General Assembly Blog

A Day in Class With a Remote Career Changer

For many students, enrolling in a career-accelerating bootcamp can be a daunting decision, especially when it’s conducted entirely online. How do students stay engaged and accountable while learning remotely? We connected with GA student Fletcher Jones to walk us through his day-to-day in our Software Engineering Immersive program. He graduated in July 2020 and landed a job as a software engineer at Safe & Reliable Healthcare shortly after.

Before coming to GA, I was an actor, a model, and a recording artist. I also had experience as a former student ambassador for the U.S. State Department, and after graduating from college, I worked as a marketing consultant. Later, I worked closely with Senator Bernie Sanders during his 2020 campaign for president.

After the presidential race changed, I — like many others — found myself out of the job. And that’s not all: At this point, the pandemic had begun, and the U.S. entered a tumultuous period of race relations. It was a difficult decision but I decided it was best to take on the challenge of a career change while spending some time at my parents’ home in North Carolina. I wanted a path with more job security that also strengthened my problem-solving skills — following my passion for computer science at GA seemed like the best solution. It was.

My instructor was based on the West Coast, so by being on the East Coast during the course (and being a night owl), this provided amazing flexibility. Given the time difference, my schedule probably isn’t typical for a GA student, but learning remotely at GA gives you even more control over your day and how you use your time when you’re not in class. Plus, all the sessions are recorded, so you can revisit at any point. For me, that was a huge benefit to learning online because the recorded lessons were so helpful for taking notes. Online learning was not my first choice, but it was definitely the best one. I’d absolutely do it again.

Here’s what my average day looked like during the course:

7:30 a.m. — Rise & Shine

Given the noon start time on the East Coast, I was able to enjoy a relaxed morning routine. This really helped me start class with energy and a positive attitude every day.

8–11 a.m. — Morning Routine

I would start my day with a walk around the neighborhood — sometimes with my mom, and sometimes solo while listening to music. When I returned home, I’d eat breakfast and do some stretching, too.

11:30 a.m. – Check the Day’s Schedule

Every day, we’d have lectures on at least two topics concerning front-end or back-end programming. They would be split into a morning exercise, module one, lunch, and then module two. Here’s a sample of the schedule:

GA Alum Fletcher Jones’ Software Engineering Immersive Remote Schedule, Week 10

12 p.m. — Sign On for Coding Exercises

We’d often begin with a morning exercise (or afternoon in my case). These could range from an assigned coding challenge, to a quick lab exercise, or a breakout group discussing an engineering topic. After these exercises, one member would present the group’s learnings. Everyone comes into the class at different levels of experience, so these sessions were really valuable to learn from students who might have more background in coding.

Here’s an example of a coding challenge — I especially appreciated this one because it showed up on a technical interview during my job search! I was able to complete it in class and present my solution to the instructor for feedback.

12:30 p.m. — First Module Begins

Module 1 is a mix of instructor lecture and (depending on how intensive it is) related lab exercises. These are never solo — you’re always working in pairs or small groups. We would share computer screens using Zoom to work through these, in addition to other tools like our computers’ terminals, Chrome browser, and Visual Studio Code (or another preferred text editor).

The lectures on React really stood out to me — I instantly fell in love with them. It’s such a useful library that allows you to build out robust apps that remain scalable with relative ease. I’m grateful that Dalton, my lead instructor, did such a great job capturing my attention with React and the MERN stack because these are what I currently use at my job. Dalton was always eager to answer questions and would always make sure his students completely understood the topics.

These lectures started with a walkthrough of how React is implemented on Facebook (which it was created for). That visual was really helpful in understanding the fundamentals. Dalton would highlight specific parts of posts, comments, or profiles — things we were already familiar with — and explain to us how they were coded in React. Later in the week, we put all the basics together to create a fully functional app using React and other technologies from earlier in the course (MongoDB, Express.js, and Node.js).

1:30 p.m.— 15-Minute Break

Just the right amount of time to brew a cup of Yerba Mate to get me through the rest of the day. After, we would reconvene to wrap up Module 1.

3:30 p.m.—First Module Ends, One-Hour break

Here I would eat with my family, sometimes take a walk, or on really rough days… take a nap!

4:30 p.m. — Second Module Begins

For the majority of the course, the time allotted for second modules was usually spent in a lab to get hands-on practice and dive deeper into the ideas we learned during the first module. For instance, our first module on React was followed with a lab exercise that brought our app prototypes to life.

5 p.m. — 5-Minute Break

Sometimes our instructor would see people yawning, and we’d have a five minute break. Or sometimes we’d get a bio break if a lecture was really long. It’s nice that our instructor paid attention to little things like that.

6 p.m. — Presenting Group Work

After a brief break, we’d present group work. Sometimes you’d get assigned into groups to work through an activity, or in Slack, you could use reactions to request teammates. Using Zoom’s breakout sessions, this kind of group work was engaging and motivating. It’s so valuable to troubleshoot with people from (seemingly) unrelated backgrounds to learn how they problem-solve.

One person from each group would agree to present. Sometimes, it was intimidating to see the progress others were making, but most times, I felt that I “got” a concept or solved a problem more quickly. Ups and downs are just part of the day-to-day, and everyone progresses differently throughout the course.

7 p.m. — 15-Minute Break 2.0

During these breaks, I’d interact with my family or just chill for a few minutes.

8 p.m. — Class Ends

Crushed it.

8 p.m. — Dinner

My parents would wait for me to finish class, and we’d sit down together to catch up on the day and what happened in class — easily the best part of my day.

9 p.m. — After-Hours Support

After-hours support is something students can take advantage of a few times a week if necessary. Adonis, our teaching assistant, was great and had wide-ranging knowledge in both front-end and back-end development. Adonis helped me get a better grasp on working on servers, specifically using MongoDB with Express. I was having trouble with the database for one of my portfolio projects, Notify, which was a streaming music service using the SoundCloud API. Adonis spent about an hour helping me figure out the bug.

10:00 p.m. — Start Homework

At this point I would complete any unfinished labs and review exercises that need more attention.

Midnight — Ideal Bedtime

Eight hours of sleep was everything. Sometimes, I wouldn’t get to bed until even later; it felt good to go to bed knowing that I did the best as I could, and that nothing was hanging over my head. I was actually doing something and making progress — with the pandemic and all, I hadn’t felt that in a long time.

Two other key areas where I spent time throughout the course were prepping with my career coach and working on my final project.

Meeting With Career Coaches and Portfolio Development

Rashid Campbell, a member of the Outcomes team, was my career coach at GA. Rashid did more than just prepare us for our job search — he was our frontline defense against burnout and genuinely cared about how I was doing as a human being, not just as a student. Learning in an Immersive is intense to begin with, but during the pandemic there was added stress!

On Tuesdays we would meet for two to three hours to work on my resume, personal branding, job applications, and technical interview prep. Additionally, one requirement for students to receive Outcomes support was that we had to create a portfolio summarizing our five projects. I would make time for this kind of work toward the end of the course on many days.

The Capstone Project

For their capstone projects, students mimic a team-client interaction, collaborating to build and deploy a full-stack application that fulfills provided specs. The final result integrates functionality from a third-party API. Instructors urge students to choose a capstone project grounded in a personal passion or a problem they’re excited to tackle.

During the last week of the course, the schedule was very open to allow for deep focus on your project. Any lectures were mostly optional, and we could take breaks whenever we needed. We had an open classroom policy — almost like a workplace environment — so that we could focus solely on the project.

My Final Project

My capstone project was inspired by my background in acting. A lot of people in the arts lack a centralized place to find fellow creatives to collaborate with on projects or events (or promote them). I created a wireframe for a website called Accolade, which helps creatives and artists stay connected and collaborate. Creatives can post and spread the word about their upcoming performances, showcases, or premieres on the site. They can also post an ad looking for actors, models, photographers, or videographers, and more.

First, I had to draft a wireframe of what it would look like and document its features, user interface, and tech dependencies — like a map API to display event locations.

On the day of presentations, students would give praise and “grows” — constructive criticism grounded in an empathetic understanding of how hard it can be to put yourself out there. This approach helped some students feel more comfortable with having their work in the spotlight.

Learning remotely at GA offered more support from fellow students than I ever expected. Everyone was so understanding when there were two deaths in my family during the course. When I got my job offer, Rashid helped with salary negotiations. I still keep in touch with students from my class as they get started on their new career paths. This was a period of my life that I will never forget — through the people I met. It was an authentic milestone.

Over the years, I used to feel anxious about all my loose ends. I have done so many things: I earned a journalism degree after 4 years of college; I jumped from entertainment, to politics, to whatever paid the bills. I looked at my peers who stuck to one thing and admired how far they went. After this experience, I realized that my diverse experiences are my superpower. I can literally do anything I put my mind to.

And you can too.

Take the Leap Into Software Engineering

Should You Consider a Career in Digital Marketing?

By Rachel Denton

These days you would be hard-pressed to find a business, regardless of its size, that isn’t investing in digital marketing to assist in their promotional efforts. Businesses must try their best to keep up with their fast-paced consumer markets and are challenged with staying in tune with the ever-evolving digital marketing technologies and strategies available to them.

As a result, digital marketing budgets are increasing by double digit increments year after year, projected to hit a total global spend of 306 billion by 2020, keeping the field of digital marketing both challenging and exciting.

What exactly is digital marketing, anyway?

Well, it’s not too far off from what you might think of as traditional marketing: businesses or organizations connecting with their audiences to promote their brands, services, and/or products, ideally bringing them closer to purchase as they span the customer journey. However, as consumers consistently spend more time online, marketers are shifting their promotional efforts to meet consumers where they are. Thus, digital marketing has come to the forefront, with marketing strategies spanning a variety of online channels such as social media, search engines, email, online publications, and other key business websites.

Today, the field of digital marketing is more interesting than ever and encompasses a wide range of knowledge and skill sets. It appeals to those that consider themselves creative types as well as those who are more analytically or technically minded. A digital marketing career includes a mix of desired skills to be successful in the field — such as data analysis, automation software expertise, and user experience design — as represented in the Altimeter State of Digital Marketing Report.

Digital Marketing Career Opportunities

While the skill sets required of digital marketing specialists are vast and diverse, it’s typically not expected that a single digital marketing role take on all of these skills. Instead, digital marketing careers are more commonly made up of a variety of roles and responsibilities that span areas such as:

Content Marketing

Content marketing entails the creation and distribution of consistent, valuable, and engaging content — emails, blog posts, videos, ads, social media posts — to clearly defined audiences. It’s the content marketing manager’s job to decide what kinds of content will resonate most with key audiences and keep them coming back for more. Content marketing managers work with their team members to decide how to use or repurpose pieces of content to suit the various digital channels leveraged by the business, ensuring that the content created has a long shelf life and reaches as many viewers as possible.

Search Engine Marketing

While a solid content marketing strategy is important for digital marketers to develop, it’s just as important for them to optimize their content and websites for search engines, as search engines are primarily what people use to find the information they need. Digital marketers have put various search engine optimization (SEO) techniques in place to improve the ranking of their content on search engines like Google. SEO can be a full time job; it’s the SEO Manager’s job to ensure content and websites are optimized as much as possible and are adapting to the requirements of continually changing search engine algorithms, such as Google’s PageRank.

Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing takes SEO one step further, applying a lot of the foundational aspects, but offering content through a digital ad on the search engine that viewers click on to access. Advertisers are charged per each click on the ad, hence the name of the practice. Putting money behind these ads yields a higher chance that the ad content will be seen. PPC managers are hired to determine which keywords to associate with the promoted ads, how large of a budget to allocate towards the advertising campaign, and which content to promote as part of the advertisement itself.

Social Media Marketing

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn are available for digital marketers to use to promote their brands, generate followers, and drive traffic to their websites for future lead generation. It’s the role of the social media marketing manager to determine which social media platforms are best suited for the company’s audience, what content should be shared at what cadence and time of day, and which topics will interest followers based on monitoring conversations through specific keywords, phrases, or hashtags. Social media is an exciting part of digital marketing for people new to the field to dive into, and its use cases and features are always shifting and expanding.

Email Marketing

Email is another channel digital marketers can use to reach their prospects and customers. When done right, it allows email marketing managers to strategically send emails that rise above the noise of crowded inboxes and provide a relevant and personalized touch to their subscribers. Emails can come in many forms such as monthly newsletters, event promotions, educational product tips and tricks, and holiday discounts. Email marketing is often in place to point subscribers to a company’s website, with the hopes of driving further engagement or product purchases. Email is a tried and true digital marketing method that’s always improving and challenging digital marketers to do better, ensuring that email marketers stay challenged and subscribers stay informed and engaged.

Marketing Automation

As the options available to digital marketing professionals continue to evolve and campaigns become more sophisticated, so must the technologies that digital marketers use to maintain them. Enter marketing automation: the ability to utilize software to automate marketing operations that might otherwise be done manually. For example, marketing automation can allow digital marketers to set up processes on the back end of their various marketing tools to automatically send welcome emails to their new newsletter subscribers or schedule their daily social media posts. Marketing automation managers collaborate with many of the above mentioned roles and are most effective when they’re able to fully leverage both their creative and analytical attributes.

The Earnings of Digital Marketers in 2020

Digital Marketing, no matter which direction you go within the field, is in high demand and the earnings that can be made are in direct alignment. According to Mondo’s 2020 Tech, Digital Marketing, & Creative Salary Guide, you can expect to make upwards of $60,000 USD as a starting salary in most areas within digital marketing, progressing (upwards of $110,000 USD in some cases) as you develop in your career. This of course varies across regions and disciplines, with more technical roles tending to align with higher earnings.

Plan for a Digital Marketing Career

Digital marketing is an exciting field to get into and is only going to get more exciting over time as technology continues to advance. Should you find yourself interested in pursuing a career in digital marketing, don’t be afraid to explore the various ways you can dive into the career path. You’ll find that there are a number of great resources you can invest in to get you on your way. Whether you just recently finished school or you’re switching careers, digital marketing holds un-capped potential that’s yours to take advantage of in 2020.

Learn Digital Marketing Online

3 Tips for Preparing for a Data Science Interview

By Kevin Coyle

Hello intrepid data scientist! First off, I’d like to congratulate you; you’re likely reading this post because you’re preparing to interview for a data science job. This means I’ll assume that: (a) you’re the type of person that researches ways to improve and level up in your career, and (b) you’re reached the interview stage — congrats!

As a data science instructor, I’m often asked for advice on how to prepare for a data science interview. In response, I usually bring up three major themes. You need to:

1. Have a background that includes sufficient knowledge of the field of data science to fulfill the job’s tasks.

2. Have implemented that knowledge in some way that the community recognizes.

3. Be able to convince your interviewer of your knowledge and abilities.

1. Knowledge of Data Science

I’ve taken part in interviewing many data scientists and have also been interviewed. Through being on both sides of the table, I’ve seen that there are usually three-ish areas of knowledge that an interviewer is looking for: prerequisite knowledge of data science at large, which includes: mathematics^[1], coding^[2], databases^[3], and the ability to communicate findings and insights^[4]; knowledge of the company and its vertical; and knowledge of the tech stack of that company.

If you’re reading this article with a fairly long time horizon and not trying to cram, then you can prepare ahead of time with the knowledge of data science at large by taking a look at this blog post which has a long list of curated resources. If you are reading this and trying to prepare for a data science interview on a short time horizon, this article and this article have a list of questions with answers to get you in the zone.

Knowledge of the company is going to come from research of that company. Read up on the company and if you have time, find second and third degree connections through LinkedIn or people you know and reach out. As a General Assembly alum, I’ve found it incredibly helpful to go to a company’s LinkedIn page, check out who the fellow alumni are, and connect through a LinkedIn message or offering to buy them coffee. Reading up on the company usually takes the form of doing research about the company itself (founding principles, place in the market, investment stage, etc.), but it also takes the form of looking up who you’d be working alongside if you started working there. What does the data team look like? Are there data engineers or other data scientists?^[5]

During a data science interview, your background will likely speak to your knowledge of the vertical you’re applying to. In the absence of that, some portfolio projects are a great second option to show your domain expertise.

Thomas Hughes, Manager of Data Science and Machine Learning at Etsy, shared this bit of advice on striking a balance between generalized skills, specific skills, and knowledge in a vertical:

“Companies who do not have much experience in data work generally look for candidates who specialize in their industry vertical. Since they don’t know what they’re looking for, they often will say, ‘I’m looking for someone who has solved problems similar to my problems, which I’m assuming means they have to be coming from my industry.’

More mature companies, with experience in the data space, recognize that many of the techniques are applicable across industries and don’t require industry specific knowledge, and furthermore, someone who’s deeply trained in a specific technique often adds more value than someone who’s just familiar with an industry vertical.”

Theodore Villacorta, Executive Director of Analytics at Warner Brothers, shared with me that, “regarding vertical, your background matters less; it’s more about skills to get data from a database and how you can perform with it.”

Lastly, you need to be fairly well versed in the tech stack that the company primarily uses. Villacorta offers: “Since knowledge of one of the two main open source languages is a strong requisite, along with the ability to use the corresponding SQL packages for those languages, it might be a great idea to showcase those in a portfolio piece. Most organizations have some form of SQL database.” At minimum, be prepared to answer questions about any tech stack that the company uses within the realm of data science and especially be prepared to answer questions about any tech that your resume lists. I usually like to do two things in preparation, to get an idea of what’s being used: first, I’ll head to stackshare.io and see if the company is listed. Second, I’ll look at the skills that current employees list on LinkedIn.

2. Community Recognition

The second piece is the community piece, especially if you have plenty of time before the data science interview. Community is purposefully a fairly amorphous term here. You can attend in-person events like meetups or conferences, or you can also have a community of coworkers, or a community of social media followers. I suggest laying the groundwork naturally. Networking can feel uncomfortable, but finding people you genuinely like being around in this field is usually pretty easy (didn’t anyone tell you that data scientists are the coolest people in any room?). If you don’t find a community that you’re into, try building one: set up a talk featuring other data scientists. Think like a starfish here, not a spider. You’re trying to create interactions and connections that continue to build new interactions in your absence; not interactions and connections that fall into a void once you’re no longer making them happen.

3. Convince Your Interviewer

In your data science interview, you need to convince the interviewer of your capabilities of both areas above. Interviewers are looking to make sure that you’re someone that generally fits into the puzzle board of other employees that make up the company culture. Show them that you’re great at the community thing through past coworkers or your involvement in open source projects online, engagements with people on Twitter, your writing style on blog posts, and the like. As Villacorta mentions, “For everyone, regardless of how cross functional of a role, I think it’s important to find someone who has an ability to collaborate, share resources…I’ll usually ask behavioral questions like ‘tell me a time when…’ in order to get a sense of a candidate’s abilities in this area.”

Hughes explains, “Senior level positions generally need to be providing leadership and influence over non-technical stakeholders. So they need experience explaining how the work they and their team is doing is valuable in non-technical ways.” Demonstrating your knowledge in an interview comes down to staying open. You’ve done the studying, now just get out of your own way.

I like employing the beginner’s mind here. Take every question in as though you’re uncovering the answer alongside the interviewer. In other words, think of it kind of like an archeological dig, rather than a tennis match. When you get an interview question like, “what’s a P value?” you can respond with, “are you curious about calculating and interpreting P values in the context of hypothesis testing in a project? Because I had a great project I worked on [insert teaser to a project here]… or are you looking for a definition?” This gives your interviewer a ton more fodder to work with and opens you up to answer questions in the Situation, Task, Action, Results (STAR) format, especially as it relates to former projects and jobs.

Regardless of where you are in the interviewing process, know that there is a position and great fit for a company for you somewhere. I think it’s helpful to consider the process of interviewing through the lens of a company — they’ve been looking for you! Don’t let your own ego get in the way of letting a genuine interaction take place during the data science interview. Interviews aren’t something you’re “stuck with” having to put up with on your march towards another job. In fact, they can be incredibly rewarding moments to find new areas to learn about in this fascinating field we’re in. Good luck, and let me know how it went!

Learn Data Science Online

^[1] Stats questions are incredibly popular fodder for data science interviews. Linear Algebra is less often questioned in interviews, but more helpful on the job.

^[2] You should be fluent in at least one of the two major open source languages: Python or R.

^[3] Data lives in databases, unless it lives in dozens of Excel files on a Shared Drive. You don’t want to work at places without a database though.

^[4] This is actually really difficult to gauge in an interview because everyone gives candidates leeway for being nervous. Often you can pass this test by being affable and confident in your answer.

^[5] Note that if the answer to either of these questions is “no”, then you’re going to be playing both roles.

How to Get a Job in Tech

By Jennifer Houlihan

Shifting careers to move into a fast-growing field like technology can be a smart investment in your long-term professional success. The hardest question for most career changers is not whether to make a change — it’s where to begin. This is especially true if you are considering entering a field you’re unfamiliar with.

Luckily, the path to getting a job in tech with little to no experience can be a simple and direct one if you follow a few basic steps.

1. Develop a Growth Mindset

First, keep in mind that your perspective can determine how successful your career change process will be. It’s worth taking some time at the start to get into the right frame of mind. If you’re looking to get a tech job, the key is to develop a growth mindset.

Having a growth mindset simply means believing that new skills can be learned and mastered. No one was born knowing how to write code or build web applications! Everyone, no matter how naturally talented, was a beginner once. Every app or device you use was created by a team of people who had to learn and practice new skills on their way to creating something awesome.

You’ve been a beginner in the past too, and have learned all kinds of complex things, from typing or riding a bike to playing an instrument or making a work presentation. So give yourself space to learn, regardless of your age or experience.

In tech, progress never stops. There will always be a new tool or programming language to master. Just know that every new program that you get under your belt will make it easier to master the next one, whenever it pops up.

2. Know Why You’re Making a Change

Why do you want to get a job in tech? It could be that you’re curious about how things work and the code that makes it all happen. Maybe you’ve grown up with digital devices and can’t imagine life without them. Or, perhaps you’re looking for a stable career that will allow you to better provide for yourself and your family. You may have wanted to move into a tech career for a while, and the timing finally seems right to make the change.

There are no wrong answers here. The important part is to have a vision you can go back to on rough days to remind yourself why you want to be a tech professional, and give yourself a motivational boost of energy to keep going.

3. Name Your Goal

The key to this part of getting your tech dream job is to be clear about where you want to end up once you learn the ropes. There are all kinds of exciting job opportunities in tech, and one or more are sure to be a great fit for you.

If you’re a creative problem-solver, a web developer or software developer position might spark your interest. If you’re interested in something more concrete, software engineer or data engineer roles could be where you will excel. Do you enjoy finding patterns and connecting dots? You may be exactly the person a tech company needs as their new data scientist. Interested in solving mysteries? Cybersecurity could be the field for you.

As you become more familiar with the responsibilities of these roles, you can also begin to narrow down your preferred type of workplace. A deeply resourced multinational enterprise company can be just as satisfying as a career destination as a scrappy innovative startup in a field you really love. Choose what makes the most sense for you and your reasons for setting the goal identified in step 2.

4. Start Right Where You Are

Now you know where you’re going; the next step is to map the route to get there. The good news is, you don’t need an MBA or any other formal degree to be successful in your new tech career. You don’t even need to have a technology job to start getting tech experience!

In fact, you may be able to start getting tech experience at your current job. Consider volunteering to help update a small business’ website, interview shoppers about your store’s app, or shadow someone in your IT department as they troubleshoot a problem. Information you get from these “practice” opportunities can help you decide what new skills you want or need. Check with your HR team to see if your company offers tuition reimbursement or any upskilling or reskilling programs that you may qualify for.

There is an abundance of virtual training possibilities for those who prefer a self-study program. From free YouTube videos to paid options like Coursera and LinkedIn Learning, there’s no shortage these days of convenient and affordable ways to master new skills at home and at your own pace.

Interested in learning alongside a team? Consider participating in a hackathon as a subject matter expert on an issue close to your heart, and watch up close as tech professionals work together over a fast-paced weekend to build a solution to a pressing problem. Or reach out and pick up some projects through Catchafire or a local site like LendaHand and start building your emerging tech skills while helping make the world a better place.

Learn better in a classroom with live instruction? Reputable companies like General Assembly and CompTIA offer a variety of programs designed specifically for adult learners, and with schedules and topic areas crafted to meet both your needs and the demands of a hot job market. Programs are offered both online and, where permitted, in person on campus. Financial aid and payment plans are often available for students who qualify; there’s no need to take on crushing amounts of debt for a conventional four-year degree when a rigorous 12-week bootcamp can give you the skills, tools, and support you need to be a competitive tech job candidate.

5. Connect with Community

How are you supposed to find your first tech job when as many as 70% of job openings are not advertised? With a strong network, you can hear about those “hidden” jobs before other candidates do.

Networking doesn’t need to be a negative experience. Consider it a way of learning about your new industry and community by connecting with human beings who were once in your shoes. Most people enjoy helping people the way they were helped on their journey. As long as you treat people with kindness and respect, and not simply as a means to an end, you’ll begin to grow your reputation as a smart and curious person who would be a pleasure to work with.

Online communities can be as powerful for networking as in-person events. With so many networking events happening virtually, you can connect with hiring managers, tech recruiters, and other potential employers from Silicon Valley to New York City and beyond, often for free. Check out sites like Meetup and search for the topics that interest you; from Python to Ruby to HTML, there’s a meetup to meet your needs.

You’re seeking ways to connect with tech industry professionals as someone new to the field and eager to learn. So polish that resume, post it on job boards, read a few articles on how to optimize your LinkedIn profile, and put yourself out there. Once you start writing code, even if it’s for a class project, share it on Github. Leverage social media to connect with future colleagues and maybe even find a mentor.

Volunteering and being of service is both a great way to learn and a great way to meet new colleagues in the tech industry. Consider joining a professional association or two, even if you are just starting out. Get involved in Slack channels, LinkedIn conversations, Twitter feeds, and attend a few conferences, whether they’re virtual or in-person.

Initiative, curiosity, kindness, and hard work will set you apart as a strong interview candidate for your first tech job. The more tech talent you begin to have in your circle, the more likely it is that you’ll begin hearing about relevant job openings — and your new friend may even be able to get your application directly to a hiring manager.

Conclusion

You can land your first tech job with no experience as long as you’ve done the right research and preparation beforehand, and are willing to put in the time and effort to master new skills. A commitment to lifelong learning and a clear idea of what you want to do and where will help ensure your success, no matter how you choose to study. Take the time to consider free and paid training options, in-person and remote programs, and volunteer opportunities as you design your learning plan. And, start connecting with your future employers and colleagues early through networking and social media. A new career is waiting for you — take your first step toward it today.

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Learn To Be Creative & Productive at Work – Complete Guide

By Meredith Allen

Creativity is a trait that is as much desired as it is admired. Many of us wish we were a more creative person — that we always had the inspiration and the creative “spark” that allowed Picasso to paint Les Desmoiselles D’Avignon or Paul McCartney to write “Hey Jude.” And we as individuals aren’t the only ones who find value in creativity; today, businesses are taking note too. In a 2010 IBM global survey of more than 1500 CEOs from 60 countries and 33 industries worldwide, creativity was selected as the most crucial factor for future success. That’s right — the most crucial factor, above hard work, discipline, integrity, or vision.

That might be frightening if you just don’t feel like you have it in you. But guess what? You do have it in you, according to leading experts on the topic. And if you already have it in you, you can learn to let it out, let it breathe, and let it reach its full potential.

So can you learn creativity? Yes, you can. Let’s explore how.

Path to Learning Creativity & Productivity

“Everybody has tremendous creative capacities,” said Sir Ken Robinson, the bestselling author of Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative, among other titles. His book explores the value of creativity, the ways that we stifle our true talents, and the need for a better approach to creativity and creative thinking in education and business.

“You can be creative in math, science, music, dance, cuisine, teaching, running a family, or engineering,” Robinson said in an interview with ASCD. “Because creativity is a process of having original ideas that have value… It’s a process, not a single event, and genuine creative processes involve critical thinking as well as imaginative insights and fresh ideas.”

Creativity as a process. That’s an important idea, and one that comes up again and again. Creativity is not just about having that “a-ha” moment (which we are all capable of); it is about setting ourselves up to have that moment, then knowing what to do when it happens.

Learning creativity, therefore, does not mean starting from scratch; it means unearthing and enhancing the creative intelligence that already exists within us.

Can Creativity Be Learned? Unlocking the Secrets

Ever wished there was a class you could take to learn to be more creative? How about an entire program? Creative studies programs are popping up all over the place, from Drexel University’s Online Master of Science Degree Program in Creativity and Innovation to Buffalo State University’s Graduate Program, Graduate Certificate, and Minor in Creative Studies, just to name a few.

Gerard Puccio, chairman of the International Center for Studies in Creativity at Buffalo State University, told General Assembly that there are many reasons why he thinks it is possible to teach creativity, but highlighted three:

“First, my own personal experience in going through creativity training. As a young man I was the poster-child for someone who was uncreative, had much more of an athletic bent. Through undergraduate course work in creativity, I was able to dramatically improve my creative-thinking prowess. So personal experience. Second, as a practitioner, both as a trainer and educator, I have worked with thousands of people and watched their transformation as a result of creativity training. Finally, as a scholar I am familiar with the research that has experimentally tested the ‘trainability’ of creativity – and the evidence is conclusive. Creativity training has been shown to significantly improve creative attitude, creative performance, and creative problem-solving skills.”

Puccio went on to explain Buffalo State’s approach to teaching creativity:

“The research has shown that those programs that focus on providing people with cognitive strategies (tools that enhance thinking) are the most effective. With that in mind, the International Center for Studies in Creativity uses a model called Creative Problem Solving. The core skill embedded in the model is the separation of idea generation from idea evaluation. Both are important, but generation must come before evaluation. Additionally, this model provides a comprehensive set of cognitive tools that run the full range of the creative process, i.e., tools for problem clarification, tools for idea generation, tools that help to transform good ideas into great solutions, tools to help sell your great solutions to others, and tools that help with create a viable action plan.”

Dr. Fredricka Reisman, professor and founding director of the Creativity and Innovation program at Drexel, explained a similar approach in a press release for Drexel’s program:

“Everyone is inherently creative,” Reisman said. “Our program teaches techniques for improving creativity – generating original ideas – but it also takes it that next step and teaches students innovation – how to implement those ideas.”

Of course, universities aren’t the only places helping individuals expand their creative ability. If you look at some of the most successful startups and businesses, they’re embracing creativity too. For example, at 3M and Google, employees are encouraged to take free time to work on their own projects. LinkedIn has a foosball table where employees can play and relax (studies have found that people in a relaxed mood are more likely to arrive at creative solutions; one study by Australian researchers even found that lying on your back can help you solve puzzles). And the global design firm IDEO swears by the finger blaster, a toy that looks like a tiny rocket and launches across the room with one pull of a rubber band.

But does playing really enhance creativity?

In his very entertaining TED Talk, IDEO CEO Tim Brown shares his insights on the importance of play for creative development in children and adults. Playing not only gets the creative juices flowing, it also helps us form close relationships and trust each other. And trust allows individuals to feel comfortable sharing their ideas; to stop “self-editing,” which is an adult trait. Trust allows us to have that great idea and go for it.

“We think playfulness helps us get to better creative solutions, helps us do our jobs better, and helps us feel better when we do them,” said Brown.

What You Can Do Today To Enhance Your Creativity

Ready to embrace the creative within? Start with a few easy tricks:

Relax: Take a walk, play a game. If you’re in a creative block, let your mind be free of its normal obligations.
Stop self-editing: Don’t be afraid to have a creative idea; don’t think that every idea is “stupid.” Give yourself the freedom to think freely. Critical thinking can come later.
Don’t give up: While relaxation and free thinking can help you start to be more creative, creativity also requires daily practice, discipline, and time. Some of the most creative people come up with their best ideas only after hours, days, weeks, or years of creative thought and critical thinking about a problem or question. If the “a-ha” moment doesn’t strike you right away, take solace in the fact that it rarely does. If you’re frustrated, take a moment for yourself and get back into a creative flow when you’re ready.

Find a career that inspires your creative side.

Explore classes, courses, and workshops at GA

Six Steps To Getting Your First Job In Digital Marketing

By Nicole Solis-Sison

Are you a recent college grad or in search of a new career path in digital marketing? Landing your first entry-level digital marketing job with no experience can seem challenging, especially during a pandemic.

With the consumption of digital media on the rise, companies are opening up digital marketing opportunities to keep up with everyday online communication and content creation, changing the way we communicate and do business. It’s time to be opportunistic and creative in these challenging times to take charge of our careers!

Not sure how to get a job in digital marketing or where to begin? Here is a step by step guide in how to start your career in digital marketing from the safety and comfort of your own home.

1. Know Your Desired Role

Do your research on what your ideal digital marketing job or role might be. If you look up, “What kinds of jobs are there in digital marketing?”, you’ll find lots of resources on current digital marketing roles. Start by reading job descriptions and understanding the different roles that are available. Once you get a sense of what’s out there, start narrowing down roles to certain categories that you gravitate to such as search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), content marketing, digital marketer, marketing manager, digital marketing specialist, social media marketing, social media ads manager, and more. Once you get a list of the types of digital marketing roles you prefer, expand your search to different industries. Have you ever wanted a career as a digital marketer in the sports industry? What about a social media manager in the fashion space? Get to know the types of digital marketing job opportunities that are available in the industries that interest you most.

2. Know the Latest Trends

Digital marketing is ever-evolving. With new algorithms, features, and platforms emerging, the needs of the industry vary and continue to shift. Keep up with your areas of interest by engaging on the platforms weekly (i.e. Facebook, Instagram, Google Ads Manager, Mailchimp). You can also stay current by attending virtual workshops, taking online courses, and subscribing to newsletters that provide up to date announcements on your platforms of interest.

3. Learn the Skills

Getting your start in digital marketing requires your investment of time and resources. There are a ton of free resources online via newsletters, blogs, articles, social media, as well as masterclasses and workshops that companies like Shopify, General Assembly, and Later are offering during this time to enrich our communities and help individuals develop new skill sets. Longer, more in-depth certification courses can help you build, practice, and retain your new skills. Additionally, certification helps you stand out to other digital marketers who may be experienced but not certified.

4. Create an Online Presence

Prepare yourself for your future marketing job and test out your new digital marketing skills on yourself! Create your own social media accounts and showcase your content marketing skills with creative original content, running ads, and linking your accounts to websites you’ve set up or newsletters you’ve started. Hone in on the areas that you’ve expressed interest in when you were doing your career exploration research. Show people what you are capable of in digital marketing within your prospective industry. An online presence will help your prospective employer get to know you as a candidate as well as your passions and interests, which is incredibly helpful to the hiring process.

5. Build Your Experience

By this point, you may have completed certification, honed in on specific skills, and created an online presence. Now it’s time to build your digital marketing experience. Reach out to friends, family, classmates, colleagues or cold email individuals to offer your recently acquired digital marketing skills for their projects. Volunteer your skills to local small businesses or organizations you align with who could use help with creating a digital presence, content marketing, getting started on social media platforms, or keeping up with communication during this particular time of crisis. Build up your confidence as you practice your skills. As you become comfortable, transition to taking on paid clients that can help you build your portfolio as you start applying for a long-term digital marketing role.

6. Create a Network

It’s important to get your name out there online. Do your research on where to find your online community. For instance, if you identify as a woman in digital marketing, find Facebook groups centered around Women in Digital Marketing, join and connect with the members in the group. Be open about your current job search and ask for advice. Members of groups and forums are more than willing to help you in your journey. Get your introduction to the digital marketing world by asking industry professionals for one-on-one career development sessions. This will help build your network while learning about the various possibilities out there for you. Join a variety of virtual meetups, panels, and workshops. Get your name out there, offer your services, gain a list of experts, and connect with them. Have your cover letter, resume, social media handles, and portfolio ready to share.

Get ready to learn, and to be resourceful and entrepreneurial. Don’t be afraid to reach out, cold email, and ask for mentorship and guidance during this time. There’s a warm community of digital marketers out there willing to help you get your start in digital marketing.

Learn Digital Marketing Online

4 Tips for Preparing for a Coding Interview

By Philippe Luchansky

If you’re applying for a software engineering position, chances are you’ll encounter some technical interview or coding challenge. For newer engineers applying for software programming roles, the coding interview is often the most terrifying part.

However, with a few interview preparation tips and things to consider, the technical interview will seem a lot less scary and will hopefully be a valuable learning opportunity during your job search. Let’s break down a few helpful tips:

1. Essential Hard Skills for a Coding Interview

Get in the habit of regularly doing code challenges. It’s a much more effective way to prepare for coding interview questions than trying to cram a bunch of studying in before the big day.

It’s important to schedule time each day to attempt at least one code challenge. You’ll get better at solving them, and you’ll also get better at outlining your process and speaking to it. A few great websites to help you practice code challenges in varying degrees of difficulty include LeetCode, Codewars, and AlgoExpert.

These code challenges help build the essential hard skills you need to perform well in a coding interview technically. If you’re applying for a mid-level position as a software engineer, you’ll want to feel pretty solid with these types of practice problems in your interview preparation. If you’re gearing up for your first technical interview as a junior engineer, you’ll want at least some exposure and practice with these.

2. Prepare your Technical Interview with Strong Soft Skills

Coding challenges are important, but mastering them is only part of the preparation for coding interviews. Don’t overlook the significance of soft skills. During the interview process, including the technical coding interview, interviewers seek more than just coding abilities.

These other skills have to do with how well you communicate your thought process, collaborate, talk about the problem at hand, your leadership skills, your drive to learn, and generally speaking, how nice you are. Soft skills are often overlooked by candidates and can be deal breakers for a lot of coding interviews.

A company that’s worth applying to will want candidates that have strong soft skills, sometimes more so than hard skills, because they show how well a person can grow within the company and develop those hard skills over time. This is especially the case for junior software engineers.

When you practice your code challenges, see if you can buddy up with someone and take turns doing mock interview. Practice talking through the coding problem as you work, asking questions, giving each other hints here and there, and revealing your ability to lead, collaborate, and persevere through the coding test.

3. Acknowledge multiple solutions

The ideal candidate for an interviewer is not only skilled and a good fit for the company culture but also capable of defending their solution and considering alternative approaches. This demonstrates that they have a broader understanding beyond what they were taught or read online, and they recognize that there can be multiple solutions to a problem depending on the context.

As an interviewer, I value simplicity in a candidate’s solution because it allows for more discussion time. However, if a candidate can also propose alternative approaches and explain their choice, it’s a definite win.

For example, when tasked with designing a search function for a video streaming app, a candidate may opt for a quick but inefficient algorithm during the interview, while acknowledging a more suitable algorithm for real-world usage.

Speaking of algorithms…

4. Study your algorithms and data structures

This goes hand-in-hand with the hard skills but deserves its own section. You don’t need to be a master of computer science to ace a coding interview, but there are some standard algorithms and data structures that you should feel good about referencing, or at least mentioning and talking about. For instance:

How does a bubble sort work vs. a merge sort?
What’s the difference between a stack and a queue?
What’s a linked list? What about a hash table?

It’s likely that you’ll be asked one algorithm question in a job interview, so becoming familiar with and being able to speak about them to a degree is a good thing. Cracking The Code Interview by Gayle Laakmann McDowell is a great book covering all of the essential algorithms, data structures, and how to implement and use them in sample code challenges.

The coding interview is an opportunity for you to not only show off your skills as an engineer, but also to demonstrate how well you work with others as a data scientist. It’s designed to simulate what it’s like to work with you on a team. So be yourself, study, know the programming language(s) and practice, take a deep breath, and crush that coding interview!

Learn Software Engineering Online

A new chapter

By General Assembly

A message from co-founder and CEO Jake Schwartz:

Today marks an important new chapter in the General Assembly story. We’ve had a lot of these big milestones since we started as a team of four almost ten years ago. In that time, we raised five rounds of venture capital, expanded to nearly forty markets in seven countries, launched hundreds of new programs and courses, worked with over 400 companies on large-scale digital transformation initiatives, and were acquired by the largest human capital solutions company in the world.

All of these chapters had a few common threads. Our mission, our vision, our approach to the world — and, me as CEO. So this new chapter is going to be different, which will involve me stepping away from my role as CEO of General Assembly after ten amazing years.

As with any big change, I feel some uncertainty and a level of trepidation (a feeling I know that our students experience every single day as they gain new skills and transform their careers). But I’m also really, really happy, because we’ve found a really dynamic and talented executive to step into the CEO role. Over the past six months, we’ve run a robust and intensive search, with a lot of deliberation and consideration of many talented and qualified candidates.

So: I am excited to announce Lisa Lewin as our new Chief Executive Officer, starting August 17. I have absolute confidence that Lisa is the leader who will ensure that General Assembly reaches its ambitious growth goals, while also contributing to the culture that will ensure its continued success. I am also looking forward to being a part of this process — I’ve told Lisa I’m here for whatever support she wants or needs (while of course not getting in the way.)

At the start of GA, I was just coming out of the painful anxious experience of graduating college into a recession, feeling lost and lonely in the world of work. Being able to translate that experience into an ever expanding pathway for others in the same predicament has been incredibly meaningful to me personally. But to be able to build this among a brilliant cast of thousands — team members, students, alumni, partners, investors — has been the greatest honor of my working life. I cannot think of a better steward for the next phase of this company’s development than Lisa Lewin, and I cannot wait to see what comes next for General Assembly.

To learn more about General Assembly’s new CEO, Lisa Lewin, read our press release here.

Filling the Gap Between Learning & Engagement

By General Assembly

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a rapid and forced transformation of many businesses. Plans that companies previously anticipated rolling out over many years have been decided and implemented in weeks.

Amid this rapid change where many are scrambling to adapt, leaders should ask themselves what other “five-year plans” should fastrack to keep pace with these critical business plans. One of the plans that companies should evaluate is talent development: how can businesses develop strategic plans to meet the needs of their rapidly evolving businesses?

Creating talent development work isn’t as easy as providing online learning to employees. Our Marketing Standards board members met recently and uncovered an unexpected commonality. While all of them are making learning available to their employees, the primary area for improvement on their employee engagement surveys continues to be upskilling. This revelation brought on a layered conversation about the common challenges employers face when it comes to engaging employees in training and development — especially when these pieces of training are online. So, what’s causing the disconnect between desire and action on upskilling employees, and most importantly, what can leaders do about it?

Understanding the Disconnect

Upskilling is urgent for employers — especially for newer professionals who aren’t going to be satisfied in their jobs if there are no learning (or advancement) opportunities. Employees don’t merely want a job; they want to work for companies they can learn from and grow within; employees wish to build careers.

In a Deloitte survey, 90% of employees said their organizations were redesigning jobs. The World Economic Forum reported that more than half of all its employees would require reskilling or upskilling to address the digital skills gaps driven by changing job requirements over the next three years.

For many reasons like these, our board members agree that it’s an employer’s responsibility to make learning available and an integrated part of the employee experience.

So, what’s getting in the way of learning — from the employee perspective?

Two big factors are time and incentive. Many employees feel like there’s not enough time during the workday to take the training accessible to them. Others don’t prioritize upskilling because although they want new and updated skills, there is no extrinsic motivator for learning them. One of the clearest opportunities for extrinsic motivation often isn’t clearly connected to training: it’s the idea that training and skills are requisite expectations for the job or performance. The right jobs motivate all of us.

Possible Solutions

Providing employees with upskilling opportunities signals to them that they are valued and that they have a future within their workplace organization. However, offering a training program isn’t enough — the implementation of these programs must be intentional, structured, and relevant. During our conversation, board members came up with tips that can help companies foster a learning-positive workplace. These tips include:

1. Partner With Leadership to Allocate Time During the Workday

Big roadblocks employees face: blocking time to make learning important and creating company-wide time blocks, like “No Meetings Fridays,” to provide designated time for employee upskilling. Making these time blocks company-wide is critical. If some teams aren’t participating in it, they’ll throw a meeting on the calendar that conflicts with the learning time. At that point, you’ve lost the consistent open time and original initiative purpose you’re trying to create for your team.

2. Extrinsic Incentives: Compelling Rewards

Extrinsic incentives are tangible motivators that can encourage employees to take an upskilling training course. Offering incentives gives employees a clear prize at the end of their experience, plus an added incentive to complete learning by a particular due date. This specific incentive is a nice touch from board member Gretchen Saegh (CMO of L’Oréal USA), who plans on rewarding “the best re-scorer” of the CM1 assessment with being “CMO for the day.” These empowering incentives give employees a sense of purpose, a structured career path, and long-term vision, giving them valuable real-world experiences and advice that can be difficult to get elsewhere.

Extrinsic Incentives: Executive Messaging on Expectations

Source: https://learning.linkedin.com/resources/workplace-learning-report

When employees see their managers endorsing upskilling, and also see the executive team pushing for the same thing, it speaks volumes about the value of upskilling within that organization and the expectations around completing tasks and initiatives surrounding it. The bottom line is that upskilling gains immediate credibility when employees see it supported by leadership. A message from the CEO and executive team is imperative when it comes to setting the tone for a company, as a message from “the top” can have a ripple effect throughout the organization.

Getting employees to translate the desire-to-action key values of online learning is particularly pertinent as more employers look for efficient and effective ways to train their employees remotely via online training providers. It’s a new world, and there’s no magic bullet, hidden secrets, and there are certainly no shortcuts. The right online training is thoughtful and methodical: it considers human behavior, personal motivations, and leadership alignment + support to get online training to occur and resonate for employees — from entry-level positions to the C-suite.

Finally, there’s the process of trial and error. Although initiatives often start with the strongest and best of intentions, the most successful training results adapt and fluctuate over time. No plan is flawless right out of the gate — however well-planned or well-intended.

Learning is always a journey.

To learn more about how General Assembly can help guide your company’s talent transformation, check out our enterprise marketing solutions.