An Addendum to My Cover Letter

I've been submitting a lot of cover letters, and for my own sanity I've been trying to customize them as much as possible. The whole find-and-replace method for cover letters is really not my cup of coffee.

If I don't know that much about the company, I'll make sure I go through their website and find out what they're really about, read their blog (engineering blogs are even better), and comb through the Internet for any relevant articles about their products. Then I'll think of why I'd want to work there and how I can contribute to their platform, which is sometimes hard to do without having access to use it.

Then, I'll craft a well thought out cover letter and submit it along with my resume, links to my LinkedIn/Twitter/GitHub, etc. I can't not submit a cover letter when the option is there, that's my policy. I don't like to do things half-heartedly because I can't help but wonder: what if that one cover letter makes all the difference?

I've always believed that positive sentiments outweigh the negative, which is why my cover letters are all focused on the positive stuff. I'm optimistic about my skills as an engineer and I'm excited to talk about the projects I've enjoyed building on my journey to becoming an engineer. These things I can go on and on about.

However, I'm not oblivious to the areas where I'm lacking. Studies show that sometimes, all it takes is for one negative thing to ruin everything. So let's think of it in terms of my skill level as an engineer. I don't have a CS degree. I don't even have 1+ years of engineering experience. Already I can think of two basic requirements in almost all software engineering job postings that shed a negative light on my background. Which is why it's a hard pill for me to swallow that I can't dispute these cold, hard facts.

Instead of tiptoeing around my lack of a CS degree or years of experience, I wish I could address these points of deduction head-on in my cover letters. That being said, since I can't bring myself to invite any negativity into my cover letters, I realized that I can address these frustrating points in my blog:

1. I know I don't have a CS degree. I wish I did! I thought about it senior year of college but didn't want to have to go through all the prerequisite classes to get to the CS major classes when I was so close to graduating with two already-complete majors. However, I did self-select to enroll in Hackbright, where I was able to become proficient at Python, Javascript, and SQL (along with some other frameworks and tools like Flask, SQLAlchemy, jQuery, AJAX, etc.) enough to build a web application from start to finish, backend to frontend!

2. I don't have a full year of working experience in software engineering. And I'm not going to pretend and say I do because I can't speed up a year any more than the sun can. I do, however, have the work ethic of someone fresh out of college. I just graduated! Not from a 4-year institution, but from a 3-month full-time program that made sure I had a lot discipline (hello, 0 income life) before, during, and after the program. I had to save up enough $$ prior to applying to Hackbright, quit my job to attend Hackbright, be present and engaged in classes and lab all day, work on assessments that required hours of my time, design a project front to end, and present it in front of other engineers. I'll be damned if I let all this hard work go to waste by not giving it my all at whichever company decides to take a chance on me.

3. I have incredible experience in other industries (read: lots of soft skills). Prior to becoming a software engineer, I was in marketing. I've done marketing both in-house and at an agency. I've worked with 15+ different clients from the tech, lifestyle, and hospitality industries, many of them at the same time. I've managed our marketing team, and was described by my boss as her right hand. I know how to tailor my speech around different clients, email them at the right time, and decipher what they say and want so I can convey these requests to our project manager and designers. I'm great at empathizing, and I think that's something incredibly valuable that's incredibly hard to convey in a cover letter.

4. Because I just graduated, I'm like a sponge! I know I have a lot of catching up to do, which is why I want to continue learning. Since graduating Hackbright, I've attended a hackathon, helped a coding nonprofit write lecture material, attended many many coding meetups, signed up for a few classes on React and built a few apps with this framework, and I'm going to start learning Node.js next. Here's the thing: I'm just getting started. I'm not dead-set on my ways of how things should be in the world of programming like how some seasoned engineers may be, because I don't know what the "ways" are. I'm still discovering my way and having loads of fun while I'm at it, and I wish I could convey this excitement over the ATS.

So there you have it. If I think of more, I might add to it, but here it is. The addendum to my cover letters that have been/are going to be sent into the abyss of job portals.

Brief Breathers

This week I decided to take some unprecedented breathers from my usual job application-study-event routine. I still did all three, but I peppered in some new experiences just to spice things up a little. It's challenging sometimes not to get tunnel vision with the job search, so to put things into perspective I decided to sign up for some activities outside of software engineering to remind myself that there is a world outside of the one I'm so wrapped up in.

Intro to UX Workshop
On Monday I decided to attend General Assembly's free Intro to UX Design workshop. I've always wanted to attend one of their free sessions to see what it's like but it's usually during the daytime, which is not ideal for someone working the 9-5.

It was really fun! I loved how we honed in on the design decisions of various mobile apps and digital products, and then split up into groups to think of how we would design an imaginary festival app built by Spotify. It let me exercise my creative juices and think about something other than code for a bit.

Nextdoor Research Study
I'm a pretty active user on Nextdoor, the neighborhood app. I don't post that much stuff but I like to be in the know of what's going on. Whether it's crime, classifieds, or shop openings/closings, I like to digest it all. So it was no surprise that when a product manager reached out for research participants to test out something they're building for their app, I immediately signed myself up.

Plus, I always like to see what different offices look like. Because I myself have not been privy to working in big, fancy schmancy offices before, it's always exciting to see how spacious and nicely decorated a workplace can be.

It was fun being the second person to test out this feature/campaign Nextdoor wants to try and discovering all the bugs in their platform; I felt like one of those quirky field study participants on TV who can't stop asking questions and calling out things for not being user friendly. Being paid to be super opinionated is really fun!

Also, the method in which they recorded my actions on the app on my phone was hilarious: They had me hug an engineer's laptop from behind and play with their app in front of the webcam to record my motions. DIY recording at a tech company at its finest.

Volunteering to Pack Supplies for Homeless Youth (At the Crossroads)
This was also one of those activities I'd always wanted to do but haven't been able to because of scheduling conflicts in the past. I love volunteering at the SF Marin Food Bank, and I wanted to check out how other nonprofit volunteer sessions are run. They had 3 activities going on: pack bags of snacks, QA for candy packets, and write thank you cards to donors. Jesse and I actually got to do all three!

First, we worked alongside all these other friendly volunteers in an assembly line putting snacks in bags. When we finished, the nonprofit organizers had us stuff already really-packed packets of candy with even more candy. Basically the idea is that they give these packs of candies out, sometimes to groups of homeless youth, and they don't want there to be a difference in volume among the bags. So we had to shove as many Snickers, lollipops, Starbursts, Reese's, etc. as we could into each packet.

After a good half hour of trying to wrangle a few candy packets closed, Jesse and I decided to switch stations to give our fingers a break...and then subsequently found our hands cramping up instead writing thank-you cards to generous donors. It was all really fun though, and I loved how nice everyone there was. I'll definitely be back!


So, yes, with new perspectives gained this week, there's now a new motivation to keep chugging along the job search ride!

5-5-5

It's been 3(!) weeks since we've been out of Hackbright and I'm starting to wonder if I'll continue counting these weeks until I get a job. Probably. The 3-6 months average (for HB grads to find a job after the program) has been pretty much ingrained in my head. I hope I'm closer to the 3-month mark than 6-month mark.

Now that I've been out of Hackbright for 3+ weeks, I feel like I have a better idea of how my time has been intentionally (and sometimes unintentionally) carved out. Knowing what is and and isn't feasible, here's how I want my time to be carved out moving forward:

Introducing: Karen's 5-5-5 Daily Job Searching Rule (Mondays - Fridays)
5 Job Applications
5 Coding Challenges
5 Sections on Problem Solving with Algorithms and Data Structures

And wherever I can fit in some emails, I'll do it. Even though I can already see myself having some difficulty on days when I have meetups or coffee meetings scheduled, I think I'll adhere to this rule as much as I can, especially the first two.

On weekends I'll focus on building out my projects and reviewing coding challenge solutions.

We'll see how this goes!

A Week of Firsts

I've been two weeks out of Hackbright so far, and I can say with confidence that though this has been an uphill battle just like how everyone warned me it would be, it's an uphill battle peppered with firsts that are not too shabby.

First First
This weekend I attended my first hackathon, organized by Girls in Tech and sponsored by Hackbright, DocuSign, and many more. Aside from the awesome swag (hello Memebox and Jins!) and constant stream of brain food and fuel, what I enjoyed most was being surrounded by awesome women with awesome ideas coding awesome things.

I got to see my cohortmates, say hello to fellow Hackbright alum I've met and haven't met before (they're everywhere!), and most importantly, build a project from start to (almost) finish in less than a day. Some teams stayed overnight, but my cohortmates and I opted to head back to our respective homes after 9pm, work remotely in bed, and get some much needed rest.

My mentors have been telling me I really need more projects on my resume since I don't have a prior career in tech I can talk about, and that's what I got from this hackathon. In a few days my teammates and I will meet up in person to make some additional features to our app and deploy it. Even though we didn't win any prizes, I'm super excited I'll be able to deploy my first app ever. This will make deploying future projects I'm planning on creating seem much less intimidating. Let the project floodgates begin!

Second First
Today I received my first application rejection. And it was not from an ATS bot, so it does count towards a [long overdue] first rejection in my books.

It sucks, but I know it's gonna suck even more if I let it get to me. At least someone, some person,  took those few seconds in their day to scan my resume and decide "Nope!" as opposed to a machine scanning my resume and placing it in the bucket of send-auto-rejection-email.

Last week I read a post by someone on LinkedIn saying that her favorite word is "Next(!)". I think I might adopt this into my own vocabulary of favorite words. Because the next thing can always have potential to be more exciting than the previous.

5pm Update: Make that 3 rejections in 1 day. Let the application rejection floodgates also begin!

In Defiance of Murphy's Law

I've been a week out of Hackbright, and to say I'm stressed would be an understatement. Every day I wake up wondering how I should best optimize my time for the day; should I spend it tossing cold applications into the abyss of forgotten resumes, emailing people asking them to tell me how they got their jobs, studying on LeetCode/Hacker Rank/Cracking the Coding Interview/Problem Solving with Algorithms, or working on my next project?

The answer is usually: preferably all of the above. It's exhausting, and the thing is, I knew it was going to be. I signed up for this life and now I have to own it. This fun-employment is not going to get the better of me.

It's happened more than once where I've emailed people about job openings at their companies that I see posted online only to have them tell me they just filled the positions.

It's disappointing and almost feels like my joblessness is following the rules of Murphy's Law. Then, I step back and see the (somewhat cliched) silver linings. I've made some great connections so far who are willing to help me outside of just passing my resume along or giving me a recruiter's contact info. I've been humbled by the realization that getting a job in the tech industry isn't just attending a bootcamp and learning how to write an app. I have a greater admiration for every single engineer who has had to go through phone screens, whiteboarding interviews, networking, studying, building more projects and putting themselves out of their comfort zone just to get to that final job offer.

The real, final test is now. Now is when I'm put to the test of whether I want to watch another episode of New Girl or work through another coding challenge. Do I want to spend that extra $5 on a beer at a bar (actually, sometimes maybe yes) that I can get for $2/bottle if I bought a six pack and drank it at home, or on a cup of coffee with a person I just met who can provide me valuable insight into the job search process? Do I want to spend that extra hour of time window-shopping for things I can't afford right now, or on reading up how to design a good elevator bank?

I'm faced with hard decisions and questions every day, and sometimes things that seem like they can go wrong will go wrong. What really matters is how I face that adversity and put myself in perspective. I'm really looking forward to when I can look back on this time period of my life and give someone else the wisdom, help and advice they need to move things along. But until then, onwards to the studying and job hunting!