4 out of 5 TripleTen Grads Land Jobs in Tech. This Expert Knows Why.

Sharahn McClung, Curriculum Developer at TripleTen, has over fifteen years of experience working where education, tech, and coaching overlap. She’s guided people at every stage of their professional lives — from those launching careers to those at the pinnacle of the business world — and she had no doubt about why the vast majority of TripleTen grads land jobs.

And the good news is that students come to TripleTen already possessing one of the most crucial elements that will help them land the job they’re aspiring to, even if they might not know it. Let’s talk about that.

The material matters

Now, let’s just be clear — none of this is to say that people can breezily make the pivot into tech without looking at a line of code or familiarizing themselves with vital digital tools. In a tech job, switchers are going to be using these new methods of getting things done day-in and day-out. That means they’re going to need actual demonstrable tech skills.

So a strong education in that know-how is the foundation that gets our grads hired. We focus on giving students the skills that the tech industry is actually looking for, and we make sure our curricula stay current. For example, we recently moved from teaching JavaScript and WebdriverIO in our Quality Assurance (QA) program to instead teaching Selenium and Python. This better reflects what a QA professional can expect to encounter when they land their first role.

But our approach goes beyond that, too. Not only do students learn the right material, they approach it in the right way. We teach in a sprint structure — meaning students approach material in two- to three-week chunks — because the tech industry itself typically operates in sprints. As Sharahn puts it, with TripleTen, “you're already in the development cycle. Welcome. This is it.”

There’s a word we used above that deserves highlighting, too — demonstrable. We teach using real-life tech scenarios, and that means that students tackle tasks they’ll be assigned in the industry. So, at the end of almost every sprint, students end up with a finished project they can show off in their portfolios to prove their bona-fides. Thanks to this approach, “students actually have the hands-on experience_{Want to Really Learn Tech? Get Hands-On Experience} to be able to say, ‘I did this,’” said Sharahn. 

And that’s not even to mention our externships — real-life tech projects with actual companies — that students have the opportunity to join.

Getting job-ready from the get-go

One recent change has brought this material more closely in line with the student’s career journey. See, when people enroll in a bootcamp, they’re not learning just for the fun of it, they’re learning for a purpose. So instead of dividing our programs up into separate phases — mastering the material and then focusing on career-search activities — we’ve unified both into one totality that students approach simultaneously. This allows both parts to mutually reinforce each other. “The work that students do informs the job seeking that they do, and the job seeking that students do informs the work that they do,” Sharahn said. 

By putting career preparation_{Career Coaching at TripleTen: What It Is and How It Helps You Land a Job} alongside skill acquisition, students begin thinking ahead, tying what they’re learning to a future where they’re showing off their bona-fides. Here’s an example that Sharahn gives: this approach enables students to think ahead and plan out their final project early. This allows them to hone and shape the project continuously as they learn more and more, but it also empowers them to build something absolutely unique.

And when your final project is specific to your experience and circumstances, it might even be something your current or former place of work sorely needs. 

You could go back to your employer and say, ‘Hey, I really liked working here. We had a good relationship. Guess what? I just learned this new tool and I came up with this thing that was inspired by what I did here. Would you be comfortable having a conversation about possibly using it?’ Sharahn McClung, TripleTen Curriculum Developer

And with that, “All of a sudden, you've got a project that is literally something that at the very least moves you forward in your career and possibly could end up leading to a job,” Sharahn added.

Augmenting your greatest asset

Within all that is something latent. And here we get to the most crucial element in getting our students hired — something that TripleTen helps its students express: their own story. 

Like most deeply true statements, the maxim that helps our students get hired at such good rates is short and too easy to dismiss: The thing that makes you stand out in your job search is you.

Yes, you’re going to need proven know-how with the tech tools that you’re going to be using, but you’re not going to be the only one with those skills. However, you are going to be the only one with your background applying for these jobs, and that is what’s going to really set you apart, so it’s the element our career coaches are going to help you express. 

That goes for your entire application package. “Your fingerprints have to be singular and all over your resume, all over your LinkedIn, all over your GitHub or your portfolio or whatever you're putting forward to show as an example and to introduce yourself,” said Sharahn. 

So that is precisely what we help craft. Coaches work closely with students to make sure that each one of these assets tells the singular story of the student, highlighting that their background augments their value.

See, even though tech is a field all about digital tools, it’s still run by humans. That makes building a specific narrative and sharing it with others absolutely key throughout the whole job-search journey.

Your way out of this is not going to be from your keyboard. It’s going to be with other human beings. It’s going to be networking. It’s going to be telling stories — it’s going to be telling your story. Sharahn McClung, TripleTen Curriculum Developer

This is what TripleTen and its practices hone, and it is what lies behind the success of our grads. “What you brought with you is actually going to enhance everything that you do going forward,” said Sharahn.

And there’s one last secret that Sharahn is privy to thanks to her vast experience with people from throughout the hierarchy of tech roles.

“Everyone I've ever talked to about their job, everyone, every single person — and I'm talking like people way at the tippy top of some massive tech companies — say the same thing to me: ‘I took a non-traditional path to get here,’” she said. “So, if everyone's saying that, then there is no one right way to get there.”

See if a bootcamp is right for you

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