After a brief career in publicity, I decided to make the switch into engineering. I enrolled in a bootcamp—knowing full well the laudations and condemnations of the bootcamp model—and graduated in November.
This maybe isn't the place for a full postmortem; suffice it to say that I came out of the program confident in my own enthusiasm for programming, and less confident in how hiring companies may interpret the presence of a bootcamp on my resumé.
In the months since, every day, I have:
—Applied to two jobs here in NY, taking my time with cover letters, following up where appropriate, researching the companies, etc. These are overwhelmingly junior front-end or full stack positions.
—Studied compsci and new technologies so I'm a stronger candidate
—Practiced whiteboarding-style questions so that I'm prepared for interviews
—Freelanced so that I can pay rent and continue surviving
—In my spare time, worked on solo projects
I have gotten very little traction. I receive form rejections in response to almost every application. I've gotten far along in the process at a few places, but repeatedly hear some version of "You seem great...for a junior! Be in touch when you're mid-level." It feels like, as months go by and the hole on my resumé grows, my chances are only worsening.
I get it. I'm an unknown quantity, and the bootcamp on my resumé isn't a strong guarantor of quality. Still, I feel like I'm scrabbling for purchase. I had entertained fantasies of someday moving into games/simulation space, and that feels further and further away.
How do I get out of this hole? Do I drop the immense time suck of actively looking for work, live off my meager freelance work, and put my time into a project that makes employers take me a little more serious? Do I keep throwing good time after bad, keep my head down, keep applying to junior positions, and not ask any more questions? Do I need to go back to school?
This maybe isn't the place for a full postmortem; suffice it to say that I came out of the program confident in my own enthusiasm for programming, and less confident in how hiring companies may interpret the presence of a bootcamp on my resumé.
In the months since, every day, I have: —Applied to two jobs here in NY, taking my time with cover letters, following up where appropriate, researching the companies, etc. These are overwhelmingly junior front-end or full stack positions. —Studied compsci and new technologies so I'm a stronger candidate —Practiced whiteboarding-style questions so that I'm prepared for interviews —Freelanced so that I can pay rent and continue surviving —In my spare time, worked on solo projects
I have gotten very little traction. I receive form rejections in response to almost every application. I've gotten far along in the process at a few places, but repeatedly hear some version of "You seem great...for a junior! Be in touch when you're mid-level." It feels like, as months go by and the hole on my resumé grows, my chances are only worsening.
I get it. I'm an unknown quantity, and the bootcamp on my resumé isn't a strong guarantor of quality. Still, I feel like I'm scrabbling for purchase. I had entertained fantasies of someday moving into games/simulation space, and that feels further and further away.
How do I get out of this hole? Do I drop the immense time suck of actively looking for work, live off my meager freelance work, and put my time into a project that makes employers take me a little more serious? Do I keep throwing good time after bad, keep my head down, keep applying to junior positions, and not ask any more questions? Do I need to go back to school?