How I got my first dev job in the apocalypse: A Thread

Note: I have an AA in social work, went to Lambda School, started off homeless at both

I will make a thread about how I moved from homelessness to here later. But first, how I got from Lambda School to a job.

I threw conventional ideas out the window.

These are not conventional times in the US.

I relied heavily on my network despite having very few friends. I started building my network by making small posts about what I did every day.

They were super bland and bad at first. I made small improvements, one at a time (i.e. add emojis that illustrate your point), and repeated what got more engagement.

I observed that a lot of people complain about recruiters on LinkedIn, biting the hand that feeds you even when it's overwhelmed and exhausted.

Showing empathy for recruiters helps. Not pity. Just recognizing their job isn't easy like your life may not be easy.

Which leads me to my next point, I didn't actually apply for my job (but also didn't have a referral).

Instead of applying to my job, I unknowingly attracted my job to me.

How did I do that?

Honestly, I just focused on being kind and strategically reframing struggles into opportunities.

One day, I posted about receiving a rejection lecture and how grateful I was to even be on the journey rejection letters appear on.

BE FRIENDLY. People are trying to identify if you are safe enough to trust with responsibilities and safe enough to work with. Be kind.

I never dreamt of being able to apply let alone apply and receive a response of any kind.

This rejection letter sincerely felt like a rite of passage to me, similar to many stories I read about from a variety of cultures' stories about growing up.

To be clear, the reframing must be sincere. That's important. The ability to reframe your current problems shows that you know how to handle real world problems. If you can make lemonade of your own lemons, it shows others that you can make lemonade with theirs too.

And who doesn't want someone on their team who genuinely knows every shadow's source is a light?

Anyway, the hiring manager saw that and reached out to me, inviting me to interview.

I literally got my job just by being myself. Despite all of the ways I'm disadvantaged on paper.

I recognize I'm not the same as everyone. It is my hope that this helps you proceed with what must be done to advance your life, whatever you diagnose your needs as. I literally never thought I'd be here.

I did have a routine outside of that.
1. Post what I learned or did every day on LinkedIn./send Zoom links to people I can job hunt with.
2. Go through my interested in jobs list and apply to jobs.
3. Reach out to places/people if it's been a week.

4. Connect with people at jobs you applied to. Specifically people with your background. Literally (not figuratively), no one is the average statistic of anything. It’s important to find people like you.

5. Build small projects for the companies you applied to.
6. Repeat.

I genuinely think luck played a small part in my success. I'm no expert, but I know what life in the struggle bus is like. If you need help, please reach out.

Please note if you reach out, I will not save you but help you identify how to save yourself as the latter is much more valuable. I say this as someone who wished to be saved for most of my life.

It is my hope that this is helpful. I'm here if you need anything.

Some questions I've gotten:
How many places did I apply for?
Like 10 I think? I didn't count. Sometimes I would shoot out a bunch of Easy Applies when anxious, and I did get one response. It was mostly not fruitful.

I put most of my effort into networking.

Was an online socialite/influencer?
No. Look how many followers I have. A huge chunk came from this thread after getting a job. I was terrified of social media at the start of trying to network. I never know what to say or how to say it. So I posted about what I did each day.

Were you the "smartest" or most popular in your class?

Not even close. I didn't really make any friends for like the first 6 months of my experience. I often failed my first attempts at projects. Practice works.

How do you use LinkedIn to find people?

On the business profile, you can find a list of the employees and filter them based on their education and department.

Were you willing to relocate/was your job near you?

I was willing but only to some places. My job is not located near me. I stopped filtering by location, since most places are forced to be remote. I figure if they want me to move later, and I don't want to, I will switch then.

Did you talk about having been homeless in your interview?

Yes and it's on my LinkedIn profile. I use it to connect to software, since I used free apps to help me.

Check the about me if you would like an example of reframing:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ira-sanchez/ 

What were your interviews like?

The first was a really pleasant conversation. I made it a point to research things the company was up to and asked about that. I made sure to asked about covid adjustments in a friendly way.

The second interview, I researched everyone who is listed as an attendee on the Google calendar event. I made sure to ask them questions about their histories like how they got into tech after having studied something else. I discussed my hobby & beatboxed freestyle. We had fun.