job-search-plan.md

Post-Grad Job Search Action Plan

Some things to consider:

1. What do you envision for your career?

• Working my way into a senior dev position in 5+ years and then into a larger PM role in 5-10 years.

2. What do you want your 2nd and 3rd jobs to look like?

• Intermediate dev hire. I want to have my feet firmly under me. Nice pay raise!

3. How do you want to be involved with the Turing community? The greater developer community?

• I plan on being a fixture in the tech community through writing and speaking at events. I would love to be a mentor or fellow at Turing to continue to give back directly to the community that gave me so much.

4. Where do your passions lie?

• Creative pursuits, and helping people realize thier potential.

#1: Job Search Plan: Create a schedule & goals

1. Design a 40-hour "work week" that provides time for:

   • Code (ideally, 2-4 hours a day will be dedicated to coding)
   • Outreach
   • Research
   • Network
   • Any other areas where you'd like to grow How much time will you spend on each? When will you do each thing? Code: 2 Hours in Morning / 2 Hours after lunch each Day Outreach: 1 hour each day - 30 minutes to send initial emails in the morning, then at least 30-60 minutes responding in the afternoon. Research: 2 hours each day - 1 in the morning, 1 in the afternoon. Networking: 1-2 event/activities per week + 1 blog post bi-weekly

2. Backwards planning: What is your cut-off for ending the job search? When do you want to receive and sign an offer by? November 15th

3. Based on what you outlined above, create monthly, weekly, and daily goals in order to reach your big goal. Weekly: See above Monthly: Attend at least 2-3 meetups and speak at at least one of them. Work through the frontend program curriculum. Work through exercisms and code wars.

4. Block out time on your calendar now to adhere to these goals. At the end of each week, 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. Done.

5. What "barriers" tend to hold you back in the job search? What steps will you take to overcome those "barriers"? Cold Outreach and Networking on oneside then having to throw my resumé into the anonymous pile on the other hand. Practicing and 'just doing' the first will help me with the second.

#2: Longterm Career Plan: What are your career goals?

Where do you want to go in your career?

1. Imagine that it's 5 years from now - what have you accomplished during that time? How is your life different? What steps did you take to achieve your goals? I want to be speaking at tech conferences and developing new tools/languages/systems that are used broadly by the community. I would like to be working on an app/at a company that has a broad user base where we are having a positive influence on their lives. I would like to be helping lead a team of dedicated people.

Key to this goal is participating in Open Source, reaching for the stretch goals along the way and keeping focus on what those are so as not to get distracted by what is available and easy.

2. Create a vision statement for these longterm goals.

See above.

3. Reference what you outlined in your Flower Exercise -- what preferred level of responsibility do you want to move to? Do you want to start your own company? What kind of work do you see yourself doing longterm? In your first year on the job, what skills do you want to develop to work towards your longterm goals? I will be achieving a high level of responsibility in whatever I am doing 5 years from now. It could be owning my own company again or working for a company that I am an influencial part of. The work I will be doing will be technically challenging and meaningful to its target audience.