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Module Four Professional Development Peer Group Guidelines |
Welcome to Module Four! This is when you’ll kick your job search into high gear, and to assist with that, you will meet with your peer group each Thursday to discuss strategies and find ways to hold each other accountable. A Turing staff member will also be available as a coach to help your group stay on track and offer advice when needed.
| Week | Topic | Discussion | Homework |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PD Kick-Off | DTR, Cover Letter Review | Come to Week 2 prepared to discuss a job you're applying to with your tailored resume, draft of cover letter, and at least 1 person at the company you plan to contact and why; update LinkedIn and Turing alumni portfolio; Update jobtrack.io |
| 2 | Interview Prep | Come prepared to answer behavioral interview questions | Prepare tailored resume and cover letter, update LinkedIn and Turing alumni portfolio, and practice elevator pitch for External Review; Update jobtrack.io |
| 3 | External Review | Present elevator pitch, resumes, cover letters, LinkedIn, and portfolios to mentors and potential employers | Incorporate feedback and complete new action step; Update jobtrack.io |
| 4 | Negotiations & Equity | Status updates; Negotiation and equity understanding and tactics | Begin on 30-Day Post-Grad Plan; Update jobtrack.io |
| 5 | 30-Day Plan Prep | Status updates; Work time and discussion of 30-Day plans | Finish 30-Day Plan and complete new action step; Update jobtrack.io |
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Outreach emails:
- Write emails together
- Give feedback on each other’s emails before sending them out
- Use these guidelines and tips for the email-writing and reviewing process.
- Alumni Resource: Check out this blog post from 1606-BE grad Jesse Spevack on how he utilized cold outreach in his job search.
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Coffee meetings:
- What questions do you want to make sure to ask? Create a list with your group. Use this list to get started
- Share updates on how coffee meetings go as group members attend them
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Networking events:
- What meetups are coming up? Who can you connect with at them? Make a plan to attend a meetup together
- Discuss ideas for pitching a talk at a meetup; help anyone interested write out their pitch. Here are some tips to help you get started
- Alumni Resource: 1406 grad Alan Smith has some advice for how you can utilize your job searching time, especially on networking
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Storytelling:
- Practice refining your story into a short elevator pitch and provide feedback to each other
- Alumni Resource: 1606-BE grad Sonia Gupta and 1608-FE grad Matt Kaufman discuss in these two Turing podcasts about how their online presence helped them in their job search. Tip: For Sonia's podcast, start at 10:10 and listen until 12:20, and for Matt's, start at 6:50 and listen until 9:12.
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Interview prep:
- Review common questions with each other
- Discuss approaches that you've taken in mock interviews and real interviews alike
- Share resources to help each other level up
- For resources and mentors who you can schedule mock interviews with, make sure to reference this document
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Job Search Housekeeping: Resumes, Social Media, Turing Portfolios, GitHub:
- Share your resumes with each other for feedback and tips
- Review each other's LinkedIn profiles and provide feedback, write recommendations for each other, endorse each other's skills
- Twitter: follow each other, retweet each other's posts, engage in discussions about software topics
- Turing Portfolios: Review each other's Turing portfolios and provide feedback; check especially to make sure that all code is working and that there are updated ReadMes
- GitHub: Review each other's code, look over and help each other write ReadMes for featured projects
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Blogging:
- Discuss ideas for posts
- Spend time writing blog posts together
- Complete peer review
- Discuss ideas for how you can use a blog post to increase visibility
- Use these tips for writing blogs using templates, writing tools, and peer review resources.
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Pooling your resources:
- What leads or tips can you share with each other? Have you talked with someone who may not have an opening/company that's the right fit for you but could be a great fit for one of your groupmates?
To make this a safe and easy place to share with each other, make sure to set some norms for how the group will operate. Remember to utilize principles of Nonviolent Communication, active listening, feedback, how different strengths in your group are working together, where you all are on the introversion/extroversion scale, and how you appreciate communication and motivation. In other words, DTR with each other on how you will hold each other accountable to ensure that everyone is an equal part in this discussion.
Here are some suggestions on how to create accountability systems:
- Start each meeting with a Stand Up to give updates on your job search action steps
- Create a Slack channel to post updates in throughout the week when you’re not meeting with each other
- Identify what motivates you and share with your group how they can support that motivation
- Share your barriers with your group as you come across them so that they can help you move past them
You'll meet with your coach each Thursday from 1-2pm. Your coach can also be available for questions outside of that time on Slack or during another agreed-upon time.
- DTR with your coach to set clear expectations on what your group and the coach will work on together and how you appreciate feedback
- Keep them updated. Let them know your needs at any given time -- what questions do you have? Where is your group getting stuck? What advice do you need?
- Create an agenda for your meetings with them so that you can maximize time. Send this agenda to them ahead of time.
- Share your action steps and accountability metrics with them so that they can help support these with follow-up
- Ask for help:
- Reviewing resumes, Turing portfolios, cover letters, LinkedIn, etc.
- Finding interview prep resources
- Practice storytelling