Career Development Category Archives - General Assembly Blog | Page 4

So you graduated from a bootcamp, gained new technical skills from finishing a course, or taught yourself what you need to successfully change careers. Now comes your exciting next step: acing an interview and landing your first job in tech. 

On average, each corporate job attracts 250 resumes, of which only four to six will get called for an interview. Of course, only one will get the job. How well you stand out will rely heavily on the stories you tell. As someone who is changing careers, you likely have a particularly unique or interesting story, and potential employers will inevitably ask about it in the interview. It’s important that your story persuades them to hire you. 

Whether you’re interviewing for a new job, seeking a promotion, or trying to land your next big role, knowing how to promote your expertise and value is crucial to unlocking new opportunities. Having the ability to showcase your digital footprint not only builds your brand but it supports you in your job search.

Approximately 250 applications are sent for a corporate job opening position on average. Platforms like CareerBuilder, having over 80 million active job applicants, and Indeed with 225 million resumes, makes it more difficult to stand out from a sea of job seekers all vying for the same end goal. With the competition becoming louder than ever, being equipped with the creative toolkit to market yourself and bypass the noise is crucial to landing your dream job.

There is no one-size-fits-all strategy for marketing yourself. Every job market is different, and so are the ways you can help yourself stand out from the crowd. You don’t need to be a marketing guru or have a huge budget to promote yourself. You just need to know how.

Here are 4 easy steps:

So, you’ve been Googling immersive programs late at night and you’ve stared into the smiling faces of alumni on bootcamp websites, wondering if you see your future self. You’ve cycled through the stages of online bootcamp shopping:

📱 Searching for hot jobs in tech
👩 LinkedIn stalking people with those jobs
🧑‍🎓 Googling courses and bootcamp programs that teach those skills
😮 Reading about time commitments and cost
📵 Closing your tab in a panic 
🤷‍♀️ Starting over the next day

Reading about immersive programs can be intimidating. Is it really full-time? Do I need to quit my job? Can I keep up with the coursework? How will my life change? 

• You’re interested in working in tech but don’t have the technical skills you need to get started
• You want a tangible certificate to add to your resume to help you go after that promotion or new job
• You’re a lifelong learner and want to level up your skills to use in your current job or small business

Let’s start with the reasons you may have been looking at immersive programs to start with:

With the sheer scale of innovation in the tech industry today, product management has become an in-demand skill. There’s a reason why Glassdoor has ranked Product Management as #10 on their list of the “50 Best Jobs in America for 2022”. With a median USA salary of $125,317 per year and 17,725 current job openings, there’s something for everyone.

But is a Product Management career the right fit for you? Keep reading to find out.

If you want to start a new career or get promoted, LinkedIn is a great place to start. LinkedIn has become the go-to network for job seekers and recruiters alike. The site boasts over 830 million members worldwide, with over 58 million registered companies, and its user base continues to increase. Yet, despite its popularity, many people struggle to optimize their profiles. This piece shares some helpful tips to improve your LinkedIn profile as a career changer.

Why you need optimization for your LinkedIn profile

LinkedIn is one of the most popular social networks today. If you want to be seen by potential employers, clients, customers, or partners, you need to optimize your profile. A great way to do this is to leverage keywords and key phrases to help people find you. When you hear “SEO” or “search engine optimization,” you probably think about how well a website ranks on Google. Identifying the right keywords and strategically including them in your profile helps you appear in LinkedIn and Google searches, increasing your chances of being discovered.

With that in mind, let’s look at how you can benefit from an optimized LinkedIn profile.

Networking is a skill that can supercharge your career in tech. The old adage is true: it’s not always just what you know, but who you know. Your network will play a huge role in where your career takes you, what roles you are considered for, and how quickly you learn new tools and techniques. Plus, networking can introduce you to lifelong friends—and you can even have fun along the way.

If you can’t imagine slogging away for decades in loyal service to a single company, only to be rewarded with 3pm cake and a gold watch to celebrate your retirement, you’re not alone. For today’s workers, who change careers about as often as they change hair styles, that sort of employment monogamy seems positively naivet. Whether in search of a better work-life balance (currently noted as the number one driver for a career change), higher compensation, or more fulfillment, people are moving from career opportunity to career opportunity at an increasingly rapid pace, picking up valuable–if not disparate–skills along the way. 

The challenge for today’s career changers isn’t putting a positive spin on “career hopping” (which is no longer viewed as a negative), but simply standing out in a sea of candidates. In order to get noticed, job applicants can’t just write a resume, they need to craft a compelling career narrative. Sound daunting? It’s really not. This ultimate guide will tell you in five easy resume-writing steps exactly how to land a career you love, even if you have no prior experience in your area of interest. 

Technical jobs are some of the highest-paying ones out there. If you want to get into tech, you’ll need to master a set of hard and soft skills and your tech interview skills to land the job you love.

Technical interviews are designed to assess candidates’ problem-solving skills inside the company and their suitability for the role, including their depth of knowledge in the field or any potential difficulties that may arise on the job. They also aim to gauge whether applicants have good communication skills and problem-solving abilities.

To start, here are some critical tech interview do’s and don’ts.

Trying something new career-wise can be as scary as it is exhilarating. That’s why we’re excited to launch Workshop Wednesdays, which gives you a way to dip your toe into doing something different.  So, whether you’re looking to change your career and break into tech or if you’re just looking to level-up your skills, Workshop Wednesdays allows you to test the waters, so you can dive into either track with confidence. 

Just like our courses, these workshops will be led by our team of expert instructors, who have real world experience in today’s most in-demand fields including data, coding, UX design, product management and marketing. 

Every Wednesday from September 14th until October 19th, join your peers from all around the world to experience our most popular workshops (ranging from $60 to $200 USD in value) — completely free.* Better yet? All Workshop Wednesday participants will get $200 (in your local currency including: USD, AUD, SGD, GBP, EUR) to use towards a GA part-time or immersive course of their choosing (T&Cs apply). 

If you’re unhappy with your current company or career trajectory, you’re not alone. 20% of Americans have changed careers since 2020; 46% of Americans are seriously considering one. In the past two years, more and more people are choosing to take back their life as they recognize their own worth and choose to resign. 

The thought of making a career shift can feel scary. Resigning from your job—or your entire career—doesn’t have to be difficult or full of regret. In fact, it can be a good thing.

Shenae Simmons, Technical Support Engineer at Plaid and GA Alumna, sat down with us, to share her story of leaving an industry and creating a new path. Keep reading to get the highlights of that conversation.