100 Days Post Graduation of a Software Engineering Bootcamp
So far in my posts I have highlighted various languages, libraries and technologies that I have been learning since I graduated from Flatiron School’s Software Engineering bootcamp. Today, though, I want to focus on the overall picture of life after graduation, because the momentum really does build if you put in the work and have the right mindset. But it is a process.
The job search has been a rollercoaster for me. The first couple weeks after graduation I was filled with energy and excitement for my new career, expecting to get a job fairly quickly with my new skills. But as time went on and I continued to be jobless, it got much darker. I was applying for a ton of positions that I thought I’d be qualified for and that interested me, but that only led to a ton of rejection emails. It was hard to stay focused on the end goal when I was constantly bombarded with literal messages saying I wasn’t good enough.
Even the job interviews I did get, which were few, felt awkward and imposter-syndrome really set in for me. Not to mention, the take home challenges that focused on algorithms were completely foreign to me and I was unable to complete a lot of them. I realized what I had learned in school was not exactly what took place in interviews to get me a job and that was frustrating.
After graduation, I also lost the structure and format of school. It felt like I was thrown into the deep end and was expected to figure out a path for myself. That feeling overwhelmed me. There were so many options of things to learn that I found myself not being able to focus on any of them because it was unclear what would be most helpful. I wanted some to tell me: “learn Python” or “focus on SQL” so I had a clear path ahead. But that didn’t happen.
This went on for about 2 months and I began to wonder if becoming a Software Engineer was evening going to happen for me. I watched as classmates of mine starting getting jobs and I seemed so far behind them in the process. There were definitely days where I felt like giving up was the best solution.
But it wasn’t.
I had worked so hard to get where I was and there was no turning back now. So, little by little, I began to take steps forward. I chose one topic and began learning it. I joined an algorithm club on Slack to practice solving problems for interviews. That club gave me a community of people who were all going through the same process. We could talk about engineering, curse the job rejections, discuss approaches to algorithms and be supportive of each other because we were all in similar situations.
That community of people changed the game for me. I became more interested in learning new things because I had people to do it with. My network began to grow as I was introduced to other people. I joined my first Hackathon with people I met in the club. I had friends I could ask for help when I was stuck on a project or assessment. And slowly, I felt the momentum building. The interviews and assessments started trickling in and I was much more comfortable going through them. Some of the assessments were even strictly what I had learned in school!
I am currently still job searching, but I’m in a much better place mentally and feel more motivated to persevere. I say all of this to encourage anyone looking for their first job in tech or feeling frustrated with the job search. Don’t give up. There will be highs and lows, but through it all you will be growing and learning and getting closer to your end goal. I’m not there yet, but I know it will happen so I keep going forward!
