This advice is collected from and inspired by a slack group I am part of.

Hypothetical situation: entry-level software developer, credentials: community college graduate with a AS in Computer Science, no coding school.

Notable difficulties:

  1. can’t get past the chauvinism of jobs that look for a four-year degree
  2. didn’t have the intensive training and portfolio development that a bootcamp would have offered
  3. can’t even get an internship for experience, because all of them require that you are currently enrolled in a four-year-degree program.

Aggregated recommendations:

  1. developing a portfolio on github, etc was a long road but ultimately a fruitful one. As a (new) hiring manager, I would recommend the dev go for depth rather than breadth in that portfolio (choose a language/framework and do several projects to show mastery of it).
  2. don’t self-select out because of a job description’s 4-year or coding school job requirement. Apply anyway.
  3. utilize your network intensely, because it can be so tough to get that 1st yes.
  4. apply to “apprenticeships” that are targeted at coding school grads. There’s less expectation that you’ll come in knowing how to do everything.
  5. leverage social accountability (like find a buddy, or a group, that meets at a regular cadence where they can do check ins on their progress and debug problems together)
  6. MOCK INTERVIEWS. Find experienced folks to give them practice whiteboarding interviews, because that’s another thing coding schools really emphasize. Showing your skills in an interview setting is a separate but related skill to actually doing software engineering.
  7. consider contracting as a way to build a portfolio. However, it’s easy to get pigeonholed as a contractor forever and avoid deep skills development if they go this route.
  8. there are boot camp fellowship and scholarships they can apply for - for example nyc has a tech talent pipeline program that provides free tuition to fellowships at flatiron and full stack.
  9. go to lots of tech meetups (on any related topic! ruby, python, emberjs, reactjs, mobile apps, UI design…) to meet people and get a feel for the scene- in SF, NY, Chicago, Atlanta, Portland, Seattle, Dallas, Houston, you can do 3-4 a week. Life-tweeting or blogging notes during them also demonstrates understanding and dramatically increases network effects.
  10. Join regional slack groups as a way to network and hear about jobs list