Module 4: Career Readiness: Informational Interviews & Resume
Module Overview
Module 4 focuses on essential career readiness skills: conducting informational interviews and building an effective resume. You'll learn how to network strategically through informational interviews, enhance your resume with new technical skills and projects, and explore job opportunities that align with your current skill set.
This module equips you with practical networking strategies and resume optimization techniques that will prepare you for your job search and help you build valuable professional relationships in the tech industry.
Learning Objectives
Informational Interviews
- Who to target for informational interviews
- How to Connect With Potential Interviewees
- How to Prepare for an Informational Interview
- Informational Interview Follow-up
Building Your Resume
- Skills & Projects
- Tailoring your Resume
Finding Jobs
- Example Job Titles Based on Your Skills so Far
- Where to Look for Roles
Core Competencies
Informational Interviews
Who to target for informational interviews
To get started with informational interviews, create a list of 5-10 companies you're interested in working for. For each company, use LinkedIn to find potential interviewees. You'll see the highest response rate when targeting those with whom you have something in common or whose background interests you.
Target people who:
- Have a background similar to yours: BloomTech graduates, coding bootcamp alumni, same alma mater, former colleagues, or similar interests
- Have a background you find interesting: People in roles you'd love to have in 5-10 years, those with interesting career paths, career transitioners, or those who started in tech-adjacent roles
Remember to tailor your messages to highlight commonalities or specific aspects of their background that interest you.
How to Connect With Potential Interviewees
Use email finders like Clearbit, Skrapp.io, or Hunter.io to contact people on your list. Include an "ask" for a call to discuss their role and background, and make scheduling easy by including your Calendly link.
Example subject lines:
- Seeking Your Insights on the Tech Industry: Informational Interview Request
- Learning from the Best: Can We Chat About Your Journey into Tech?
- Aspiring [Job Title] Looking for Your Guidance
Email templates include: personalized outreach for people with similar backgrounds, those with interesting backgrounds you'd like to learn about, and follow-up messages if you don't hear back within 2-3 days.
How to Prepare for an Informational Interview
You have two main goals: meet someone new and drive the conversation toward future opportunities. Before your meeting:
- Review their LinkedIn profile and note commonalities and key background points
- Prepare questions to lead the conversation about their career journey, industry insights, and advice
- Ask about their transition into tech, key career decisions, industry evolution, and staying updated with trends
- Drive toward opportunity discussions: "Once I graduate, what advice do you have for standing out in the application process?"
- Ask for referrals: "Is there anyone else within the company or your network you'd recommend I speak to?"
Informational Interview Follow-up
Complete these steps to maintain relationships and keep doors open:
- Send a thank you email: Reference specific takeaways from your conversation and express appreciation for their time and any offers for future referrals
- Set calendar reminders: Follow up in 1-2 months with relevant articles, project updates, or offers to help them with anything
Keeping connections alive is as important as making new ones - you never know what being top of mind can do for your future!
Building Your Resume
Continue building your resume by adding new technical skills and projects from your recent sprints, and learn to effectively tailor your resume to specific job descriptions.
Skills & Projects
A technical skills section allows readers to quickly scan your tech stack and helps Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) catch key technical skills. The projects section showcases your practical skills, creativity, and problem-solving abilities.
Key strategies:
- Continually update with your most recent work - aim for 2-3 quality projects by program completion
- Include Guided Projects and Sprint Challenges from your coursework
- Use the format: "Accomplished [X] as measured by [Y] by doing [Z]"
- Consider starting a side project NOW to stand out - it can be listed as "In Progress"
Tailoring your Resume
Customize your resume to match specific job requirements and preferences. This demonstrates you're a strong fit and helps with both hiring managers and ATS systems.
Steps to tailor effectively:
- Analyze the Job Description: Extract keywords and understand main responsibilities
- Match Your Experience: Include positions and projects that align with the job description
- Update Content: Match headline to role title, rewrite bullet points using job description verbiage, add relevant technical skills
- Review and Refine: Proofread, quantify achievements, and get feedback
Pro Tip: Keep your resume as a Google Doc and create a new copy for each role application (File > Make a Copy > Role Title_Firstname Lastname).
Finding Jobs
Example Job Titles Based on Your Skills so Far
Your expanding skill set qualifies you for various tech and tech-adjacent roles. These can be full-time or part-time positions, and part-time roles can provide income while building experience during the program.
Potential Job Titles:
Data Entry Specialist, Business Analyst, Business Intelligence Analyst, Data Visualization Specialist, Customer Support, Data Strategist, Customer Support and Success Associate, Data Analyst Intern, Big Data Support, AI Prompt Engineer, Data Analyst, Junior Data Engineer, Junior Data Scientist, Junior Data Analyst, Associate Solutions Architect, Analytics Consultant, Data Ops
Leverage your pre-BloomTech skills - they help separate you from other candidates. For example, customer service experience makes you a stronger candidate for Customer Support roles.
Note: The following video references Otta, which was acquired by Welcome to the Jungle in 2024.
Job Search Tips
- Set filters to "Date Posted = last 24 hours or last week" for fresh opportunities
- Apply if you meet at least 50% of job requirements (aim for 0-3 years experience)
- Apply directly on company websites, not through easy-apply portals
- Skip cover letters unless explicitly required; focus on networking outreach instead
- For salary questions, list "market rate for [role] in [location]" or "negotiable"
Recommended Job Boards
Part-Time/Contract Work:
Large Job Boards:
Note: Otta was acquired by Welcome to the Jungle in 2024, retaining Otta's core functionality.
Start-ups:
Remote Work:
DEI-Focused:
Big List of Diversity Resources
Values-Focused Job Boards:
"Who is Hiring Now" Lists:
Module Assignment
Within the Career Readiness module you were asked to perform various career related activities.
Below is a list of links you should have created over the course of this module.
If you don't know what one of the links is referring to, please go back through the module content for clarification.
- A link to the LinkedIn profile for the contact you found for an informational interview.
- A link to your updated resume.
- A link to a job description for a role you found that is aligned with the skills you've learned so far.