kittee
commented
10 years ago Hey there Alex,
I'll be as candid and honest about the process as possible, because I think that will be the most helpful to you.
Before Omaha Code School, I was an administrative/marketing assistant, and it wasn't the career path I wanted to head down. I had gone to college to learn to be a graphic designer, and while I was getting to do some graphic design in my marketing duties, it was a lot of administrative work (coordinating schedules, contacting businesses and clients through phone and email, organizing files, etc.), and I wasn't feeling fulfilled. I was applying to graphic design positions, but jobs for just print graphic design are relatively scarce in the Omaha area. I knew some HTML and CSS, but not enough to pursue a career in web design.
When I heard about Omaha Code School, I became really excited about changing career directions to do web development. I was a little jaded about the graphic design field, and in the beginning I thought I would have to drop graphic design entirely and do web development instead, but I was encouraged by the prospect of becoming a front-end developer. Front-end developers handle primarily the look of the site, while back-end developers handle primarily the functionality. I felt as if my dream job would be as a front-end developer who also still got to do graphic design. (For the record, OCS trains you to be full-stack, meaning both front-end and back-end, and some students decide to focus in one or the other in the later portion of the 12 weeks and after graduation.)
Glossing over the OCS experience itself (which was awesome, but I'm trying to focus on job hunting), I started applying to jobs maybe about 2 weeks before Omaha Code School was over. I was in the first round of OCS, so this was around early/mid May. Compared to when I was job hunting for graphic design positions and would apply to a job maybe once a week if I was lucky, I was applying to at least one web development job every day or every other day, and only that few because I was being picky. There are tons of web development opportunities out there. I was also surprised by the volume of jobs contacting me for an interview. I was hearing back from at least half of the places I applied to (as opposed to maybe a tenth or a fifth of graphic design jobs I applied to, because there are SO MANY graphic designers and not enough jobs in the Omaha area).
I noticed that the students who had prior experience were finding jobs faster than the ones who had zero experience. Andy was a computer science major with a background in IT, and he was probably only taking the class because he didn't know Ruby, and he was the first to find a job. Michael already knew some front-end, and he also found a job very soon after. Kait was a front-end designer who wanted to add back end to her skill set, and her husband Matt was really into building and programming electronics, and they found jobs very soon afterwards.
Johnathon and I both accepted internships at Ervin & Smith in early June. My first day was Monday, June 16th, and his was a little later that week, so I think a month of downtime between school and starting a job is pretty good. I was hoping the internship would turn into a full-time opportunity, but it didn't, and it ended on Friday, September 19th.
I started applying for jobs about two weeks before that internship ended, and I had a lot of exciting prospects for jobs, in even greater volume than when I had just graduated. I accepted a job at NorthStar as a junior web designer around September 24th I think, and I started on Monday, October 6th.
So far this job at NorthStar is exactly my dream job. I'm getting to code websites and design things, too, and I couldn't be happier.
I know that's a lot, so here's a quick timeline, all during 2014:
February 24th - Omaha Code School starts Early/Mid May - Started applying for jobs May 16th - Omaha Code School ends Late May - Omaha Code School job fair Early June - Accepted Ervin & Smith internship June 16th - Ervin & Smith internship starts Early/Mid September - Started applying for jobs September 19th - Ervin & Smith internship ends September 24th - Accepted junior web designer position at NorthStar October 6th - NorthStar job starts
Now, here's some nitty-gritty things and some advice that you should know going into this.
Omaha Is Super .Net/Java
The back-end language you are learning is Ruby. There are significantly more .Net/Java jobs in Omaha than Ruby jobs; it's kind of ridiculous. Luckily, once you've learned one coding language, it's pretty easy to learn another. I personally did not want to go down that path, so I can't attest to how difficult it was. I wanted to get a front-end job where I primarily needed to know HTML, CSS, and Javascript. You learn those languages during OCS, too.
The World Is Super Wordpress
About 20-25% of sites are made in Wordpress. Ervin & Smith's site is Wordpress, and I'm coding more Wordpress sites at my current job. However, Wordpress is mainly for brochure sites, NOT applications. Back-end development is still extremely important. Flywheel hosts Wordpress sites, but their application to do all that magic is in Ruby.
Anyway, it's not mandatory to know how to make a Wordpress site, but there may come a time where you should at least be familiar with it.
The Job Fair Is Super Helpful
The employers at the job fair are people who want people like you, even if you don't have a lot of experience yet. This is where you're most likely to find the jobs that want Ruby developers, too, as opposed to .Net and Java.
Also, at the time of my graduation, the Omaha community was still kind of wary of OCS and didn't know what to expect out of the graduate's skills, so the employers at the job fair are the ones that have the most faith in the program.
Prior Experience Is Going to Give You an Advantage
Like I said earlier, the students who had prior experience in this industry found jobs the fastest. But as far as I know, all thirteen alumni of the inaugural class have found jobs in their desired fields.
Network, Network, Network
Knowing people in the industry has helped me a LOT. When I found a lot of exciting prospects all at once in September, it was because I had other developer friends offering me a chance to apply for their work place.
- Go to the Omaha Ruby Meetup.
- Go to Nebraska JS.
- Go to Beer && Code.
- Go to Barcamp once a year.
- Go to coffee shops that have a coworking day and meet other developers who normally work from home but are escaping their house for a day or else they'll go crazy.
- Go to other stuff you find interesting.
Do all these things and make friends.
Apply for Jobs on These Sites
I had the most success with:
SPN is especially great for jobs in this industry and jobs you might not normally hear about from other job boards.
This got SUPER LONG but I think I'm finally done and I hope you find it helpful.
halfghaninne
Hi, Code School alumni!
My name is Alex. I am in the process of applying for OCS's next class and am curious to know more about where you all found positions after graduating. Sumeet referred me to this group as a means of contacting you all.
I'm interested in hearing from anyone who is willing to share about their job search after Code School, and particularly from any of you who were looking for work immediately before starting Code School.
How did the job search process change for you after graduating? Were you surprised at the number of job posts that you qualified for after OCS? Did the jobs you qualified for align with your other passions and interests? Was that an important factor for you?
A little bit about me to explain where I'm coming from: I graduated from Nebraska Wesleyan in 2012. Since then, I've been working as a digital journalist and community manager in DC and abroad. I'm interested in Code School for a few reasons: because it fulfills a level of geekery within me that I've abandoned since college; because I want to be self-sufficient (and maybe even innovative!) in industries that are more and more trending toward tech backgrounds and abilities; and because it would allow me to apply for more positions, even at the very same news and non profit agencies where I am currently looking.
Those are the goals I am considering in my application to OCS. Do you believe they align with your experience in the program and in the job market post-program?
Eager to hear your thoughts and stories!
Thanks in advance.