This post was originally published on Switchup.org.
Flatiron School VP of Business Development, Rebekah Rombom, gives insight into how our job placements team successfully places 99% of our grads.
I’m Rebekah, and I run placements at Flatiron School, a coding bootcamp with both in-person classes (NYC) and Online Programs. Delivering outcomes is a critical part of our mission. Transparency around our outcomes is so important to us that we’re the only school to publish an independently audited jobs report, verified by a third party.
So far, we’ve seen a lot of success with job placement. Ninety-nine percent of our students are placed – and 95% of them are placed within 120 days. They earn on average over $74,000 per year.
A big part of our success in placements is our students. We only accept students who we know will work hard to learn to code and work hard to be great when they graduate. They’re great people who we are confident will make great programmers and who are willing to put in a lot of effort to land a job. Our students also know that getting hired is hard – they’re willing to work diligently with our placements team to succeed.
The whole placement process is a conversation between students, hiring partners, and our team. We do a lot to make sure students know what to do and what to expect, and we expect a lot from them in return. The following ways we support our grads in their job search, and the expectations we have of them, have successfully led us to place 99% of them in roles they are excited about.
What Flatiron School graduates can expect of our Placements team:
Any graduate of any program with job-search support has access to a ton of support and services from our team – and we work really hard to make sure we can do these things for every student.
1. Job-search preparation
Before graduation, students get access to a ton of resources to help them prepare for the job search – including a full review of their resume and LinkedIn profile, practice technical and non-technical interview sessions, and a one-on-one conversation with a career counselor to discuss their goals.
2. Career counseling
Graduates of programs with job-search support can also expect regular check-ins from their designated career counselor. Career counseling takes a lot of different forms, depending upon who the graduate is, and what they need: It can mean coaching graduates to tap their networks for opportunities, consulting on how best to follow up after an interview, advice on how to start conversations at a meetup, or tips on how to negotiate an offer. Sometimes graduates just need a sympathetic ear, because job-searching – like learning to code – is super taxing, and can be emotionally draining. Whatever job-search-related thing it is, your career counselor’s job is to help.
3. Employer connections
The Placements team also offers graduates connections to our employer network, which can take the form of an invitation to a special recruiting event at a company’s offices, an opportunity to meet employers during one of our on-campus interview days, or a direct introduction for an interview after graduation. Our community of alumni has created a pretty amazing virtuous cycle, representing Flatiron School and fellow graduates so well, that employers want to come back and hire again. And while the majority of Flatiron School graduates are placed through introductions we make, that doesn’t mean graduates should just wait to get handed a job interview – in any given class, 20% to 50% of students accept a job that they found on their own.
What Flatiron School’s Placements team expects of our graduates:
To make sure we can do a good job providing the above resources – and set graduates up to successfully take advantage of them – there are also a few things Placements expects of graduates:
1. You are actively job-seeking
In order to participate in Placements – to continue receiving introductions into our employer network, and career counseling from our coaching staff – students must be actively job-seeking. In a nutshell, this means you’re available to go on interviews, responsive to our communications, and making efforts to improve your technical skills and your network.
There’s a really detailed definition of what we require of job-seeking students on our online campus here. Job-seeking is hard work, and requires a lot of time and dedication – and we expect that of our students. But suffice it to say, if you’re making real and reasonable efforts to be job-seeking, we’re working hard on the other side to help you get a job.
2. You are transparent and communicative
We also expect that students will communicate what they’re up to, and respond to our attempts to help. That means, for example, if we e-mail you, you e-mail us back, and if you get a job offer, you’ll let us know.
If a graduate is non-communicative – i.e., if you disappear altogether and we can’t get ahold of you – we’ll try at least three times to get back in touch. After that, you’ll get a message from us about what you need to do to continue to receive coaching and introductions. If you don’t answer that message – and we want you to answer it! – our team will pause on trying to get ahold of you until you communicate back to us.
3. You are authorized to work in the US
This one is a bit of a technicality: When students go through our admissions process, we make sure to call out that while you can attend Flatiron School and take advantage of our career counseling services no matter your employment status, we can only offer introductions to our network for students who are authorized to work in the US.
Ultimately, job-searching and the interview process are hard things – that’s why we have a team set up to support them – but getting a job also requires a lot of hard work and dedication on the part of the graduate. No one just sits back and waits for amazing offers. All of our students work incredibly hard to prepare for interviews, understand what employers are looking for, and land their first job. We’re here to support grads every step of the way, and we’ve been humbled and proud to watch 99% of them go on to get great jobs, using their new skills to do something they love.
Wondering if Flatiron School is right for you? Get a taste of our web development program by getting started with our free online coding bootcamp prep and data science bootcamp prep courses.
Flatiron School has joined WeWork to expand our innovative education model to new cities and disciplines:
Software Engineering: We offer our Software Engineering Immersive Online and In-Person in NYC, Washington D.C., London, Houston, Atlanta, Denver, Seattle, and Chicago.
Data Science: We offer our Data Science Immersive Online and In-Person in NYC, Washington D.C., London, Houston, Atlanta, Seattle, and Chicago.
UX/UI Design: We offer our UX/UI Design Immersive in NYC, London, and Chicago (through our partnership with Designation).
