Interview with Maria, Campus Manager at the Wild Code School in Madrid.
Hi María! How would you describe the campus manager role?
¡Hola! I’m Campus Manager of the Wild Code School in Madrid. For me, being a Campus Manager is like being a one-man/woman band, you have to do a bit of everything: career coaching, admin, public relations, marketing…
By far, my favorite part of the job is coaching the students and helping them find a job.
What is your approach to coach student in finding a job?
We know that technical skills are important. That is, mostly, what the training is for: students learn up-to-date tech skills like React, Node.js…
But, we also know that soft skills are key in finding a job. Companies are seeking developers with good social skills. Developers open to new Learning opportunities, problem solvers, ability to speak in public, to work in a team, etc… That’s where I play my part, helping the students improving these aspects of their profile with personalized coaching.
This is how it works:
- I take the time to look opportunities up with them,
- together, we improve their Curriculum Vitae,
- we set or complete their LinkedIn page,
- I help them to create a project portfoli,
- I share their portfolio with our partners, and other companies more likely to hire such profile
The search has to be proactive from the student side as well. We are giving them the best chances to find THE job and, at the same time, they are becoming autonomous with the job hunt, its codes and Learning about the best practices.
We also have a job pool, where our students and alumni participate: there, we post all the offers we get from our network.
To sum up, we introduce the students to the ecosystem and we improve their chances to find a first job together.
Please share 5 tips for junior developers to find their first job?
1- Revise your story (the one you will be telling to recruiters)
You might not have a typical resume, some non-related experiences to your developer activity… Change it. Use a format that highlights your skills, create a link to your GitHub portfolio and your LinkedIn page.
When you speak about your previous jobs, do it in terms of skills that you can transfer to coding, like: “in such project, I led the team to achieving X sales…”.
Make your resume no more than 1 or 2 pages, and give it some nice outline. It has to stands out!
You’ll also have to update your LinkedIn. Write a nice description about yourself, add all your skills, ask your friends and colleagues to endorse and write recommendations.
Use keywords!
2- Create a portfolio
In coding, education, titles and certificates are not as important as your projects.
Companies and recruiters want to see your ability to solve problems. The best way to give them that first glance to your potential, is by creating a portfolio. Build one with the projects you did during the coding bootcamp, work on non-profit projects or create websites for friends or family if you cannot get more professional ones. The more you have, the more you learn, and the more others will see how good you are.
3- Research for companies who are hiring
Now that you’re all set, dive into the ecosystem. Use LinkedIn, Indeed and others to learn about the companies that are currently hiring developers, but not necessarily junior ones. Search for the ones that need your skills set and technologies know.
Then, apply via LinkedIn or Indeed, but personalize your application adding a short cover letter naming addressed to that company/person, and telling them how you can help in their project.
4- Prepare, prepare, prepare
Once you land an interview, it’s all about preparation. Make sure you know about the company (what do they do? what are their values?, and their goals?). Don’t be shy, and ask who you’ll be interviewing with and do research about them (will you meet only with HR? Will you meet with your future boss?). It is important as the interview will be different depending on who you meet. Prepare a list of questions you’d like to know about the firm, the job, the projects and colleagues. It shows that you’re curious.
I always recommend my students to rehearse at home the scripts for the most common interview questions. Having the answers in your head, will allow you to reply confidently and will make you less anxious! There are tons of resources on LinkedIn and Youtube to help you with this.
And of course, prepare for the technical questions!
5- Be yourself
Be professional during an interview. Don’t mask yourself and be honest about who you are. This is the best way to find a job somewhere where they value you as a professional and as a person. Recruiters also want to find people who match the firm’s values and who will fit nicely in the team.
Good luck in your search!
Do you want to know how our Campus managers will support you with your career? Contact your city’s campus.
