Over the whole of this three-part series, I've outlined methodologies without outlining the tools underlying many of these techniques. In this final article, I'm going to focus on specific tools and how you can apply these tools in creative manners to maximize your productivity and keep high quality in your search.
That being said, if the following techniques don't really seem to apply to you, the whole takeaway from this post is that you can think of a job search as a software development project where you are the codebase that will be tested with every interview, and in this particular case, a codebase even a month stale will need a lot of refactoring to keep up with industry demand.
Use a Kanban board for tracking your job search
Keeping track of everything you have to do in your job search is really critical to overall success. It helps you determine your current velocity in terms of how many jobs you can apply to per week, how many hours a day of practice to coding you can devote, and how often you can give yourself some me time. It's important to offload this logistical responsibility to a concrete data store which is visually accessible. That way, you can focus on the task at hand rather than your deadlines.
The way I was able to achieve this was by using Trello, and you can find a sample board I made here. I won't go into depth about what Trello is, other than the fact that it makes a great Kanban tool and allowed me to treat my job search like a pipeline. The most important thing in this board was goal setting, of which I had 3 + 1 goals (the +1 is always implicit):
- Complete my review of Elements of Programming Interviews (or in your case, whatever book/course of interview prep you are going for)
- Reach out to potential contacts of interest in my job search
- Track any requirements from companies in their job interview process 4 (implied). Keep a sane head and try to enjoy the job searching process. This was especially important given I was searching during the COVID-19 pandemic
So, how does the board work? It very loosely follows one of the main methods of Kanban - start with tasks that have to be done on the left, and progress through them towards the right.
The EPI Prescribed Chapters all start out from the left list as chapters I simply haven't touched. As I cover them, I move them through to review and finally, to chapters I feel whose concepts I've mastered. As you can tell, I didn't quite obtain this goal in my search, but having this board allowed me to verify my progress at a glance and plan accordingly.
Next is the Revised Daily Routine. It's just for show here, but allows me to revisit the schedule I set out for myself. I aimed for nine to ten hours each day of effective productivity. Creating something like this in a personal calendar is good practice, too.
Questions to ask and Wishlist are scratch boards for me to place questions in advance to an interview, and make notes. Specific tasks, when done, would be moved to the "done" board. I set deadlines for these, which makes it easier to find by date instead of what task I did - this is effective when hearing back from employers after a relatively long time (1-2 week turnaround time).
This board is by no means perfect, and not exhaustive. However, that's the beauty of a tool like Trello. Add subtasks that you feel are important, and remove those that aren't. Try to aim for at most five explicit goals in your search, since that will be manageable (technically there are six, always, always remember the implicit goal of keeping a sane head).
When you land a job, don't archive the board. Look back at it after one or two months. This will bring new insight into the work you did, and potentially inspire you to share your experienceon a blog like Dev.to, which is a win-win situation. :)
Find a Playlist and stick to it
If you're a budding engineer you know the imporance of finding flow in your work. I particularly find amazing productivity when I plop my headphones and listen to Acid Jazz. That's just me, but this is really important for your job search. Even if you decide to not use a board from the previous section and decide to only focus on, say, working on a personal portfolio project, having something to soothe your ears will benefit greatly.
This is purely anecdotal evidence I'm providing here - the overall gist of this point is to find a way of getting in the zone in your job search and do as much as you can to prevent breaking that flow of work.
It won't be perfect.
You'll have to manage shifting your workflow from working on a technical challenge to talking to HR for a phone screen. Some days, you'll devote a ton of time networking on LinkedIn and attending virtual/in-person meetups. Some weekends you'll be hacking away at an app. Finding what gets you in the flow for each of these things is critical to not only success in the job search but work as a developer in general.
If you're having trouble finding a good starting playlist, I found Electro Choc from GTA IV to be a remarkable companion.
Find a workout routine and embed it into your Pomodoros
When I initially started my job search, I was not the most active person. I'd go on somewhat infrequent bike rides and spend a lot of time in front of the computer. Both of these activities usually happend in long durations, with little breaks - thanks to this, I'd spend long periods sitting down!
When I found the Pomodoro technique, I figured: Alright, this is a good idea to be able to get some intense work done in short amounts of time, as well as take meaningful breaks. What did those meaningful breaks turn into? Browsing my phone and lying idle on my bed. Although I could sense that during my pomodoros I was more productive, I found I was more productive if I tried to do a one minute plank during a short pomodoro break.
The exercise doesn't have to be strenuous and you don't even have to break a sweat - however, I found that after a break with some exercise in it, I'd come back to a problem feeling refreshed, willing to give it another shot. I eventually changed my pomodoro schedule to include a short bike ride a day around the block. Even in recent months, I was able to perform a quick five minute upper body drill.
Closing thoughts
There's so much more I have to talk about in regards to tools used in the job search. Start off with these and tell me what you think. If they don't suite you, feel free to change up the strategy. Be flexible - and, if you like, spice things up sometimes. Split a day up into emailing people in the morning, then working through a coding competition in the afternoon, and maybe some video games in the evening (or what have you). Don't let your job search get stale - it is your job search, after all - and I hope this series of articles has helped you in your search.
Till next time,
Luis
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