The End of Bootcamp
Friday was our final day of in-person Bootcamp. Since we were wrapping things up, we had a soft start of 10am. We had one-on-ones: Ian and Justin meet with us individually to give us feedback on how we did in the course. This was also an opportunity for us to give them feedback on how we think the course could be improved.
After one-on-ones, we did a group retro, talked about next steps (here’s a link to our official next step document), and then went to Breakout Games!
L-R: Nick, Michael, Taylor, Todd, Ethan, Robbie, Justin
L-R: David, Ian, Abram, Will, Sam, Eric, Rachael
Our team consisted of: Nick, Michael, Taylor, Todd, Ethan, myself, and Justin. Our scenario to solve: we were detectives trying to stop the evil syndicate from blowing up the city’s water supply. It was really fun! We managed to escape with 12 minutes to spare, while team 2 took things down to the wire!
That evening we had a graduation party at Newton’s Attic on Versailles Rd. Newton's Attic is an engineering camp for kids, and there was a lot to do: cool robots, VR headsets, a woodworking shop, as well as ping pong, foosball and other games. It was a really fun place to hangout, and a great way to end part 1 of the Bootcamp.
The Job Hunt
Now that we have completed the in-person segment of the Bootcamp, we will be starting part 2: the job hunt. Awesome Inc’s Bootcamp comes with a job guarantee: find a web developer job in 6 months or they will refund your tuition.
In order to maintain good standing for this job guarantee, we have to complete several requirements:
- Apply for at least 1 job per week
- Make 5 relevant GitHub commits each week
- Post at least 1 new blog entry, focused on a technical topic, each month
- Share with Awesome Inc any job offer received
- Be available, if invited, for at least 1 job interview per week
- Be available for at least 1 meeting per week with Awesome Inc career services
Job Hunt Update
I actually began my job hunt back in mid-October, and had applied to 6 jobs by the time the Bootcamp ended. In the past week, I added 6 more to my list of applications, and followed up with 2 other jobs. I interviewed for one position last week, and have another interviewed scheduled for next week. That’s not to imply that things are all sunshine and rainbows — I’ve heard “no” from 5 places, including the one I interviewed for last week.
In addition to applying for jobs last week:
- I started up my old side hustles: digitizing a large collection of 35mm slides (from the 1960’s — very cool to see them come to life) and working as a property manager for some commercial and residential properties in Versailles.
- Created Indeed.com and AngelList accounts, updated my LinkedIn and Resume, and combed the internet for local software developer jobs.
- Create an UpWork account — just in case the job search drags on and I need to try to pick up extra income doing freelance development work.
- Started reading "The Pragmatic Programmer" — a book we talked about in class, and that I am excited to work through.
What's Next?
More job hunting — as well as working to continue to grow as a developer. I’ve been working to put together a 30-60-90 day plan, selecting various technologies that I hope to onboard over the next 3 months.
This plan is mostly hypothetical, as once I find a job, I will place the 30-60-90 day plan on hold to learn their tech stack as thoroughly as possible.
First on my list of things to learns is SASS and jQuery. Of the technologies that the job I am interviewing for next week uses, these are the only two that I am unfamiliar with. I read through some documentation for SASS on Friday, and am working through the jQuery documentation today (Sunday). Though it is doubtful that I will be able to claim proficiency in either technology by Tuesday, it is my hope to develop a basic understanding of both, and to be all the better prepared for the interview.
Although I do hope to land a job as soon as possible, I love teaching myself new things, and creating my 30-60-90 day plan has made me excited for this stage of the process!