How to Find a Job in IT After Completing a Programming Course

Shifting your career by doing a coding bootcamp is not a piece of cake — but it’s still totally doable. Most of these courses give you enough hard skills to jump-start your career in IT. And here’s what comes next.

You’re in luck. The support may come with different names: Career Center, Career Advice, Job Hunting Assistance, Career Placement Support. But the actual process is essentially the same: the school will teach you everything you need to know about landing an IT gig.

The school provides job opportunities from its partners. Essentially, the school has an agreement with companies that always need programmers. When you graduate, you can apply to one of them and your application will be prioritized as the company already knows and trusts the school. 

What’s even better, it doesn’t mean that your choice will only be limited to these companies. You can apply to organizations outside the partner network as well.

The partner company network at Avion includes Pick-A-Roo and Canva. Your chances of getting hired by one of them increase with this school

Mentors teach classes on creating a CV. Your CV, or resume, is a short presentation of your work experience and education. Many find writing a CV frustrating. If you’re a career shifter, it may be even trickier, as there’s not much experience to talk about.

That’s why many schools teach classes specifically on writing a resume. An experienced HR manager explains what recruiters look for in a candidate and helps you present your skills in an appealing way. 

Avion offers resume reviews as a part of their web development course

The school helps you build a portfolio. Your portfolio includes projects that you’ve completed. 

It’s crucial as it showcases your real skills and work ethics to potential employers. 

However, to add a gig to your portfolio, you need to land one first — but not so many employers want to hire a person without any experience. This can seem like a vicious cycle. Coding schools know about this problem and have a solution to it.

During the course, you will complete real projects: build a website, an app, or create a design — depending on the course you take. They can become the first additions to your portfolio.

At a web developer course at Refocus, students create their own website that can be added to their portfolio

You do mock interviews with HR managers. Job interviews are stressful, everybody gets that. And many schools help you prepare for your first meeting with a recruiter.

You’ll learn how to answer interview questions and how to present your skills and experience and then do mock interviews. Essentially, your mentor will play the role of an employer and ask questions, just like during a real interview. Then you’ll get feedback on your presentation. After several rounds, you’ll know the drill and it is very likely you will feel more confident.

The school may provide a job guarantee. If you follow all the steps above precisely, you’re most definitely going to get a job offer. Some schools even have a “Job Guarantee,” meaning that if you don’t get a job, you’ll get your money back. You’ll still have to put in the effort and follow the mentors’ instructions, but you’re insured in case something goes totally wrong.

ISA stands for Income Sharing Agreement. It can be seen as a kind of job guarantee as well.

Having an ISA means that you don’t pay for your training at the time of the course. Basically, you study for free. You have to pay the school back only after you find a job. However, you pay back not a fixed amount of money, but a part of your salary, i.e. share your income. Usually you’ll have to give back 17% of your income for 2 years.

An example: you’ve decided to become a web developer. You sign an ISA agreement with a school and study for free. Then you land a job that pays ₱50,000. You keep ₱41,500 and give ₱8,500 back to the school — and keep doing so for 24 months. If your salary is raised to ₱60,000, you’ll keep ₱49,800 and give back ₱10,200.

Pros: you can shift your career without worrying about the funds. If you study part-time and stay on your old job while training, you practically don’t risk anything. Plus, given that IT jobs pay well, you’re still likely to make more than average even after paying back the 17%.

Cons: the course is going to cost much more than when paying upfront, sometimes up to 2–3 times more.

Courses without career support may be more affordable. Plus, you can totally find a job yourself by following the same steps.

Study the job listings at Indeed, Kalibrr, LinkedIn, and other websites. If you start a career in IT from scratch, look for junior- and entry-level positions. As you get some hands-on experience, you’ll be able to apply to higher-level jobs. 

Write your CV. Keep it short and simple — your resume shouldn’t be more than one page long. Pay attention to what skills are listed in the job posting and talk about them. Don’t include irrelevant work experience in your CV: if you apply for the position of a web developer, don’t talk about your experience as a chef. If you don’t have much relevant experience, try to put more emphasis on your soft skills or your portfolio.

Build your portfolio. Here are some ideas on how to get projects for your portfolio:

Prepare for the interview. Information on how interviews go is easily available online. To get some grip on the process, cooperate with your fellow students: one of you can play the role of the recruiter, the other can answer questions. Plus, you can always switch roles and get multiple points of view.