The year was 2019, month was March, a Job Search Story began. I started this journey aspiring to be a Software Developer. And it took over a year,  660+ resume submissions, 150+ recruiter screens, 30+ coding assessments, and 10+ onsite interviews to finally land a job. Let’s go through this roller coaster together and learn from it for the future. 

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and will always solve the problems of the human race.” – Calvin Coolidge

The search for the perfect resume

First things first, I fixed my resume. I spent countless hours going through online resume builders like LiveCareer,  Resume Genius, ResumeBuild, VelvetJobs, Novoresume, etc. [Don’t ever do this again. Waste of time!] But I wasn’t satisfied with the results and would often discard them. I reached out to friends to get some sample resumes. They looked somewhat promising. So I used them to format my resume.

One of my friends suggested to get a one-page resume and to have quantifiable accomplishments. A year ago my resume was around 2 pages. Then my search changed to learning more about the one-page resumes. And I found this template on CareerCup that made more sense to me than any out there on the internet. The process to convert my past experiences and skills to this format was a tough one. But somehow I crossed that bridge and had a resume. I got it verified by some friends.

In hindsight, I would suggest a focus on improving my interviewing skills rather than the resume. Start practicing problems on leetcode. Or brush up on database concepts, practice SQL, learn system design, etc. 

Now after going through Outco [More on that later], I would try to maintain an excel sheet of all the small and big projects I have been through, how I overcame any challenges that I faced during those projects and what was the end result. This helps in writing the best short quantifiable accomplishments and answer behavioral questions.

The Job Hunt Begins

Now the process of sending out resumes began. I got some recruiter’s calls which lead nowhere. I had some small consultancies reach out to me. They were ready to market my profile but required me to sign some documents giving them the sole right to represent me and taking away my freedom of applying by myself. I skipped them. After a few months of no job, in a moment of weakness, I did rethink my decision of skipping them. 

After a lot of resume submissions (not that many!), I did get an interview at a local startup. And I failed this one terribly. That was the first wake up call and I started focusing more on my preparation. The second wake up call was when I failed Amazon’s Online Assessment. These led to spending more hours solving problems on leetcode, geekforgeeks and hackerrank to improve my coding skills. 

Outco

Things went stale for a few months. I reached out to many friends, relatives, and ex-colleagues to forward my resume to their companies. It was almost the end of August 2019 and almost six months had passed with no job. I was starting to get depressed on some days. Looking back, I know that a belief in myself and my dream of becoming a Software Engineer kept me sane and propelled me forward in spite of all the failures.

“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” – Walt Disney

I received an email from Outco about attending a demo class to learn about their program. The decision to join Outco’s program was made after I attended the session. Now the only thing remaining was to persuade others ( and to some extent even myself) that it is the right decision for me. It was a five-week program that would require me –

• to attend every class.
• to work hard on all the assignments.
• to submit 25 resumes every week.
• to take all the recruiter screens and coding assessments that come my way during those five weeks and more weeks and months ahead.
• to keep preparing for an interview.
• to attend weekly mock interview sessions after Outco.
• all this along with taking care of an infant, cook, clean, manage a house.

All this was tough. And everyone said so. Even I agreed. I thought, “Do I understand the commitment I am making? Will I be able to do it? Would I run away on the first sign of failure?”

And I said to myself, “If I can do this, manage all this together, take help, this would be a preparation for the actual job that comes my way later. If my mother can manage an 8 to 8 job and raise both me and my sister, I can certainly do this.”

Well, I did join the program.

It turned out to be one of the best decisions in the past year. The Outco coaches helped in the following ways –

• revamping the resume
• forcing me to go back to find instances from projects that could be used as examples in interviews.
• shared techniques to answer behavioral interview questions
• shared methodology to follow while solving algorithm problems.

Also, I became part of a community of people who were either like me or have been through the same situations. I learned a lot from interacting with other Software Engineers, Job seekers, and Coaches. 

Post Outco

The program changed my job search process entirely. Outco had this unusual requirement of submitting 25 resumes a week. Initially, I thought that was too much. But I started seeing the results in the first month itself. I was getting more recruiter screens than before. 

Not only the resume submissions, but I also learned the importance of reaching out to people. In a way, I overcame my shyness. I sent emails and Linkedin messages to recruiters and engineers I have never spoken to. That increases the chances of getting recruiter screens.

I started to apply to jobs where I met over 50% criteria sometimes, not waiting for the ones with a 100% match. This also increased the chances of getting interviews. Only applying to jobs with a 100% match is a mistake! 

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”–Wayne Gretzky

During the month of October, I had an onsite interview and got my first offer. I didn’t accept this one. I had another two onsites in November and December 2019. Both didn’t end in an offer.

Then came January 2020 and I had another onsite which also didn’t end in an offer.

With each and every interview, I did a post mortem. I analyzed what might have gone wrong, where I need to improve, what topics I need to brush up on and went to work on them.

“Don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t waste energy trying to cover up failure. Learn from your failures and go on to the next challenge. It’s OK to fail. If you’re not failing, you’re not growing.” –H. Stanley Judd

All these rejections were very hard on me. They hurt more than the automated ones. I have a folder in Gmail which has over 110+ rejection emails. I still rallied on.

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” –Benjamin Franklin

By January end, I was again losing hope of ever securing a job. And I was regretting not taking up the offer in October. Somehow I kept myself moving. I kept on submitting 25 resumes every week. I kept on giving recruiting screens and coding challenges that came my way.

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”–Winston Churchill

How I prepared while taking care of an infant, now a toddler

I am still trying to find the best way to manage both my work and my baby. Most of the time, I have help. When I attended class, either my husband or mother-in-law looked after her. I would cast system design/behavioral interview videos on TV while I was taking care of my daughter like feeding her or playing with her.

I would study when she would nap in the afternoon. I would study either late at night when she is asleep or early morning. I mostly scheduled calls during her nap time. During recruiter screens and interviews, I would take help from my husband and mother-in-law.

There were good days when I get to do a lot and then there were bad ones when no study happened. And I have made peace with that. I think the key to work with a child is to embrace the randomness. Have plans, but be prepared to throw them in the bin if your child decides to wake up early or wants your attention.

Glimmer of Hope

At the start of February, I got a LinkedIn message from Amazon’s recruiter. I had my second chance at Amazon. I worked very hard to pass Amazon’s OA this time. And then maintained the same level of preparation for the virtual onsite at the end of March.

The Offer

Voila! I got an offer to join Amazon in April. Initially, for two days I was in a state of disbelief. I couldn’t believe my dream of landing the job at one of the big 4 has come true.

And here I am an SDE at Amazon.

Special Thanks

I would like to give special thanks to all these people who helped me throughout this job search journey –

• Thank you, dear husband, for believing in me, motivating me, and helping me with our daughter.
• Thank you, mother-in-law, for taking care of us, for helping me in taking care of our daughter and motivating me to never give up. 
• Thank you, my parents and sister, for always motivating me to move forward in case of failures. 
• Thank you all the coaches at Outco for improving my resume, giving feedback on both technical and behavioral questions.
• Thank you all the peers for mock interviews with great feedbacks that improved my interviewing skills. 

I hope, I remember all these for any endeavor I take up in the future. 

Thank you, friends, for reading this. I would love to hear about your job search experiences and celebrate your successes. 

Thanks again,

Stay safe, Stay Healthy.