While it’s vital to learn how to code if you want to be a software developer, finding your first job can be a challenge. Over the years, we’ve identified processes and behaviors that tend to make the difference between a graduate being successful or not. To this end, alongside the coding curriculum you’ll be going through during the program, there is also a career services curriculum. The same expectations and deadlines will apply to both types of assignments.
Your advisor will send out an email with the specific dates when different pieces of the career services curriculum will occur, but here is a broad overview of what you can expect.
Week 3: LinkedIn Profile At the end of Week 3, you will have time in class to create or update your LinkedIn profile to set you up for success in the tech industry.
Weeks 4-6: LinkedIn Profile Reviews During Weeks 4-6, you’ll meet with your cohort’s advisor to go over your LinkedIn profile.
Week 8: Resume and Cover Letter Day in Class You will have a day of in-class time this week dedicated to writing a cover letter and resume, cleaning up your GitHub portfolio, and practicing interview questions.
During this week, your advisor will also go over what to expect in the coming weeks in regards to internships.
Weeks 9-10: Resume and Cover Letter Reviews Much like your LinkedIn profile, your advisor will meet with you to go over your resume and cover letter.
Weeks 13-15: Mock Interview Sometime during this period, you will be scheduled for your first mock interview. This will include both technical and non-technical questions, and will be a great opportunity to sharpen your interview skills before your internship interviews with actual companies.
Week 15: Job Board Profiles At the end of Week 15 you will have time in class to create profiles on Indeed as well as our internal job board.
Week 16-18: Second Mock Interview During these weeks, there will be a second round of mock interviews to help everyone get ready for internships and their job hunt.
Week 16: Job Applications This will be the first week where you will have time to apply for jobs in class. You will write a cover letter and customize your resume for a job posting. Your advisor will be available to help you send out the best possible material!
Your advisor will meet with you this week or next for a second mock interview to hone your non-technical interviewing skills.
Week 16: Technical Interviews This week, you will get the chance to practice a technical whiteboard interview with your peers. Students will do technical whiteboard interviews in groups of four. One person will be interviewed at a time while the other students act as interviewers.
Week 17:Job Applications Continued Now that you will have had some practice, applying for jobs should come a little bit easier. Again, you’ll have time in class on Thursday to apply for jobs. By the end of the day, you will submit two job applications.
Week 18: Job Applications Continued Much like Week 17, you will apply for two jobs this week.
Week 19: Job Applications and Internship Rankings As the schedule for this week is a little bit lighter, you will be asked to apply for one job each day of class. You will also be prompted via email to rank your order of preference for internship interviews.
Week 20: Interview Assignments Monday of this week, you will receive a list of companies who you are going to be interviewing with for internships. In lieu of applying for jobs, you will write cover letters and send them out along with a resume, your LinkedIn profile, your Github profile, and your school transcript.
Week 22: Job Search Bootcamp We find that graduates having a schedule they keep to makes a significant difference for job seeking success! To help get you off on the right foot, if you don’t have a job lined up after graduation, you will be expected to come in for a job search bootcamp. We’ll use this time to hone your application skills and make sure you’ve got time set aside to keep coding, whether it’s to explore new projects or to build on existing ones.
You’ll continue to receive job searching support for up to a year after graduation. We look forward to helping your successful entry into the tech industry!