3 reasons why you can’t land your dream tech job
Not an all inclusive list
It is well known that everyone has their own unique situation and life they are living that other people may or may not be able to relate to. When I write stories like this what really grinds my gears is when people say that it is not relevant because *insert reason why your life is different here*. There are common threads in life, and extremely common paths of resistance that take different appearances, although they are the same under the surface.
If you are like I was a few years ago working a job you don’t really like for one reason or another, and you would love to get into tech for the lifestyle it provides (nice pay, remote work, interesting subject matter), then for a few minutes I need you to drop your predispositions to why you are not there yet and consider a few possibilities about yourself. At the end of the day, it 100% comes down to you and your habits.
Between seeing hundreds of different students from software engineering boot camps with different backgrounds with different goals, as well as talking with family members and friends from other lines of work considering (or actively trying) to get into tech, I have come to the conclusion that there are 3 common reasons why people struggle to land a great job in tech.
You aren’t really giving your best effort
At the end of the day you need to honestly ask yourself, am I really doing everything possible to land a job? You don’t have to be perfect, but let me give you an idea of what my typical day looked like that helped me land a job within 90 days of graduating boot camp.
Wake up an hour earlier than I need to and work on a project dealing with a concept I enjoyed doing (at the time was working with python scripting, nowadays is more of AWS architecture). Go into a Starbucks and for about an hour look at every tech/programming related meetup within 20–30 miles. Decide on going to at least 1 but preferably 2 later that day. Spend another couple hours applying to every job possible on multiple job sites (LinkedIn, Indeed, ZipRecruiter, etc.), regardless of if I thought I was a perfect fit. Since I didn’t have a job it was not the time to be picky. Spend another couple hours after that working on some sort of project. Spend another few hours after that continuing my education using oodles of free resources out there (MIT Open courseware for example). This whole process was about 8–10 hours.
After that grab a quick bite to eat and then head out to the meetups I found earlier in the day. Talk to people (preferably those with jobs) and see if I can find some opportunities out there. Come home and eat again, shower up and go to bed.
I would be lying if I said some of these days didn’t feel terrible, as they averaged about 14 hours of business. However, I was determined to get a job and didn’t really have a choice since I had little money and some debt from a loan for my boot camp. But I consistently gave my best every day and I believe that the universe started to work in my favor and helped me land what I think is one of the best jobs I could have gotten (that I still have to this day). Working this hard is temporary, so that you can set yourself up well in the long term.
You are scared to talk to other people and network
I remember going to multiple tech meetups with some of the people from my boot camp, and most if not all of them were content to just stand around and see what was going on. You don’t get points or opportunities from only showing up. At most of these meetups there are a good amount of people there, what makes you so special that people will just walk up to you and start talking to you?
You need to get a little bit outside of your comfort zone, and remember that in this field there are a lot of people who feel the same way you do. So by approaching others and starting conversations it will make them feel better and make you seem more confident, a real win-win. Here are some tips I found helpful for getting the most out of meetups.
- Aim to have 1–2 meaningful conversations per meetup. In other words, your goal as an active job seeker is to have a conversation that involves a potential job opportunity. If not that, then look to have a conversation with about a technology or programming language you are interested in and work with. You may find someone you can collaborate with on a neat project.
- Talk to people who already have jobs, or who lead the meetups. Your goal is to find a job so doing nothing but talking to other nervous job seekers will not help you do that. You may also find this surprising but a lot of the time people who are presenting and leading meetups are a little bit nervous themselves. So chatting them up and telling them how you enjoyed x y and z about their presentation will cause them to warm up to you. This could give you a way to start a conversation about openings at their company (especially if the meetup was about a topic that interests you).
- Remember that you do not have to be perfect. The goal is to consistently move forward and make great connections and have meaningful conversations. However there are times where you will show up to a meetup and there are only 2–3 other people there. If it is later in the day and you already spent many hours applying for jobs, working, learning, etc then you will likely leave there feeling like you wasted your time. That is not the case, the fact that you are building a habit our of going to meetups is a win. Keep going, but maybe don’t go back to the ones that have little to no people.
You aren’t applying to enough jobs
You need to be applying to literally everything. 8+ years of devops experience on the job description? No problem. Computer science degree required? Sure it is.
Remember that at a lot of places they will train you up on what you actually need to know. What matters is that you have a good foundation in a few different areas and are at least competent so that you will do no harm to the business. On most job descriptions in tech they would like you to have experience with a few dozen different technologies, platforms, languages, repositories, etc. Even people who have been working in tech for decades don’t know everything, so it is ok to not know everything.
So apply anyways. You never know who will reach out to you, and even if someone does and you go through with their interview process but not end up getting the job, it is more experience so you are more prepared for next time. At this stage you can’t afford to be picky about the type of job you get either. It is not uncommon to be switching jobs every few years, so just get that first one so you can gain some experience in the world of tech and make yourself more credible. You will also end up learning a lot more about whatever tech stack the company you end up working for uses, making you more of a subject matter expert. That is invaluable experience moving forward.
It is frustrating at times to feel like you are spinning your wheels as quick as possible but going nowhere. But what you need to remember is you need long term patience but short term urgency. Do everything you can today while knowing that the universe is working in your favor and complimenting what you are doing. If nothing else the peace of mind at the end of the day from giving your best effort and putting in a solid days work is irreplaceable. Go through the process and you will get everything you need and more.
I wish you the best of luck, feel free to reach out to me if you need some guidance.
