---
date: 2020-04-17
title: My advice to bootcamp graduates
description: My advice to developers just graduating from a bootcamp on finding a good first job and successfully growing their career from the start
category: career
tags: [bootcamp, advice, grad, graduate]
hero: blue-anchor-on-wall.jpg
heroAlt: Blue anchor stenciled on the wall
heroCredit: 'Photo by [milan degraeve](https://unsplash.com/@milandegraeve)'
published: false
---

- Didn't go to a bootcamp
  - Worked alongside and hired lots
- Finding a job is difficult
  - Some successful ones apply to 3 and get it
  - Other successful ones apply to hundreds with no luck
- Hold out for a company that is willing to train/invest in you
  - I can empathize w/ how difficult this must be
- If you don't...
  - Will be jumping from small project to small bug all over the stack cuz your skills never grow
  - They don't trust you and you don't trust yourself
  - Or everything is interesting to you so you jump from one thing to the next
  - A year later, you're no further than when you started but now w/ less promise
- After 3 months, start to identify _one_ thing to get really good at
  - Work w/ your manager
  - Ideally something that both you're interested in and your team needs
- Spend 9-18 months getting so good that you could interview and get hired for that position
- After you're done find the next thing and then the next

Keep learning my friends. 🤓

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