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?)?
I feel like I've accomplished a lot! My portfolio and network are growing, and I'm starting to get more comfortable with outreaches. I still think outreaches are probably my weak point, but I'm getting better. My big goals before the end of this mod are to polish up my resume and portfolio based on feedback that I've gotten.
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?
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: Mondo Robot's the first one - after my conversation with an alum that used to work there, my interest in agency work has definitely grown. They currently have a listing on Terminal for a front end dev position that I'm a great fit for - same tech stack and values. It wouldn't hurt to brush up on Ruby before I go any further though, as that's another qualification they'd consider a bonus.
Available resources to help you pursue it: 5
Coherence: 4
Confidence level: 4
How excited you are about it? 3
Plan #2: Asana actually speaks to a lot of what I'm looking for, especially in terms of work environment. They have a listing for a product engineer that I'm qualified for. I would need to brush up on TypeScript in order to be really competitive, though. My best bet is to do some cold outreach via LinkedIn, as there aren't any Turing connections there. I could also do some research into where there current engineers were hired from, and start there.
Available resources to help you pursue it: 2
Coherence: 4
Confidence level: 3
How excited you are about it? 4
Plan #3: Shopify stood out for a number of reasons - because there's a current alum that works there, I have an easy way of reaching out and making a connection within the company. The company's based in Europe, but they're working to be completely remote. And, they have a listing that I'm qualified for. My plan's to reach out to Ryan Bahan, who was recently hired there, to see how his experience is. This would be a really exciting opportunity.
Available resources to help you pursue it: 4
Coherence: 4
Confidence level: 4
How excited you are about it? 5
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?
I can start now by reaching out to Ryan at Shopify, and then going from there. I'm drafting the message to him right now.