Now what?
Published May 31, 2020
NOTE: This was originally published as part of a post-course series of emails for the March 2020 cohort.
Congrats!
You’ve just finished an intense nine weeks of learning and working, and don’t even have a T-shirt to show for it (yet). If you’re anything like students I’ve worked with in the past, you have some sense of what’s coming, but are likely to go through a strong mix of emotions as you start to plan your next steps. You got into all of this for a reason, right? Well, the job’s not done and the next few months are critical—maybe even more so than the few you’ve just lived through.
Over the next week you’ll be participating in additional programming related to your job search. As a supplement to that, I’ve decided to try something new. If all goes according to plan, over the next few weeks, I’ll be sending you emails like this one to offer additional guidance and support. As I’ve never done this before, I make no promises about the results. Ultimately that will be up to you. But I do hope that these emails will offer some comfort during a hard slog, and that you’ll come to look forward to them.
As you read this, I have written only about half of what I have planned so far. This will very much be a work in progress and a learning experience for me as well as for you.
As I write, I have the following goals in mind, to support and encourage you to:
- Keep motivation up
- Increase networking efforts
- Iteratively improve portfolios
- Tailor applications to opportunities
- Establish rituals
- Deliberately practice your skills
- Maintain weak ties
- Build and reinforce your tribe
- Extend your skills
- Confidently sell yourself
- Develop continuous learning habits
I hope that you will also share in these goals, and that you will send feedback, suggestions, and questions as we go.
Your first assignment: goals
Take 20–30 minutes to brainstorm and write down your goals now that the course is finished. These are your personal goals, so there are no wrong answers. They are also not set in stone. You’re writing them down now so that you have a record of what was on your mind in this moment, something which you can revisit and revise later.