How’s my Job Search Going so far
So it’s five months in after graduating from Flatiron School and to be honest with you guys of course…. I haven’t landed a job as of yet, BUT it’s definitely been a learning experience that has been pushing me to keep doing better and keep adjusting to what I can/should do to get noticed in the job market. It feels like a up and down battle on a huge mountain, one moment your applying to jobs and getting immediate responses the whole week or two from all the jobs you applied to; to then having 2 or so weeks of applying and no responses from anyone not even a rejection. Throughout the process though I continued to learn how to learn as Flatiron says and learn different things from networking with different people and learned new ways of going about my job search.
One of the best things I can say that has helped me progress and keep my head up is learning how to learn from other people and continue to work on my skills. I’m dying to get my foot in the door of becoming a Software Engineer but I know its all progress, as long as I keep owning my skills and getting better at what I enjoy doing I know eventually i’ll get with an employer that likes what I’m doing. I’ve met so many people over the past couple of months, whether it’s small conversation on LinkedIn, talking to the IT crew in my recent job for the mean time (UFT), talking to old classmates that are actually working as Software Engineers or in Cyber Security and even random gaming events that I have attended that had like minded people that actually work in the field as well. It’s actually surprising how easily you can bump into someone that is in the same field or revolving around the tech field that can help you with a tad bit of information that can help you towards your job search.
Just like I said before though it’s great that i’ve met and networked with so many different people these couple months but I’m still struggling with a couple of things I continue to adjust. For example at times I feel like maybe I’m doing too many different things at one time or maybe not doing enough of something that can actually help me more. Like at the moment I’m trying to learn Java as I noticed alot of jobs as of recent have been asking for developers to have some experience in Java, at the same time I’m trying to master the most I can in React/Javascript to continue in Frontend Projects I come across. Besides struggling on knowing on what I should be working on more, I still have a bit of trouble with the coding portion of interviews 🥲. I’m honestly great at the talking portion of interviews, I know I carry myself well and I’m able to keep a conversation going, but the coding portion of an interview always has me choking up as if i’m taking a test and I feel like that is my greatest downfall. For the most part i’d know what i’m working on or i’m completely blindsided by something I’ve never encountered or would forget how to go about an algorithm. The one thing I can say really helped me somewhat get over the fear of coding interviews is the book “Cracking the Coding Interview” by Gayle Laakmann McDowell.
Regardless of the struggles I continue to go through I’m glad I keep my head high and stay determined to land a job in the field. I know i’m not working for nothing so eventually i’ll reach the top of that mountain and conquer that coding flag I see at the top (Yes I picture a digitalized NFT kinda flag on that mountain lol). If your reading this and your going through the same struggle I would say keep yourself motivated at all times, try catching yourself when your feeling like an imposter and tell yourself you learned all of this for a reason. Just gotta keep going up 😁.
