|
As a supplementary activity, I'd strongly suggest going to various meetups in the city that meet on a regular basis, either weekly or monthly. Say you know Rails, go to a Rails meetup. Say you enjoy politics and tech, find a Civic Tech meetup. In NYC, I'm certain there are tons of excellent tech related meetups that provide opportunities to socialize with the community and get to know what's going on. The added benefit is that some of the hosts of the meetups are looking for employees, or some of the members belong to companies that are looking for people. You might say, "I don't like networking." That's fine, not every tech event is a networking event. Civic Tech meetups for example focus on working on projects in your spare time that benefit citizens. During a meetup you can sit in on a project meeting and potentially contribute if you're interested. So it's a natural way to collaborate with others on a shared goal and to learn. Very different than going to a bar and having to strike up a conversation with another person. I don't view going to meetups as a direct method to gaining a job, but rather, increasing the likelihood of serendipity. Maybe you'll go one day, and a employee of a company announces they are actively looking for someone. Or maybe you make friends with someone knows someone who is looking for someone. Or maybe you come up with an idea of an interesting side project that could be an excellent way of proving your chops to a potential employer. The idea is that you already know what you know, that applying is hard and hugely competitive, so why not try a bit more of a circuitous route by going through humans first? And I say this having got my first job in NYC through a friend, my first co-founder through a friend, my first startup through a friend, my first YC interview because of exceptional co-founders who were way smarter than me but I met through friends.. basically it didn't matter that I didn't go to an Ivy League or prestigious program, all that mattered was putting in a ton of effort to build my skills (like yourself) alongside connecting directly with people. |
If you go to meetups and actually talk to other attendees you will certainly learn a lot, meet people in the industry and open new doors for yourself.