Laid off My First Software Developer Job
Written on: 03/31/2020
Updated on: Sept. 8th 2022
Back Story
In case you aren't aware of my journey up until this point, let me give you a brief run-down. I completed my 5 months of intense classroom training. I now was a few months into my on-the-job training as a Jr. Software Developer. During my time, I discovered the world of AWS. Got my AWS Solutions Architect – Associate Certification. Fell in love with Python. And so much more. Unfortunately, my time came to an end about a week ago. I got the call from my boss informing me that I was being laid off. I later found out that my other coworkers who went through the same training, were also let go.
What do I do now?
At first I was heartbroken. Was it something I could have prevented? Was I not good enough? Well rest assured it was because of COVID-19, and that they were hoping it would be a temporary lay-off. So after a day (or a week) of feeling sorry for myself, I had to figure out what my next steps were going to be. I knew I had to keep coding. I came this far, to give it up now because I feeling sad for myself is definitely not an option. But the glaring problem was job hunting. It seems that every job I looked at, wants 3-5+ years’ experience and a CS degree. How am I going to overcome that? Although the job hunt seems daunting, I can’t quit. I can only control my actions and that is what I plan to do. So what is my game plan?
Game Plan
If you know me, you know I am pretty organized and always have a game plan. Whether that be when I am coding on a project or in life. I write out my steps on how I plan to tackle something and follow through. I realized this has made me a very productive developer when I write out my ideas and thoughts. So here are my steps on overcoming being out of work.
- Code every day
- While I was in my classroom training, we had code challenges. So I plan on re-doing those in JavaScript and also again in Python. I also have a few ideas for some side projects I want to get started on
- Beef up my LinkedIn profile
- Make an excel sheet and list all the jobs I have applied to and when so I don’t get confused
- Look at other sites that post jobs such as Tech Ladies, Stack Overflow, etc.
- Since I don’t have a CS degree, I want to get a better understanding of CS and programming concepts: Big O, hoisting, contextual this, etc.
Conclusion
Although I lost my job, I can't quit now. I can't control everything, but I can continue to code and learn important CS concepts. I know I will find a company that understands the importance of Jr. Developers. I can bring so much more to the table than coding skills.