Module 2 Week 3

Overview

This week’s lesson, Job Search Strategies, focuses on starting to navigate the job search and begin the stages of developing a strategy behind your job search. Please watch the videos below, read through the lesson plan, and complete the following check for understanding activities.

Learning Goals:

  • Devise a step-by-step strategy for a job application including self-reflection, research, outreach, and follow-up
  • Create and effectively use a job search tracker for your job search with Huntr
  • Understand resources available to you to support your job search process

After you complete this lesson, you’ll synthesize your learning in this Exit Ticket.

Week 3 Lesson - Job Search Strategies

Prior to Lesson: Please be sure to have completed all previous lesson plans for Module 2 before completing this lesson.

Please allow yourself 30-40 minutes to complete this lesson plan.

Section 1: Introduction

The job search process can be very overwhelming. There are multiple different steps to take and a plethora of resources available to help. This lesson will be focused on breaking down the resources that you have available to help streamline your job search.

Our agenda will be focused on:

  • Understanding the application process
  • Creating new strategies
  • Structuring your job search
  • Utilizing tools and resources

Our outcomes and objectives will be:

  • Devise a step-by-step strategy for a job application including: self-reflection, research, outreach, and follow-up
  • Create and effectively use a job search tracker for your job search with Huntr
  • Understand resources available to you to support your job search process

Section 2: The Application Process

What does looking for a job look like? When looking at an application alone we have broken the process down into five categories.

Find a job opportunity

Conduct Research

  • Go to the company’s site and find out about their mission, product, customer base, blog posts.
  • Look at their Glassdoor reviews or the LinkedIn pages of other developers on the team
  • Conduct a Google search on articles or other information about the company
  • If the company has any open source projects on GitHub, check them out

Do some cold outreach to someone at the company

  • Who do you reach out to?
    • Developers: Both juniors and seniors will be helpful to talk to and find out information about the company, what it’s like to work there, and what to expect in the interview process
    • Recruiters are always a great starting point for connection and information
  • Ask questions! Gather information to use in your cover letter and resume

Complete the Application

  • Customize your resume and cover letter for the position based on your research
  • Mention the contact you met (be sure to ask your contact if you can mention them)

Go back to your contact/the company

  • Let them know you’ve applied, get some eyes on your application!

Now, keep in mind that all of these categories can take place at different times in the process because not every company operates on similar timelines. You may have been in a networking conversation and never submitted any documents at all, or the opportunity may have found you and you had to do the research after. Just know that if you continue to work on all of these steps you will have a better chance of success.

Articles from the slides:

Section 3: Creating a strategy

Finding a job is easier when you have some directions. Compiling a list of some of your interests, strengths, and weaknesses is a great way of informing your direction as it relates to your job search. We have 3 different methods for you to pic from to start this process

#1 The Career Roadmap

Worksheet

This document prompts you to examine your background, your current Turing experience, and your interests via prompting questions. It is designed to help you reflect on what you do/don’t like, create starting points based on your interests, and map out where to start as you discover opportunities, industries, or people to connect with.

#2 Flower Exercise

This activity is adapted from the job search guidebook What Color is Your Parachute?.

Worksheet #1

Worksheet #2

The Flower Exercise is designed to help you move through 3 stages:

  • The brain dump stage to organize your thoughts using these worksheets
  • The synthesis stage to summarize the findings in your brain dump
  • The prioritization stage to narrow down what’s most important to you from your synthesis. That’s why you have a single piece of paper – you need to narrow down your highest priorities to fit onto your Flower worksheet.

This is broken down on these worksheets via seven “petals” that navigate through different categories such as: people, skills, culture, etc.

#3 A DTR or map of your own

Using a combination of these exercises and/or others you may know, create a map of your own. Do you already know what industry you are targeting? Is there a company you have in mind? Are you looking for a specific codebase or work culture? Keep track of this and pay attention to how it changes. Having some guiding points for the job search process keeps you more engaged and that shows through in your interviews and networking conversations.

The first step to a successful job search is to utilize a tracking system. Having a system to keep track of everything from companies you’re interested in to notes from coffee meetings will be highly beneficial in staying organized in the job search. As a resource to you Turing offers Huntr as a tool for you to manage this process.

Huntr works similarly to Trello. You can create cards for specific companies and then move them to the different lists as you complete specific steps (applied, interview, offer, etc.).

Start by reading through this guide to using Huntr here. Install the Chrome extension to add a job posting right from its source. Start customizing your board!

Section 5: Utilizing tools and Resources

The information from this video can be found on our career development resources page here.

Bookmark the tools of interest to you so you will have them to come back to later in Mods 3 and 4

Remember, there are A LOT of resources available online for job search. We recommend sticking to a few that you like to ensure that you are not overwhelming yourself (and your inbox) with everything that is available.

Check for Understanding

  1. Complete this exit ticket. Completion of this exit ticket is required for your professional development this module.

  2. Pick a strategy! Whether you are going to use the flower exercise, a career roadmap, or a DTR of your own start to refine your starting points. Spend 15-20 minutes on this and keep the documents on hand to turn back to later and refine.

  3. Spend 5-10 minutes logging in, setting up your board on Huntr Read through the guides here to explore the platform.

  4. Spend 5-10 minutes exploring the resources listed in the session. Which ones do you like and why?

Due Dates & Reminders

  • Complete the exit ticket for today’s lesson by EOD Friday of Week 3.
  • Update your resume draft with any feedback you’ve received so that it’s ready for final submission at the end of the module.
  • Complete 1 networking activity from Week 2’s lesson