Breaking into Tech after Bootcamp — My Job Search Strategy

This strategy helped me land a job after completing a full-time, 15 week immersive Data Science bootcamp with Flatiron school. My strategy may not work for everyone, but it worked for me, and I’d like to share it with those who are also transitioning their careers into tech.

I did have a bit of a secret weapon: I worked in Recruiting and Human Resources before I worked in Tech, and this gave me an advantage as a job-seeker. I’m not suggesting everyone needs to go get a job in recruiting in order to develop a great job-seeking strategy. I do know that understanding the selection process from an employer standpoint helps demystify the job seeking experience.

Here’s some basics about the recruiting process every job seeker should know:

• Apply directly through the company’s career page. Do not apply through a third-party platform such as LinkedIn, indeed, job board, etc. Go to their website, find their careers page and apply to the job there.
• Apply Now. You have no idea where they are in the selection process: that job could be taken down tomorrow. I don’t recommend you wait to have your portfolio more polished, or until you have more green squares in your GitHub. If you start to play the ‘I’ll apply when I’m more ready’ game you’re just going to miss out on job opportunities. You’re ready now, just start applying. If you get an interview and need to study up on a specific thing, you’ll do it. But you won’t get that interview if you wait to apply until it’s too late.
• Recruiters want to hear from you. It’s their job to communicate with you! You’re not bothering them if you reach out.
• Know the typical roles involved in filling a job: Know what a recruiter does vs what a hiring manager does. If it’s not obvious, learn who is the decision maker for the role.
• Know the basic selection process: Job posted → recruiter reaches out to promising candidates → recruiter does an initial phone screen to make sure you’re a reasonable human being→ recruiter hands the candidate off to the hiring manager or technical assessment → oftentimes if the candidate is promising or more info is needed another interview is scheduled → decision. Hint: it’s OK to ask the recruiter to clarify what the process is and where you are in that process.
• Know the difference between contract work (1099) and employment (W2). One is an employee with an employee-employer relationship to the employer, subject to labor regulations. The other is an independent contractor who sets the terms and conditions of the work they do for a business and does similar work for other businesses. There’s no such thing as a “1099 Employee:” if you see those two words in the same sentence that’s a huge red flag.
• Know how to interpret and negotiate an offer!

Note: Flatiron School set me up with an amazing career coach, Noreen, after I graduated from the boot camp. She helped me with strategy and staying positive, and I want to thank her for her guidance and flexibility as a blazed my own path outside of the career-prep materials and steps :)

Opening more doors than just Data Science:

I did not limit myself to Data Science in my job search Strategy. While one would argue that a career in Data Science would net me more $$ over a lifetime, I was also faced with having no income and paying off the loan I took out for the bootcamp. Just getting my foot in the door of Tech was my goal for a job and that meant more job opportunities than if I only pursued a job with a Data Science, Data Analytics, or Data Engineer title.

Instead, I focused my job-search on positions that combined tech and my career pre-bootcamp.

Before the bootcamp I worked in Human Resources as a Generalist. There are plenty of tech companies in the People Technology and analytics space. My strategy was to leverage my understanding of People Ops and Recruiting in a new tech role. This opened up many roles including Compensation Analyst, People Analyst, HRIS Analyst, as well as implementation-related roles at HRIS, ATS, and HRCM companies.

I played the LinkedIn game.

What I mean by the LinkedIn game: I paid for a subscription, I interacted with peoples’ content, I used the job search features, and I messaged key people for every job I applied to.

I know, LinkedIn is awful, but it’s also where recruiters hang out and it lets you search and contact key people at organizations. Before LinkedIn, this wasn’t possible from the comfort of your couch. You had to know someone who knows someone who plays golf with someone and you probably had to meet people in person at an awful meet-and-greet session at a conference or pick up the phone and call their office. Given the choice between these, I’ll take LinkedIn.

I sought out virtual job fairs

My strengths lie in personal interactions. While I felt confident in my ability to learn and grow in tech, coding was still very new to me (I had only been coding for 4 months at the start of my job search) and I was not going to stand out in any technical exam. In fact, I flunked a lot of technical assessments. My strategy was to make as many person-to-person connections as possible so that I had someone on the inside of the company helping move my application forward in the process.

I kept a neutral attitude about the job searching process.

I am not sure how best to describe ‘attitude’ as a strategy but I think it’s a huge component to any successful job search. Neutral, dispassionate, realistic, all these words would work to describe the attitude and demeanor I tried to maintain.

The main takeaway here about attitude: I looked at every new twist and turn in my job search as simply more information to help inform my next moves.

Let’s take an example: a rejection letter. I have a choice on how I can interpret a rejection. Option one is to take the rejection personally: “This means I am unemployable and they’re rejecting me because I don’t have the skills to be in this industry”. Option two is to take in the rejection simply as more information: “Ok, that’s good to know, there’s dozens of reasons why I could have been rejected and I won’t know exactly why (they hired someone internally, for example). If I notice I’m getting rejected consistently from this kind of job I’ll use this feedback to help tailor my next job application.” Choosing option two is much more sustainable for the long haul for me personally.

I applied the same strategy for positive developments too. For example, when I got a request for an interview I would let myself get excited but would keep myself in check — there was just as good of a chance that I don’t get this job as there’s a chance I DO get the job.

No, I’m not perfect. I broke down and cried multiple times from the financial and emotional stress of being a full time job seeker. I froze during technical interviews and panicked. I got frustrated with the bootcamp I just took and wondered if things would be better if they had taught me different skills or gave me more support. When I felt myself start to go down these paths, I took a break, reached out to friends, took care of myself. I reminded myself that this was a part of the process, there’s plenty of jobs out there, I’m employable and people like me, damnit.

Not only was this emotional strategy good for my personal mental health, but it was good for the job search too. By not allowing myself to get emotionally attached to any single outcome during the job-seeking process, I stayed positive and present for interviews and interactions with potential employers. I knew that when I feel desperate, rejected, or not worthy of a job in tech, that ‘vibe’ would be picked up on by the people interviewing me. No one wants to hire that version of me, so staying neutral was key.

Road and forest.

My Application Strategy:

Moving now into the operational side of job seeking, here’s a bit about my daily application process and strategy. I used Teal to keep track of my jobs and Toggl to help me manage my time and see where my time was going. Here’s some other strategies I employed:

• Practice makes perfect. The more jobs I applied to the better I got at writing cover letters and reaching out to recruiters. More interviews leads to more practice at interviewing which will increase my chances of getting hired at the next interview.
• Apply to 2 jobs per week-day. I figured I’d get a response from about 20% of all applications, which means that if I wanted to get two positive responses a week I needed to apply to 10 jobs a week at least to keep momentum up. This math held to be mostly true for me.
• Customize a cover letter for each job. This was painful but necessary. I did use templates I created to help streamline the process. I tried to highlight my ability to learn quickly and my enthusiasm for the company and their product/mission in each letter.
• I saved a copy of the job posting and cover letter for each job. True story: I’ve been called for an interview several weeks after the job posting has been taken down. Not having a reference makes researching the job for the interview super difficult! I make a copy and save every posting for every job I apply to into a google doc and organize it with a folder named after the company and position I applied to.
• I reached out to 2–4 people on LinkedIn for each job I applied to. I kept templates on hand for messages too but customized each message to the company/job/individual. Don’t just connect with someone, send them a message. Immediately after applying for a job, I searched LinkedIn for the company’s recruiters and would message two of them, preferably the technical recruiter if possible. Sometimes if the job is posted on LinkedIn, you can see which recruiter posted the job. I also searched LinkedIn for anyone at the company with a similar title to the job I applied for. I would make these messages more casual, more of a ‘hey, what is it like to work there as an xyz, I just applied and it would be great to learn more.’
• I continued working on my Tech skills. I took Udemy and Datacamp classes while searching for jobs. I found that it was pretty critical to continue to practice coding, especially being new to tech.

Things I’d do differently.

I learned a bit over the course of this process. Here’s some things I’ll do next time:

I now know it’s OK to ask for accommodation or adjustments to timelines for technical assessments. The pressure that I experienced during timed technical assessments was overwhelming and affected my ability to complete them. Someday I’ll write another blog about how the tech industry needs to do better in their assessment and selection methods. I learned there’s no shame in asking upfront for extra time to complete technical exams. “I have test anxiety and would like to request some extra time to complete this if possible.” People are generally understanding and kind and want to see you succeed. As long as your not asking recruiters and hiring managers to bend over backwards it’s ok to ask for more time on technical assessments.

I would also be kinder to myself regarding technical assessments. Doing a timed coding test is not what the job will be like on a day-to-day basis. The technical assessment is not a reflection of my abilities when working with resources and a team and that’s OK.

Finally, I now know when to set my boundaries with recruiters and the hiring process. When a recruiter gives you a technical assessment on a Friday and says turn this in Monday you don’t have to say ‘OK’ and rearrange your life over it. I stressed out more than necessary trying to juggle a part-time job on weekends plus job searching while also saying ‘how high?’ when recruiters told me to jump. I learned that it’s ok to respond to those recruiters and say “I can’t wait to do this, can I get it to you Tuesday? I am working a part-time job on the weekends and won’t be able to have the uninterrupted focus time needed to complete this to the best of my ability.”

Conclusion

In 6 months (4 months in Bootcamp, 2 months job searching) I accomplished what I set out to do: I got a fully remote job in tech at a salary higher than what I was making in my previous career PLUS my earning potential and opportunities have expanded. I hope you found some of this advice useful, feel free to reach out with any questions or connect with me on LinkedIn!