How to Succeed After Coding Bootcamp 🥳

Congratulations! You’ve just graduated bootcamp… what do you do now?

Photo by Jonathan Daniels on Unsplash

If you’re reading this and you’ve recently graduated from a coding bootcamp — congratulations! 🎊 🎊 It’s a big achievement and you’re now past the hard part… or so you thought.

As anxiety-inducing as bootcamp was, life after bootcamp can feel just as uncertain and overwhelming. Up until now you’ve been in the rigorous and structured environment of your bootcamp but now you’re in the real world where everything is up to you. What do you do now? 🤔

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In this post, I’ve put together some tips that I’ve found helpful for survival after bootcamp.

Tip #1: Organize Your Time ⏰

After graduation, it’s up to you to create structure for yourself and juggle a laundry list of things at once: maintaining technical skills, building new projects, applying for jobs, networking — the list goes on and on.

What I’ve found helpful is to organize my tasks into time-blocks. Here’s an example:

6:30 to 8 am: Study data structures and algorithms for technical interviews.

8 to 9 am: Research, apply to, and follow-up with companies/recruiters.

1 to 2 pm (my work break): Work on a technical blog.

5 to 6:30 pm (after work): Coding practice.

While time-blocks work for me, they may not work for everybody. A good alternative method is to list out your daily objectives and prioritize based on importance. Some people find this preferable because it gives you more flexibility with your schedule.

What’s important here is that you create a routine for yourself; a routine that will ultimately bring you success in the form of job offers (or by your own metric of success). Whatever your goal may be, consistency is key. 🔑

Tip #2: Network and Attend Meetups 🙌

Networking. Ugh. The word itself gives me anxiety and makes me feel uncomfortable. But it’s important. Making connections and having them introduce you to someone at their company and vouch for you is one of the best ways to land your first tech job.

There are many ways and places to network:

1. LinkedIn 🤝
2. Twitter 🐦
3. Meetups in your area 👋
4. Join a community ✌️

If you’re networking online, make sure your profile looks clean and professional! This helps boost your credibility. On LinkedIn, a good goal is to achieve “All-Star” status to stand out to recruiters. More on that here.

Another pro tip: be authentic!

You have value to share, whether you know it or not. Your experiences matter and can be used to help others. Share your experiences and aim to help others — the connections will come. Be confident! 🙌

Tip #3: Code! 💻

Don’t let your coding skills atrophy.

Participate in hackathons, build a project on your own time, it doesn’t matter what it is—code! With every line of code you’re developing your coding skills and practical experience.

Schedule time to learn and master new topics, then build projects using the new topics you’ve learned to deepen your mastery. Don’t forget to push your projects to your GitHub so potential employers can see your work and dedication.

If you’re having trouble coming up with project ideas, you can always find code-alongs on YouTube or on blogs. There are many resources out there! I’ll drop some links in the “Resources” section at the very end. 👇

Tip #4: Create Technical Blogs ✍️

I have a confession to make. When I was a bootcamp student at Flatiron School, we were required to write blogs and I genuinely believed they were a waste of time. Well, some time has passed and my attitude towards blogging has completely changed.

Here are some benefits of blogging:

• Makes you searchable to recruiters (try Googling your name + “software engineer” and see what pops up). 🔎
• Increases your credibility as you continue to produce quality blogs. 📈
• Deepens your mastery of the blog topic. 💪
• Enhances your communication skills. 🗣
• Adds knowledge and value to the wider tech community. ✨

I want to elaborate on this because I think it’s important: exhibiting good communication skills show companies that you’re able to explain complex concepts in a way that’s impactful to both business and engineering decision makers. It’s a valuable and an often underrated skill.

Don’t think you have the technical expertise to blog? Think of blogging as research. You’re documenting something you’ve learned and sharing it with the tech community. Someone is bound to find it helpful.

Last note about technical blogs: they don’t have to be perfect.

I’ve seen some amazing blogs out there and they should be celebrated (check out Waverley Leung and Ayushi Rawat for some excellent blogs!) however, it can often be difficult to get started for many reasons.

I’ll give you an example. My main anxiety about writing blog posts was fear over how I would be perceived by others. Would people think I’m unintelligent? This caused me a lot of stress and made me feel like my blogs needed to be perfect.

Now, I’m okay with creating blogs and content that are less-than-perfect. I’ll get better as I go!

Tip #5: Self-Care 😍

The job search phase and the preparation that goes into it can be brutal. Algorithm practice, rejections from companies, all while balancing the rest of your life — it’s a grind. While job prep is important, your self-care should be prioritized too.

How you self-care is up to you. During my highest peaks of anxiety and burn out, I’ve stepped away from coding and job prep for a couple of days at a time. I’ve gone on weekend trips with my fiancée, taken walks, talked to my support circle — whatever it took to get back into the right head and emotional spaces.

Self-care is often pushed down in favor of pushing through but I’ve noticed that this often leads to detrimental effects. Take self-care seriously!

Recap 📓

Here’s a quick recap of my post-bootcamp tips ✅:

• Structure your time ⏰
• Find and contribute to communities 👋
• Keep your coding skills fresh and continue building projects ⌨️
• Share what you’ve learned through technical blogs ✍️
• Take care of your mental and emotional well-being! ✨

And finally:

• Focus on work, not results — the results will come! 📈

Resources:

Communities to join:
YearOne (Free for bootcamp grads as of the time this blog was published!)
Twitter

Code-alongs:
JavaScript 30 Projects in 30 Days

LinkedIn:
All-Star LinkedIn Profile

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