How to run a highly effective job search as a developer in Los Angeles, CA

1. Become a Developer:
Running a Highly Effective Job Search
April 2017
http://bit.ly/job-search-la

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About us
We train developers and data
scientists through 1-on-1
mentorship and career prep

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About me
Noel Duarte
Los Angeles Area General Manager
UC Berkeley ’15 — worked primarily with R for
population genetics analysis, at Thinkful since January
2016

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Kevin Witthuhn
Agent, Aquent Creative Staffing Agency
Our guest speaker

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About you
Why are you here?
Do you want to work better with developers?
Do you want to start working in tech?
Are you currently applying to jobs?
Programming/career experience?
First lines of code yet to be written?
Self teaching for 3-6 months?
CS degree, bootcamp grad?

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Overview
Before you apply
Creating opportunities
Interviewing
Evaluating opportunities

7. Before you apply

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Planning + Prioritizing
Location
Industry
Company size
Compensation
Technology
Training
Role

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Materials
Resume/Linkedin/AngelList
Github profile: https://github.com/ripleyaffect
Personal website & portfolio
https://robbykim.github.io/portfolio/ — doesn’t
have to have a wow factor
but if it does, make it clean: equimper.github.io/
thinkful-portfolio/

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Soft assets
Develop your personal story
Catalog your network
Elevator pitch!
How long is too long?

11. Creating opportunities

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Overview
Mindset
Referrals / network / introductions
Applications: Golden tickets
Informational interviews
Attend meetups
Wild card: Recruiter

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Zen and the art of applying to jobs
Craft every application with love

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Zen and the art of applying to jobs
Don’t care at all about any application

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Zen and the art of applying to jobs

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Referrals
The single highest-converting channel
50-80% of jobs are never posted

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Applications: Golden Tickets
Create something that demonstrates your skills and is
applicable to the job
Litmus test: will it make the person reviewing your job
application smile and want to share it with their team?

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Pop quiz
What % of applicants get an interview?

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Pop quiz
What % of applicants get an interview?
Low end: 5-10%
High end: 30-35%

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Informational interviews
For companies you’re particularly excited about, use
informational interviews to move them from cold
application to referral
Reach out by email or LinkedIn to an employee who
works in an area of interest
Ask them about the work there, express genuine
interest, and build a relationship with them
Eventually (typically 1-2 months), you can ask them for
a referral

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Remember that
thing about
cataloging your
network?
Informational interviews

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Put yourself out there
Attend meetups, hackathons, join a coworking space

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Wild card: Recruiter
Tech recruiters serve as your agent
They reach out to companies on your behalf and
arrange interviews
Their business is to find you a job
Overall highly valuable — they have connections and
help keep your expectations real

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How Thinkful alumni find jobs

25. Interviewing

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Most common funnel
Phone screen
Take home tech challenge
In person interview
Some tech (sometimes data structures + algorithms 😱,
usually follow up to take home)
Some personal

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Interview tips
Ask for context before an interview
Discuss your work
Become deep in one set of tools, and conversant in a
broad list
Don’t focus on being new
Practice makes perfect

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Pop quiz
What % of opportunities go from in-person interview to
offer?

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Pop quiz
What % of opportunities go from in-person interview to
offer?
>50%

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Pop quiz
What % of opportunities go from in-person interview to
offer?
>50%, at least for our grads. This also depends on
how competitive the market is overall

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If you failed, why did you fail

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If you failed, why did you fail
Majority of cases: Give up
Minority of cases:
Used ineffective techniques for job search
Didn’t develop skills sufficiently
Positioned self poorly

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Mindset
Put yourself in a position to have a positive mindset:
Continue to line up your next interview until you’ve
signed on the dotted line
Every opportunity is perfect and no opportunity is
perfect

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Q&A with Kevin Witthuhn
Kevin Witthuhn
Agent, Aquent Creative Staffing Agency

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More about us
We teach full-stack JavaScript through 1-on-1 mentorship

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Independently verified results
Job Titles after GraduationMonths until Employed

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Try us out!
Try the program for two
weeks, includes six mentor
sessions - $50
Learn HTML/CSS/JavaScript
Option to continue onto
web development
bootcamp
Come talk to me if you’re
interested (or email me at
noel@thinkful.com)

38. Thank you!
Email me with questions or suggestions:
noel@thinkful.com
April 2017