Before you begin
Read everything on this page carefully to make sure you don't miss a key step. 😉
Join the Discord
Join your peers in the Speak_ Discord and make sure that you’ve got access to all of the right channels.
Joining our Discord is required to participate in a cohort.
Steps
- Join the Speak_ Discord server.
- Post your first name and last initial in the #rollcall channel.
- After you post your name in the #rollcall channel we'll check you in and give you access to cohort-specific private channels.
- If your post in #rollcall has a green check (✅) you have been successfully checked in. You should now have access to extra channels in your left-hand sidebar.
- If your post in #rollcall has a blue check (☑️) then we were unable to check you in. Please reach out to a member of the Speak_ team for support.
- If your post in #rollcall does not have a check, that just means that we haven’t gotten to you yet. We’ll get you checked in as quickly as we can.
Get the most out of this experience
Past participants say the Speak_ Tech Interview Prep cohort is intense! There’s a lot to cover in a short amount of time, but going through all of the material and applying what you learn is guaranteed to make you look (and feel!) more hirable.
The cohort is structured to last 2 weeks, but the materials here will be available to you even after the cohort ends. Our recommendation is to focus on the community while the cohort is active.
During the cohort
- Be active in the community. Participate in the live events, connect with your peers, ask lots of questions, and follow along with the recommended schedule.
- Do lots of pair programming. Learning how to speak aloud while coding is an important skill for software engineers in the job search. Pair programming is the best way to practice.
- Do lots of mock interviews. Interviews can be scary, but they don’t need to be. Practice answering common behavioral interview questions and get feedback to improve your answers. Do this enough and you'll go into interviews feeling confident and well-prepared.
- Take lots of practice assessments. We’ll provide some practice assessments, but we’ll also teach you how to make your own. Love 'em or hate 'em, online assessments are the #1 way companies screen potential software engineers as the first step in their hiring process. Get really good at algorithms to give yourself a huge advantage.
After the cohort ends
- Refine and improve. During the cohort, you’ll learn a bunch of ways to spice up your resume, your portfolio, your project READMEs, and more. Revisit the checklist below often to make sure that you’re keeping everything updated and optimized.
- Stay focused. There will always feel like a million things to do, but most of them aren’t going to help you land your next role. Stick to the strategy outlined in the guide and don’t get sidetracked thinking that you have to learn a new language, master a new tool, or build a new Twitter clone in order to get hired.
- Put in the work. Until you land your first job (hopefully soon!) you should treat the job search as a priority. This includes studying, practicing, and coding. But it also includes doing outreach, making connections, and applying for jobs. We’ll give you an example schedule to ensure you’re spending enough time on everything, but it’s up to you to stay consistent and keep working toward your goals.
Job search checklist
At the end of this guide, it’s our hope that you have everything you need to land your dream job. Here's a handy checklist you can use to make sure you're getting all the value out of this experience.
We recommend writing this checklist down and putting it somewhere where you'll see it every day. As you go through the materials, check each of these items off as you complete them. 💪🏿
One-time
- I have a strong resume
- I have an effective developer portfolio
- I’ve committed to a study schedule for practicing coding
- I’ve written down and rehearsed my answers to common interview questions
Ongoing
- I am practicing my pair programming with a variety of people
- I am doing mock interviews with a variety of people
- I continue to build professional relationships on LinkedIn with hiring managers
Have you written down the checklist above? Yes? Ok, perfect! That means it's time to get started. 😎