My First Week as a Software Engineer Apprentice
This article is a part of the Tech in Policy publication. TiP focuses on technology being used for good and shines a light on its more malicious or neglectful implementations. To read more, visit this link.
Welcome to the first article of Tech in Policy’s “My First Week” series! If you missed the introduction to this series, feel free to give it a quick read. In each article, one of the TiP writers will dive into, you guessed it, the first week at her post-bootcamp software engineering job. In this article, I’ll cover a bit more ground than just my first week on the job in order to give you a more well-rounded picture of my journey.
(Side note: if you also have a non-traditional tech background and would like to share your experience, submit a pitch here!)
As someone who graduated from a liberal arts school with a double humanities major and exactly zero Computer Science classes under my belt, I know that entering the tech world can be daunting. Our hope is that this series will give a bit of insight into what that process can look like for software engineers who don’t have four-year CS degrees. Maybe you’ve graduated from bootcamp and you’re in the (dreaded) job application stage, struggling to hone your priorities within the search. Maybe you’re weighing whether to spring for a bootcamp or take a stab at the self-taught route. Or maybe you’ve never even heard of coding bootcamp, but your interest is piqued! In any case, it’s important to remember that everyone’s journey is different. When I applied to bootcamp, I had no idea that this is where it would take me. Hopefully getting a glimpse into what the process can look like makes it a little less daunting for you.
My only exposure to programming — before I started thinking seriously about bootcamp — was a semester-long “Intro to Programming” elective course my first year of high school. Unfortunately, the only memory I retained from that class was the day I forgot I was sharing my screen on the projector and got called out for looking at Facebook… cringe. Somehow I managed to move past that traumatic memory — it’s been 10 years now and programming is what I do every day.
I discovered my interest in coding while working at a nonprofit in a totally non-technical role. I started playing around with HTML, CSS, and then JavaScript once I had decided to attend a web development bootcamp.
Bootcamp was an experience unlike any other. It was filled with long days of lectures, workshops and pair programming with the occasional break from my computer screen to eat food or sleep (blue light glasses came in VERY handy). There were many times I felt that I couldn’t keep up, but the support I received from my cohort-mates and program staff gave me the confidence I needed to push ahead. One topic that came up quite often was Imposter Syndrome. Hearing my instructors talk about how they’ve also felt in over their heads at many times throughout their careers made me realize that I wasn’t alone. I found community in the friends I met and we continue to help each other squash any inklings of imposter syndrome that arise, even after bootcamp.
Other than the highly structured learning environment and mutual support that bootcamp offered, the best thing I got out of it was the career guidance. Looking for a job in a field that’s completely unique from any job you’ve ever had is like being on Mars. You don’t understand their communication styles and you have to answer interview questions in a foreign language (in my case, JavaScript). Luckily, my bootcamp’s career success team touched down on Mars in their space shuttle just before I started my job search. They were well-versed in Martian etiquette and worked with me to prepare me for the application stage.
While the job search period was definitely a trying time, I noticed myself getting better at interviewing and starting to understand the process more and more. I spent almost four months applying to jobs and doing part-time work. With each rejection email I read, I tried to convince myself I was getting closer to getting an offer that was right for me. Though the job search can feel hopeless at times, especially as fellow bootcampers start to get offers (which is always extremely exciting but mildly pressure-inducing), I just held onto the fact that bootcamps tend to work.
About two months into the job search, I was reading an email with some job descriptions sent by my career coach and noticed an apprenticeship role. I had been focusing on entry-level software engineering positions and hadn’t spent much time looking into internships or apprenticeships. As much as I had learned throughout bootcamp and beyond, I still felt apprehensive about starting a job as a Level 1 software engineer. Was I really ready for that? As I read on about the apprenticeship, I learned that it highlighted non-traditional tech backgrounds and provided lots of structure, support and collaboration. The things I appreciated and missed most about bootcamp.
The application/interview process included algorithmic problems and a full day of technical and non-technical interviews. As nerve-wracking as that was, I forced myself to feel comfortable solving problems with an interviewer watching me. I found that my interviewers were there to support me and provide help when I asked.
Apprenticeships tend to be unique in how they’re structured, but their purpose is generally shared. They provide a space for software engineers to learn and grow before becoming fully contributing members of teams. During my first week as an apprentice (after onboarding), I was thrown into a solo project with a foreign tech stack. I was told I’d be giving a presentation on the end result of said project to a hundred people from the company at the end of the week. Naturally, I spent the first few days struggling through it, anxiously thinking I was falling behind my peers. It took a while for me to realize that everyone — the other apprentices, our managers, my team and even people from other teams across the company — were consistently willing to help. Another apprentice and I worked together to debug and my team helped me think through the architecture of my app.
It took time (and lots of 1:1s and debugging sessions) for the message to sink in, but I started to understand the value of the apprenticeship. My manager consistently reminds me that I should be spending my time learning by taking risks, because that’s what this time is for. It’s a privilege to have six months devoted to learning by doing — the apprenticeship was definitely the way to go for me. Programs like mine tend to cater towards software engineers with non-traditional tech backgrounds (read: don’t have CS degrees), so they’re a great option if you went to bootcamp or are self-taught.
