From asking for help when stuck to pair programming and taking direction, working on a team is vitally important to a software engineer’s life. This session helps our students understand the techniques modern technology teams use to build camaraderie and transfer knowledge between team members.

At one point or another, every engineer deals with the feeling of being stuck in a problem. Feelings of “imposter syndrome” are commonplace, and students will inevitably question why they are even learning code in the first place. This session will normalize the feelings of “imposter syndrome,” give students an excellent vocabulary to describe their feelings, and move them from a fixed learning mindset to a growth learning mindset.

Today’s workplace represents a rich melting pot of people from many different races, religions, sexual orientations, genders, etc. As we enter this workplace, we have to understand what makes us diverse. The Diversity and Inclusion workshops provide a better understanding of the lexicon that surrounds diversity. Students will be guided through a series of exercises and discussions to know themselves better and define identity. By increasing our diversity lexicon, students will become effective advocates for creating richly diverse and inclusive workplaces.

Simply understanding the vocabulary to describe diversity in the modern workplace is only half of the equation to having a diverse and inclusive workplace. The Diversity and Inclusion sessions equip students with preventative and reactive measures for practicing inclusivity. Students will learn various ally skills to use with peers and methods to combat insensitivity at the office.

Often, military personnel have little to no personal finance training, resulting in a slew of financial issues in the civilian world. Going from a military salary to a technology salary is a significant increase and can either lead to more financial insecurity or put students on a track to financial success. In this session, we will talk through the importance of budgeting, getting out of debt, and how to set up an ecosystem for healthy finances.

Salary negotiations are a vital part of every job search – too often, thousands of dollars are left on the table just because candidates don’t negotiate. This session will help students find the confidence and verbiage necessary to negotiate at the offer table through a series of role-playing situational exercises.

After finishing a coding Bootcamp, students are often surprised to find that searching for a full-time position is often more complex than the coding Bootcamp itself. From endless cold emails to countless networking events, searching for a job is exhausting. This session will help students put job searching in context, help them get on a written plan, and overcome their fears of interviews.

The daily class schedule includes time each day for students to work on their LinkedIn profiles, prepare answers for behavioral interviews, and work through technical whiteboarding interview questions. Also, students are taught 1-2 technical interview questions each week by senior engineers in the industry.

Code Platoon is fortunate enough to have a number of volunteers from the recruiting and technology industry come in and teach our students. Our Career Services Team has developed a number of sessions to best prepare students below:

Session 1: Building an online presence

This session reinforces the building of a strong online presence via Github, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Students are taught how to fully utilize Github by finding interesting projects, following active contributors, and giving “stars” to reputable code bases. During the session, students will be taught where to look for beginner-friendly open source software and build their online presence.

Session 2: Resume Writing Workshop

This workshop teaches students to carefully document the work they are doing, write notes on their specific contributions, and record what challenges they are facing while their learning new material. They are then tasked with starting to think through / document their own narrative – how they got to Code Platoon, their experience in the military, etc.

Sessions 3-5: Individual Resume Writing Coaching

In the last few weeks of each cohort, students meet with volunteer recruiters vetted by the Career Services Team up to three times to review and work on their resume.

Session 6: Final Interviews (Behavioral)

During this session, professional recruiters will work with students on how to best present themselves in an interview and how to break down behavioral questions.

Session 7: Final Interviews (Technical)

During this session, a senior developer from the tech community will teach students how to approach and break down technical questions. This session will cover both answering whiteboarding questions and how to speak to their general technical knowledge.

Session 8: Mock Interview Day

The career curriculum concludes with a mock interview day given with industry professionals. Technical and non-technical interviewers will interview students and provide feedback to students. Each student will have five 45-minute interviews with a mix of technical and behavioral questions.