Post-Graduation Update
Since graduating from Flatiron early February. I’ve been busy working towards finding my new career path. What has been great about the program is that I had an additional month to work on Career Prep. This included being paired with one of their amazing Career Coaches.(Shout out to Megan who is AWESOME!) My Career Coach has been with me every set up the way. I first met with her weekly, and now we meet every other week. We first started out by outline my Career Services journey, then Resume Review, Mock HR Interview, Mock Technical interview, Networking and much more. Since following her guidance, I have feel more confident and less anxious when going into interviews.
After graduating, I was excited and I wanted to jump RIGHT into job search. So, I started applying to positions through LinkedIn and one of my favorite job boards hiretechladies. I was shocked when I received 2 interviews that first week of applying. SHOCKED! (Spoiler alert: the interviews went…terrible) I was underprepared for the questions and nervous. I didn’t know how to explain my process, my accomplishments and so on. So, although I’m sad that I didn’t get the positions I applied for (and slightly embarrassed for my past-self) I’ve kept pushing on. You really have to take every rejection and every opportunity to learn from your mistakes and focus on bettering your weak points. When nerves get the better of you in an interview, it’s like everything you want to say, everything in your head…just disappears.
The first thing I did was search for typical interview questions and made sure that I had a truthful and coherent response for each question. I then worked on making sure I applied for positions that really interest me. If I wasn’t excited for a position, why would be I excited for the interview? My biggest hurdle now, is technical interviews. It’s still something I’m currently struggling with and have been studying for since graduating. Flatiron has a great post-graduation algorithm course that has really helped me understand how to break down those problem and understanding Time/Space Complexities. While doing the course, I have also been working on HackerRank problems. These can be tough! But a lot of companies use them to do their coding test through. If you’re are currently looking into applying for tech jobs, it’s important to be comfortable with this platform and other platforms such as LeetCode.
Technical interviews have been an eye opening experience. I know I can write great programs and applications. I can plan, make action plans and find solutions to problems. But can I do it in under an hour? thirty minutes? It’s definitely challenging when having interviews with companies that you KNOW you would do great at and bring value too. But you also have to show it. So work hard and show it!
It’s been a long process and I’m still in the thick of it. The job search can be tiring, it can really tear you down at points. But what keeps me going is focusing on my goal. I started Flatiron because I believed it was a great start to pursuing a career and Software Engineering. I still do! I’ve been working towards starting a career in Software Engineering for two years. Seeing where I started, to seeing where I am today, gives me a great sense of pride. Through every interview and every rejection, I’m still enjoying the process. I learn something new from each interview and making friends along the way. That’s important too, reach out to your resources, make connections. For me, I’ve always been a big people person. I’ve really enjoyed meeting new people, sharing our journey and seeing them succeed as well.
