Daily Routine:
- 7:00 - Alarm to wake up
- 8:00 - Breakfast has been eaten, fresh cup of coffee in hand.
- 8:00-8:45 - Work on code problems: Exercisms, Code Wars, etc.
- 8:45-9:00 - Read coding-related news via reddit
- 9:00-10:25 - Write and send Cold Outreach messages
- 10:35-12:00 - Research jobs and companies to write Cold Outreach messages to the following day
- 12:00-1:00 - Lunch and walk the dog
- 1:00-4:00 - Project work time: Refactor old school projects, continue building active projects, start new projects (all will be covered in more detailed plans below
- 4:00-5:00 - Flex time
Action Step #1: Establish a shareable calendar (like Google Calendar) and block out time on your calendar now to adhere to these goals. Be prepared to show this calendar to your instructors during your portfolio review.
- Daily Calender on Google
Action Step #2: Backwards plan for your big goal. What is your cut-off for ending the job search? When do you want to receive and sign an offer by?
- I need a job by March 1st at the latest. Ideally, my goal is to have an offer before the Super Bowl, February 4th/
Action Step #3: Based on what you outlined above, create monthly, weekly, and daily goals to reach in order to reach your big goal:
- Send 10 Cold Outreach emails; 2 a day
- Schedule 4 coffees/lunches/interviews
- Apply to 4 new companies
- Have scheduled/gone on at least 3 interviews
- Hard Work + Job = Profit
For time spent coding during your first 30 days post-grad, consider:
- What skills would you like to improve or develop?
- Sharpen my skills working with JavaScript code problems
- Understanding and using React Lifecycle methods
- Are there new languages or technologies you'd like to learn? How and when will you do that?
- Learn Python by building a Reddit-bot with Nick Teets.
- Dig into the D3 library. I have a book on it with tutorials that I will follow.
Action Step: Establish a “daily-practice” repository where you’ll put small daily exercises or work on issues from your own projects that you want to update to keep your skills sharp and your GitHub activity chart active. For your Mod 4 portfolio review, be prepared to describe to your instructors what you plan to work on to sharpen and advance your coding skills for the first 30 days of your job search.
- In the mornings I will be working on practice problems to start my days. I have only done 4 of the JavaScript exercisms. My plan was to complete the entire suite. When that suite is complete, I was going to transitition to Code Wars to continue practicing problems.
- I have reserved the afternoons for project work time. I will be tackling my old projects in the following order: -- SWAPI Box - The app just looks terrible. I will be spending some time at first just updating it's HTML and CSS to make it look more presentable so that I can update my Turing online profolio with a nicer picture of the app. -- Squad Goals - John Michael and I's capstone has room to grow. I will continue to work on its open issues to get the app to a more presentable state so that I can use it as more of a portfolio piece. -- Build a Reddit Bot! - I want to pick up a backend language, and differeniate myself a bit from other Turing Grads so Python seems like a natural choice. Nick Teets and I are going to try to build a Reddit bot in python that does something cool...stay tuned. -- Weatherly - The WeatherUnderground API changed, so the whole app is broken. This particular project has some room for growth based on some unforeseen circumstances that occurred during its final days. I'd like to revisit it and clean it up. A candidate to possibly be hosted on Heroku -- Make a one-page data visualization site, like the Parable of the Polygons using my D3 knowledge. I have been collecting datasets since Turing started and I want to try to visualize one of the in an engaging way using D3 on a single-page site.
As we've discussed, meeting people, forming relationships, and having conversations are the key pieces to getting your foot in the door at any company. It's important to be proactive in your approach to outreach and networking to stay on track during your first 30 days.
Action Step #1: Identify at least 3 individuals from companies you're tracking who could connect with during your first 30 days. Describe why you want to connect with these people and what you hope to talk about, when you will email them by, and what your follow-up will look like once you've met with them.
- Danny Pier from Go Spot Check - He was my brother-in-law's college roommate. I've met up with him twice before and he's been a great resource for me to better understand the development world. Know that I'm a complete developer, I want to have a conversation more geared towards getting a job with him and see what other contacts he has in the industry. Email by end of week.
- Mike Lander from Elevated Third - College friend of mine who is the techincal director at Elevate Third. They do Drupal development. I've had lunch with him once, and messaged a little. He might be hiring come this new year, and if not he has a lot of contacts. Email by end of week.
- MaryJane Vardale at Blinker - I'm really interested in what Blinker does and have had coffee with MaryJane previously. She mentioned that they might be looking to hire a new dev. I just want to loop back with her and check on that status. Email by end of next week.
Action Step #2: Find 3 new meetups or other career networking events to join during your first 30 days post-grad and describe why you'll attend those particular events. How will attending these meetups benefit you in your job search? How can you contribute to the community of these meetups?
- Code For Denver - I wanted to go this meetup earlier, but they onyl meet on Mondays and that was tough for my schedule during Turing. I did TFA out of college and I appreciate Code For Denver's mission. I think I am in a place where I could contribute to many of their projects while making some good contacts.
- ReactJC - I have gone to this meetup a few times, and generally enjoy the topics discussed. They are doing a talk on D3 come next Monday, so I'm pretty excited about that.
- Rocky Mountain Angular - I don't know Angular, but know that it's kind of like React and lots of bigger companies use it. I want to be able to speak to it competantly in an interview, so going to this meetup will help me do that.
Success in the job search means staying organized. The best way to do that is to have a clear system to keep track of your contacts, research, and updates on what you're doing.
Action Step: Show how you've set up jobtrack.io to keep track of all your company/job outreach, who you talked to, what you learned, what next steps you'll take to follow-up, and anything you might do differently next time. Be prepared to describe this system to your instructors during your portfolio review.
During this module, you've had multiple opportunities to practice your technical and cultural interviewing skills. Think about how those experiences have helped you identify strengths and weaknesses in your interviewing skills.
Action Step: Identify 2-3 areas you'd like to continue to improve on for interviewing and outline concrete action steps on how you will improve those skills. If you plan on setting up more mock interviews, identify who you will set those up with and by what date.
- I want to get better at speaking about JavaScript more techincally. I tend to rely on analgoies to understand how things work, and want to make sure I can speak tehcnially as well.
- I want to make flashcards covering the interview prep questions from the last two weeks of school.
Make sure you have all your job search components up-to-date and looking their best!
Action Step #1: Ensure your Turing Portfolio has at least 3 projects displayed, including your latest work, and an accurate list of your desired locations. Be prepared to show this to your instructors during your M4 portfolio review.
Action Step #2: Ensure your LinkedIn is up to date and indicates that you’re job hunting. Indicate here a summary of any adjustments you made and how you'll continue to update it and/or use the site to build your network and online presence.
What other areas would you like to focus on during your job search? Some possible ideas include:
- I would like to do a Hackathon, but haven't been able to find any in the coming weeks. If there is one, I'll definitely do it.
- I am on the lookout for a good open source project to get into. I'm still doing research on which one exactly I will choose, but have access to list of some good ones.
Action Step: Identify one of the areas above or an additional area that you'd like to develop further during your first 30 days post-grad and be prepared to discuss this with your instructors at your portfolio review.
- Open Source project
Accountability is key during a job search and being able to check in with a person whom you trust (or, ideally, more than one person) on your progress will increase your ability to reach your goals in the timeline you've created.
Action Step: Identify 1-2 people you'll check in with during your first 30 days post-grad. Consider how you might continue to utilize your PD Peer Groups. Describe why you will check in with this person, how you will check in with them, what you aim to talk about, and what you hope to get out of these check-ins to benefit your job search.
- My wife is the first person I will check in with. We made the joint decision for me to go back to Turing and she is who I am most accountable to to quickly get a job
- I will checkin with my classmates, too. Robbie Griener, Nick Teets, and John Michael Boudreaux are who I will check in with the most.
While you've made concrete plans for how to achieve your goal, it's also important to take stock of what could hold you back in the job search.
Action Step: Identify 1-2 "barriers" you might put on yourself in this job search as well as the steps you will take to overcome them. Be prepared to describe these in your M4 portfolio review.
- Not going to bed at a reasonable hour. My sleep schedule is not the best, and I'm hoping that it will stabalize when I don't have school projects to work on most nights.
In this section, you'll find action steps that you should aim to complete during your first 30 days post-grad, but these are not steps that you need to have completed for your portfolio review. Instead, you should begin thinking about how you will achieve these steps, and your post-grad job search support coach will ask about progress on these during that first 30 days.
Scheduling Post-Grad Action Step: At the end of each week during your first 30 days, assess what worked with the schedule and what didn't so that you can make adjustments as needed and manage your time even more effectively for the following week. This will also help you keep a record of what you've done in your job search.
Outreach Post-Grad Action Step: During the first 30 days, you should aim to reach out to at least 10 individuals. Even if you don't have a list of all 10 for the draft of this plan for portfolio review, be prepared to meet this target during your first 30 days of the job search.
Job/Company Research & Tracking Post-Grad Action Step: Reach out to and apply to at least 10 companies/jobs.
Housekeeping Post-Grad Action Step #1: During this timeframe, you should establish a “master” resume that you’ll customize per employer. You should already have a working version that you submitted in Module 3.
Housekeeping Post-Grad Action Step #2: Establish a “master” cover letter with your key talking points that you'll customize per employer.
Use this checklist here to make sure you have everything needed in your plan for your portfolio review. Your instructors will also use this checklist during the portfolio review.
- Establish shareable calendar and show to your instructor(s)
- List your cut-off date for having a full-time position
- List monthly, weekly, and daily goals
- List 3 people you will reach out to. Describe to instructor(s) why you'll reach out, when you'll email them by, what you hope to talk about, and what follow-up will look like
- List 3 meetups you'll attend and describe to instructor(s) why you'll attend them
- List the job search tracking system you're using and describe to instructor(s) why you're using it/how it will help you
- List 2-3 areas you'd like to continue to improve on for interviewing and outline concrete action steps on how you will improve those skills to describe to instructor(s)
- Turing portfolio is updated with 3 projects
- List additional area you'll focus on in your job search and describe why to instructor(s)
- List 1-2 people you'll check in with during job search
- List 1-2 "barriers" and describe how you will overcome them to your instructor(s)