The first work experience. Notoriously known to be an extremely difficult process (and it is), the one thought that was racing through my mind when I got into the co-op program at UBC back at the beginning of the year was how unprepared I was to work in the industry. Call it Imposter Syndrome, or lack of self-confidence, but looking at my friends and classmates who've already gotten positions, I just didn't feel like I was on the same playing field as them.
Taking this into account, I was fully prepared for rejection but was willing to give it my best shot, so starting as early as September 26, 2021, I started applying for jobs for the summer of 2022.
"If you are 50% qualified ... apply!"
A quote taken directly from my job search workshop slides, I applied to (almost) every single company that I was remotely qualified for. Although I had a preference for web developer positions, I also applied for backend, fullstack, ASIC developer and bioinformatics positions, knowing that getting an interview definitely didn't mean anything unless I performed well in that as well.
At the time of applying, the only real notable experience I had was my experience working as a teaching assistant, the course material from my classes, and this website, so I knew it wasn't much to work with and by mid January, I had applied for a total of 64 different companies, ranging from small startups to companies in FAANG (MAANG?). Somehow, I ended up receiving interview offers from 4 different companies, so I stopped applying for jobs and shifted my focus towards prepping for the interviews.
Being that the only exposure that I've had to coding interviews was through some brief Youtube videos I've seen (definitely didn't understand them o.o), my initial thought was that these 4 interviews would be practice for later positions. I've heard varied responses from friends about how many attempts and applications it took them to land their first computer science related job and I expected to go through just that, however things turned out differently (and for the better)!
Being that I'm still a student with a full course-load, I had to choose wisely on how I spent my time studying, so I prioritized my coding interview prep by putting emphasis on learning the basic core concepts of JavaScript, as Web Development was still my central goal for my first job.
To sum it up, basic functions and syntax in JavaScript summed up what I mostly knew about the language since Web Development was a hobby that I picked up in my own time, so to learn the basics of JavaScript in addition to what coding interviews are actually about, I went to the following resources to help me out:
And that was it! I know it's not a lot, but you gotta cut me some slack because I had around 1 week's notice from when I was emailed my interview offer 😌!
Overall, the interviews pretty much followed the same format where you start with a meeting with HR and they decide if you're good enough for a technical interview (this step was skipped in 2 of my interviews). The technical interview would then be a few days after where you'll meet with the Web Development head along with some other software developers and you'll be questioned on computational theory and asked to solve some programming questions (pretty self explanatory).
Now I didn't think that my interviews were particularly special, since I was definitely still a rookie when it came to these kinds of positions, but to summarize, somehow after my first ever coding interview for a front-end web developer position, I received an offer to work as a Web Developer at PDFTron starting this May and my mind is still having trouble comprehending what had happened!
Since starting my software developer journey back in Janurary of 2021, getting my first job in the field is definitely a huge milestone for me, and like all things, there are many lessons that I learned from my job-hunting experience.
First and foremost, if you're a university student in tech, I strongly suggest you do the Co-op program if it's offered to you! Although I would consider my 64 applications to be on the longer side, I've seen so many sources online where people talk about applying for 100+ and 200+ companies and only receiving rejection emails. I'm aware that obtaining a position within this field is usually due to a combination of skill and admittedly luck, and it's very possible that it was due to luck that I got my position in the first place, but being part of the Co-op program makes it so much easier for you since you aren't competing in the larger pool of programmers applying for these positions.
My other point would be for during the actual technical interview, it's totally okay to say you don't know how to answer a question. I'm far from being an expert in this field but when you don't know how to answer a question being asked to you, the best thing would be to admit it instead of trying to formulate an answer on the spot. Just wanted to put this here in case anyone is feeling like they aren't "ready" to apply for a job yet because I assure you, I felt the exact same way before mine x).
I mentioned how it seems like it was luck that I got the position and it still seems unreal to me that I landed a job so early into the co-op job hunt, especially having joined the computer science world late. That being said, I have to reflect upon my own accomplishments and take a moment to appreciate how far I've come in the field, which goes to show that I wasn't hired for no reason.
Finally, I wanted to thank my friend, Sid, again for constantly answering my questions about the world of computer science and conducting the mock coding interview with me. I honestly wouldn't be where I am today without his help!
Moving forward, I plan to continue to utilize this opportunity to gain firsthand experience working with professionals in the field while learning everything I can about more frameworks and technologies and I honestly can't wait for this summer! More updates to come!