a huge believer in reflection. I have been since I was twelve. But honestly, how do you know what to change, how to realign your strategy and what’s working and what’s not working if you don’t take time to think about it. Think about what you’ve done in the past, what you’re doing now, and how you can add to what you’re doing or change to adapt to your current context. I believe that both self reflection and reflection as an organization is crucial to progress.
That being said, I would take time to reflect both daily and weekly. At the end of the day I would reflect on what went well, whether I met my goals for the day, whether I got any responses, and what I could adjust for the next day.
I also planned the following day by scheduling calendar events, and blocking off time to apply to jobs. I set a goal of applying to five positions each day so that I could get that nagging feeling out of my head . After that, I felt free to work on learning JavaScript for the rest of the day. At the end of the week, I’d evaluate the entire week and compare it to the previous weeks and then adjust my strategy accordingly. I basically did one-on-one’s with myself, which was helpful.
There’s scientific evidence that planning the following day the night before allows your subconscious mind to get prepared ahead of time. Check out my shameless plug for the medium article I wrote on learning how to learn by Barbara Oakley here.
Apply to Everything
This advice, given to me by Erica Wright at Mozilla stuck with me. I’ve never been one to have an ego. I find it pointless and inefficient, so I applied to every possible position. If it was a company I liked, I figured I could get into the company and move to a different position from there. There’s always room for movement and growth at a company where you’re willing to put in the time and energy. So apply to hybrid roles, apply to customer service positions, apply to any position in which you are remotely qualified and you never know what might happen.
Job Boards
I didn’t use job boards often, except to satisfy my quota of five job applications a day. I found indeed.com to have some traction as well as neuvoo.ca. Others like monster.ca were almost pointless for me. I didn’t end up applying to positions on Glassdoor, but I did find it was useful for research.
Networking
Ultimately networking was the strategy that worked best for me. Firstly tell everyone and anyone that you know that you’re looking for a position. If you are a trustworthy individual, then people naturally want to help you and tell you about opportunities that they know of. You are much more likely to learn about opportunities through broader networks who move in different circles than your closest five friends.
Three out of four of the interview opportunities that showed promise came through my networks, either through referral or awareness of the opportunity. Funny enough though, the company I’m currently with is the one company I applied to directly (see above in apply to everything!).
Strategies without Traction
Meetups: Some of the strategies that I tried worked for others, but weren’t necessarily effective for me. One friend told me she reached out to some contacts she met at a meetup that resulted in her getting a position. I accumulated a lot of business cards through meetups last year so I reached out to them. Some replied but none resulted in substantial promise. Ultimately those connections were too shallow and fragile to have any weight in the job search process. Although not to say that Meetups aren’t great for many other purposes.
LinkedIn: I found LinkedIn useful for researching companies, learning about different positions and satisfying my need for curiosity — in that in was nice knowing that there were people looking at my profile. I’ve heard that others are able to connect with recruiters through the platform and that it has led to success, but I didn’t find it personally useful.
The Interview Process
The interview process can be daunting. You can’t be quite sure what questions you’ll face, but I found there were some great ways to prepare.
The Screener
The screener is the first phone call. This phone call is to determine if you are a reasonably intelligible person. Can you hold a conversation, are you friendly, do you come off as a generally nice person that is worth meeting in person. Questions during the screener include ‘tell me a bit about yourself’, ‘explain your career history’, and ‘what are your career goals’. As long as you are honest, and seem to have some personality, this will go wonderfully.
Weave Your Story
Personally, I’ve jumped around a lot professionally. I was a teacher, then studied finance for a bit and then moved into web development. It took me a long time to realize the underlying cause was that I’m a very curious person and I love to learn. See Emilie Wapnick’s video on multipotentialites to learn more. It helped me understand myself much better and explain my own professional interests.
Understanding yourself and why you do what you do is key in helping other people understand who you are as a person.
Be Honest
In line with weaving your story, be honest about who you are, where your skill set is, and what your genuine strengths and weaknesses are. For example, I have a gap in my professional history. I ended my last position in October, and naturally, organizations wanted to know what I did during that time. So long as I could explain that I was volunteering, traveling, continuing to learn, and not sitting at home twiddling my thumbs, I didn’t have any problems. Honestly even if you were sitting at home due to a mental health condition or life circumstances, companies are a lot more understanding and flexible, so just be honest. It’s better for everybody.
Ask about the Process
Sometimes I would spend hours and hours studying JavaScript, Promises, async await, callbacks, and closures because I thought the interview was going to be a technical test. Not to say this was in vain, because I am much more knowledgeable about Promises now but it wasn’t the topic of the interview. The interview was really about culture fit.
So I highly recommend on your first screener, ask about what the steps of the process and what each step looks like so you can mentally prepare yourself and know where to allot your time. The more information you have about the process, the better prepared you can be.
Ask Questions
You will always be asked if you have any questions about the organization. It is cognitively lazy not to ask questions, and honestly this is your best chance to demonstrate that you are a thoughtful person who wants to learn about the organization. You’re talking to hiring managers and people who know the company well so take advantage of it. Some of my favourite questions to ask usually revolve around culture, because I think culture is the single most important factor in determining job satisfaction and growth at an organization.
Some questions include: If you had to describe your organization as a person, how would you describe it? What is this organization’s Achilles heel? What would make you say “I made a great decision hiring you” looking forward three months down the road? I got some great answers and it helped me understand what my time and trajectory might look like at the organization.
Practice
Practice what you’re going to say before you say it. Don’t let the interview be the first time that you’ve spoken out loud about your own personal experiences or what you know about your subject matter. It’s important that you’re able to effectively communicate your thoughts. For example I was asked to create a deck for an interview and I practiced several times so that I knew my own material. Even when practicing explaining concepts such as Promises, I would draw it out and explain the concepts out loud so that I wouldn’t get stuck or flustered when in the actual context.
Be prepared to talk about what’s on your resume. Learn the details of your resume, even if its not the position you’re applying for. For example I list User Research on my LinkedIn profile, but it wasn’t the position I applied to, and I was asked about it in one of my interviews. If its on my resume, I should know it. In the event that you’re not sure of a concept or topic, it’s always okay to say you don’t know, but explain what you do know.
Send a Thank You Note
Always send a thank you note after the interview. The people interviewing you take time out of their day to talk to you, and you should take a minute to acknowledge that. Try to add your own personality so the interviewer knows you didn’t just click send on a LinkedIn/Gmail template. Pro tip — if you don’t know what their email address is, look at the format of the address they use, check their LinkedIn or About us page and use RocketReach. You should be able to find their email address with those three tools. Although I highly suggest you do not email their personal addresses. That borders on creepy.
On that note, if you don’t hear back in about a week, follow up. In one situation they hired a new person and keeping me informed got lost in translation — so its always best to just follow up and see what’s going on! But I still continued through the interview process with a role that better suited my skill set. Just because you haven’t heard from the organization, it doesn’t mean it’s a no, sometimes they’re just going through the growing pains of scaling.
If you have the chance, ask for feedback about what went well and any advice for the next interview. Knowledge is power my friend, knowledge is power.
Choosing the Right Organization
If you are so lucky as to have choice in where you’d like to work, I think the ultimate decision has to come down to what aligns with your personal beliefs and values. I value mentorship and growth opportunity, but I also highly value a great culture, diversity and inclusion. So when making my decision, I had to go with with what my gut was telling me, even though it was a difficult choice to make.
To Hiring Managers and Organizations
Through this job search process, I found a lot of differences between how I was treated through the interview process. It’s true what they say, first impressions matter.
Have an About Us Page
Looking at different hiring pages showed me how valuable an about us page can be. If your company doesn’t have an about us page, if’s difficult for me to assess how the organization functions and what your core values are. As an employer, it signals that you don’t care enough about your values, or that you haven’t given it consideration as an organization, or that you just don’t think it’s important. I want to know what you stand for. An About Us page is where you can differentiate yourself from other organizations and tell me as a potential team member what implicit benefits there are to your organization. The About Us page is where you sell your soft skills.
Convention over Configuration
Please put your careers link at the bottom. It is the convention most of us are accustomed to and it makes finding your career page that much easier. If I have to go hunting for your career page, I’m already annoyed and I’m more reluctant to apply. Name your link careers and not jobs. It puts me in a completely different mindset when I think I’m looking for a career and not just a 9–5 job.
Stay Organized and Communicative
If you’ve invited me to an interview, please send a calendar invite. It helps ease my mind that I’ve got the right time and location and I know who I’ll be speaking with. It’s simple but necessary. It also demonstrates structure and attention to detail on part of the organization.
Communication is key. If you are going on vacation or I won’t hear from you for a week, please let me know. Setting up expectations around when I will hear from you next, and following through makes a world of difference in my impression of you as an organization. Trust is hard to build and easy to break.
Along the lines of communication, please include any pertinent details about the location of your organization. One organization was known by a different name than their brand name, so I had to do a little hunting to find the place. When I got there, the door was locked and no one was in sight. It was not a great way to start the interview.
How you treat people during the recruitment cycle is a really great reflection of how it will feel to work in that environment. If I felt that you were a great company, I’m more likely to tell my developer friends about you and how amazing you were.
Ask Thoughtful Questions
In order to illicit the answers we want, we need to ask questions that align with the information we are trying to find. If you as a manager haven’t thought about what matters most to you in a candidate, then you’re not going to structure the interview in a way that either confirms or discounts what you are looking for. Thinking about how to ask the right questions goes a long way in having a productive interview and learning what you want to learn about the candidate.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully this has been helpful in your job search journey. I am over the moon about being given the opportunity to join Borrowell. If you’re looking for a fresh new start, I can honestly say that I was very impressed by their entire team, their recruitment process, and their commitment to diversity and inclusion. They are well worth your consideration!
Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or would like help with your own search.
Good luck on the search and go forth and conquer.
