Taking stock of where you are: what have you accomplished this module? What have you learned? Where are you stuck (have you not been able to follow through on outreach? Is your resume not finished?)?
Although I feel "behind" on PD, I am proud of creating a resume and cover letter. It's really starting to set in now that we have the ability to work a job in this industry. Although all of my journals are up to date, I feel I haven't done any company research in a while. I think that I've been really focused on passing this mod (the last couple were really intense at the end), and that has led me to "half-ass" my PD. I'd really like to take the two weeks we have off between this semester and next, to really start churning out applications.
Create plans for 3 different companies you want to target:
Questions to reflect on here: Why do you like this company? What makes you want to work there? Why are you a good fit for this company? What do you bring to the company? What transferable skills do you have? What do you already know about the company (product, team, culture, company size, location, etc.)? What do you need to learn?
uplight
I originally heard about uplight through a peer. This is a company that provides customer-centric technology dedicated solely to serving the energy ecosystem. When I first started looking at jobs back in mod 1, I wanted to find a company that's product was bettering the enviroment. I didn't realize that there aren't too many tech jobs for conservation, so when I found uplight, I immediately put it on my job board.
Pocket Outdoor Media
This company is focused on creating fitness platforms for user interaction. Fitness has always been important to me, and I would like to see myself grow in a company that shares those values. For this company, I need to do some more research about their team/culture.
BombBomb
Another company I have been looking into was BombBomb. While I couldn't find as much about their product yet, thir culture seems to be one that fosters inclusivity in a fun work enviroment. I figured that along with kpbs that pay well, I should also keep my eye out for onse that bolster a positive work enviroment.
Steps to take: Outreach: look at the company’s LinkedIn page: who could you reach out to? What questions do you want to ask that person? Experience: once you’ve made a connection at the company, how could you find out more? Consider setting up a job shadow or exploring their tech stack in your projects Read back over the plan. How does it reflect your vision? Imagine that you get the job. A year later, what have you gained from this experience? How have you started to fulfill your vision?
Plan #1: uplight Upon researching uplight, I found that they have serveral Turing alum already working for them. I would like to reach out to one of these individuals to discuss their company's culture and product, to see if they match my own. After gaining a bit more information, I would like to ask one of possible connections for a job shadow, and perhaps do some research on the technologies they use. This vision I have for working at uplight is; I want to work at a company that builds technology that aids in the conservation of the planet, and develops applications to improve the health of our enviroment. I can see myself in a year or two, working for a company that I'm proud to work for. I think that uplight could be a company like this.
Plan #2: Pocket Outdoor Media For outreach to Pocket Outdoor Media, I found a few viable candidates. Daniel Shin, one of their software engineers, seemed to be a possible connection to start with, as I already havea. few connections with them, and they seem to be in a role that would have the most insight if/when I apply there. As I don't have as close of a connection to some other prospective jobs, I think this is a company that I might want to try to make two or three connections with first. As mentioned above, Pocket Outdoor Media seems to be a fun and diverse environment. If I were to work here, this would fit my vision of working for a company that invests in their employees, and produces some cool applications along the way.
Plan #3: BombBomb When I searched BombBomb I didn't find too many points that seemed easy to gain contact through. Probably the best person I found to open up a connection with was Brenna Flinton, a UX designer for BombBomb. Perhaps this will be a person that can open up a few more doors upon outreach. Out of the companies listed here, I know the least about this one. I think after outreach, I should look a bit more into what this company does, and what their values are. They seem to have an energetic work environment. This is a company I feel I could really enjoy working for.
Make it actionable: rank each plan on a scale of 1-5 for how much your plan aligns with the following: Available resources to help you pursue it: contacts, time, knowledge of the company, etc. Coherence: how it aligns with your career vision Confidence level: how feasible does this feel to you? How excited you are about it? Now, pick the plan with the highest numbers across the board. What steps will you take next to pursue this strategy as you go into the next module?
| company | uplight | BombBomb | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resources | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| Coherence | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| Confidence | 3 | 4 | 3 |
| Excitement | 4 | 4 | 2 |
I think the next step to persue this strategy is doing an outreach, as mentioned in plan #1. I think I'm still a little nervous about this step, but after I start doing more outreach, I think this will become easier.
Start your outreach with people that are easy to connect with. A lot of times that is Turing alumni!