How I Landed a Job Using Codesmith's Free Tools

Not everyone can join a full-time immersive program, but Codesmith’s free resources have helped thousands of engineers break into tech and land top jobs.

‍

Two people who have successfully leveraged Codesmith free resources are Isabel Hirama and James Wilson. They explain how our collection of free events, workshops, and learning materials gave them the knowledge, capacities and confidence to succeed in the job hunt.

‍

‍

The Psychology Of The Job Hunt

‍

Isabel Hirama studied Psychology at university, then worked in marketing before pivoting to tech. She ended up working in the virtual reality and augmented reality department of a FAANG company.

‍

“I did a huge career shift to become a data scientist,” she says. “My career arc involved going back to school to do a Masters, a Fellowship, and a coding bootcamp—the Grace Hopper program at Full Stack Academy.”

‍

Even after going through all of these steps she was still searching for “who had the inside scoop on how to actually land your first tech job.” That’s when she came across Codesmith and in particular the sessions from co-founder, Will Sentance.

‍

“Will had a really insightful perspective, so I went to his events and took notes about everything he said. I’ve referred back to those notes very frequently throughout my career transition and job search.”

‍

The resources she found most useful were Will’s How To Get Hired workshops and JavaScript The Hard Parts. 

‍

“I took lots of notes about career strategy, hiring strategy, and whiteboarding practice.”

‍

It was peeling back the layers that stood out to Isabel most. “Codesmith not only shared information about how to reach out to recruiters, or how to format a cover letter, but also delved into the subtext behind everything that you communicate when on the job search.”

‍

As a psychology major this made a big impression on Isabel. “It explained the subtext behind whatever you are writing to recruiters or on your letters, and how as you move through stages of the job search you change your communication to provide the right subtext for that stage.”

‍

‍

Standing Out Through Strategic Projects

‍

In such a competitive market with plenty of engineers well-versed in similar stacks or building similar products, the Codesmith advice on how to tailor your projects to stand out from the crowd was invaluable to Isabel.

‍

“The very specific advice on how to shape your portfolio was so useful. Things like ‘there are tons of projects like XYZ from candidates using this or that tech stack. Don’t use those stacks as there will be so much competition. Do a project like this, using this stack instead, and you can stand out better.’”

‍

Beyond just using certain underutilised stacks and projects to stand out, the concept of shaping projects strategically to the niche of tech you’re passionate about was most helpful to Isabel.

‍

“I ended up doing a lot of computer vision-focused projects with augmented reality, and I ended up working in VR and AR for a FAANG company, so it was really helpful that portfolio projects were relevant to that. And that was really thanks to the help from Codesmith’s free events.

‍

“One of their suggestions was looking at different open source or emerging technologies and doing a project in that space, so you're actually contributing to the frontiers of what's being made, not just making the millionth generic commit.”

‍

Isabel got her VR job after attending a career fair and handing in her resume there. A conversation followed in which she was already able to talk to the team very knowledgably about the VR field simply because she had completed multiple projects in that area.

‍

“I was able to enter the conversation as a peer rather than just like a newbie,” she says. “Based on the Codesmith strategy, once I had that interview I started to reach out to all of that company's competitors on LinkedIn and tell them I was interviewing for this VR role and would love to talk to them about similar opportunities. That got me multiple other interviews. And so then I was able to sort of strategically play those off of each other.”

‍

Filling In The Gaps After Learning On The Job

‍

After transitioning from graphic design to coding over a decade ago and learning much of the trade on the job, James Wilson hit a point where he realized he had some blind spots in his overall tech capacities.

‍

After discovering Javascript The Hard Parts on Frontend Masters he arrived at Codesmith’s free resources—particularly the sessions on Closure and Object Oriented Programming—he was able to fill in the gaps and build up his confidence to successfully navigate the job search this year. Today he is a lead Frontend Developer for a CRM marketing company in Cape Town, South Africa.

‍

“I came across Will on Frontend Masters and just loved his teaching style. I’ve been a developer for ten years and never has Closure been explained to me in a way I can process and understand—it was always just terminology and jargon.”

‍

James loved that all of the sessions were free and open to all, and that Pair Programming was also on offer.

‍

“You can actually have the instructor live, so you could ask questions and they would ask you questions. That's unrivaled. You can't get that on most online education. So these events became my go to resources.

‍

James was back on the job search after ten years as a programmer and feeling the heat knowing his knowledge wasn’t up to scratch.

‍

“Partly because of AI today, there's a lot more emphasis on having deep technical knowledge. But despite having done object-oriented programming for years, I couldn't answer the simple question of what is object oriented programming. So Codesmith was invaluable to me in that regard.”

‍

James managed to get a job after using the free resources for three months and given the value they have already brought him, he is still hoping to do the Software Engineering + AI/ML Immersive program in the future to build on his current experience and aim for more senior roles.

‍

‍

Confidence Through The Socratic Method

‍

He explains that the back and forth of questions and answers between the instructors and him - the Socratic Method - was what stood out most.

‍

“When you're questioning the instructors and they ask you questions back, it puts you in that position where you have to answer. That just gave me enormous confidence, which really turned things around in my job interviews big time.

I went from hiring managers looking unimpressed with my answers to saying “Okay good, this guy knows what he's doing”. So these resources really helped me immensely both on a technical level and with my confidence.”

‍

To help build on your experience and skills, or to start your journey into tech, check out Codesmith’s wealth of free resources today, from pair programming sessions, to talks on how to navigate a tough tech market.

‍

Or, if you’re looking to take the next step, find information here about our Software Engineering + AI/ML Immersive and AI & ML ‍Technical Leadership programs.

‍