MigraCode offers you many things (see the Student Services section), but obviously the main things are free education and supporting you with finding your first job in technology. While we will give you much help, there are also MANY things you can do on your own to find that first job, and you can start with this on DAY 1 of your MigraCode course.

Putting yourself out there: self-branding

To start: being visible online is a MUST, for recruiters to find you while at the same time being able to apply for jobs directly. If you're shy to promote yourself, you need to let it go, at least while you are searching for jobs and building a professional network online! We consider three types of profiles a must: LinkedIn, GitHub and a self-developed one (a webpage). Find more information below for each profile type.

Making use of online platforms: start networking!

Once you have created your online profiles and you have them fully setup as described in the previous sections, you can't just leave them there. You will need to be actively engaging with these networks, ideally on a daily or weekly basis. Don't worry: this is quite easy, as these networks are made exactly for that!

Don't make them come for you: join events and job fairs

You can do all the things perfectly online and have your profiles ready and active - nothing works as good as just meeting people in-person and just talking directly to recruiters and other company representatives. You can always add them on LinkedIn and GitHub later!

Introduction

To start: being visible online is a MUST, for recruiters to find you while at the same time being able to apply for jobs directly. If you're shy to promote yourself, you need to let it go, at least while you are searching for jobs and building a professional network online! We consider three types of profiles a must: LinkedIn, GitHub and a self-developed one (a webpage). Find more information below for each profile type.

LinkedIn: Connect to the professional world

GitHub: Join the world's developer's community

Self-developed profile: start being creative!

Introduction

LinkedIn is an online platform that is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job seekers to post their CVs and employers to post jobs. In other words, LinkedIn is THE place to be to connect to basically anyone that could help you, either directly or indirectly, to your first job.

Creating a LinkedIn profile

Starting with LinkedIn is easy: just go over here and follow the steps to create your personal profile. There are some important things to keep in mind:

• Use your full name, correctly written, and with proper capitalisation (like John Lewis Scott, and not jon lewy scot for instance)

• Be honest from the start: a lack of experience or education is not so bad as people think it is (more information about this later on)

• Add a good profile picture from the start, you can also ask someone to make it for you

Filling your profile

Now that you have setup the base of your LinkedIn profile, you can start filling all the different sections that LinkedIn allows you to fill, such as your Education, Work Experience and more. From MigraCode, we recommend you to at least fill the following sections:

Current position

This is super important! Your current position, or the title that shows under your name, is the thing that many people will see when you popup in search results. Apart from a title, you can also add some of your main coding skills or from your previous experience. We recommend you something like:

• Web Development student @ MigraCode Barcelona | HTML/CSS/JS/React/NodeJS/Databases

• Junior Web Developer | Student @ MigraCode | Front-End focus

• Senior Student @ MigraCode Barcelona | Available to work in Software Development

• Marketing & Software Development | Agile/React/JavaScript | Student @ MigraCode

• Tech Support Specialist | Skilled, social & and ready to work

About section

This is the first thing people will see once they visit your profile, so make sure the English and/or Spanish is correct and that you have a good description of yourself here, shortly including:

• Your current work situation (student, working, etc.)

• What you are looking for (what kind of job etc.)

• What makes you great (awesome skills in JavaScript for example)

• Quick overview of previous experience (worked in Marketing before learning how to code for example)

An example from one of our MigraCode graduates, Joana Smerea:

'Featured' section

The featured section is where you can highlight projects or other website where you or your teams have been mentioned, like interviews or accomplishments. We definitely recommend you to at least put the following links there:

• Your GitHub Profile

• Other relevant portfolio pages such as Codepen

• The MigraCode website

• Links to LinkedIn posts where you are mentioned

• Articles you wrote

Work experience

Obviously, previous and current work experiences are an important part as well of your LinkedIn profile. This is where you show where you have worked in the past, and what you have done there, including any responsibilities you had there. Some general tips:

• Keep it short, write either a short paragraph per position or put 2-3 bullet points

• Make sure to tag the company you worked for (if they are on LinkedIn), so their logo pops up as well

• Feel free to add links here as well with either more information or any public accomplishments of what you did in this position

• Make sure the dates are correct: time periods that don't match are a huge problem for recruiters

• Avoid gaps in your CV: if you didn't have a job for a while, add volunteering or other experience that you kept yourself busy with (you can for instance put 'self-employed')

Education section

As the title says it already, in this section, you need to put any previous or current education you have. Like the work experience section, don't worry too much if you don't have a lot of education, or if you have not completed high school etc. You are learning Software Development, so let's start with putting that there! In other words, examples you can put here:

• A MUST: 'Web Development student', at MigraCode Barcelona! Make sure to describe what you are learning, how many hours you spend with the course, the duration, that you are also learning soft skills such as project management, and that you will be a Junior Web Developer at graduation.

• Other university education (if any): if you completed previous university degrees, make sure to add them. Also, if you only have unfinished degrees, feel free to add them, with a note that you stopped earlier (with the reason if you feel comfortable to share it).

• If you don't have university education, don't worry: add your high school education here with some details of the courses you followed - volunteers can help you to still make this educational experience relevant to your current technical education at MigraCode!

• Last but not least: if you don't have education apart from MigraCode, also don't worry. In this case, focus on MigraCode and ask your contacts at MigraCode to see if they can offer you more free courses!

Skills section

Many people underestimate this section: why add specific skills if you have already described all your work experience and education? Well, it's simple: apart from the fact to let recruiters see an overview of your main hard and soft skills, this summary of skills is also used by recruiters in the LinkedIn Job Search platform to find you!

For example, a recruiter may search ONLY for profiles that have added JavaScript & React as skills to their profile - so even if you are the best JavaScript developer in the world, you won't show up in the search results! Below you can find some skills examples.

Tech/hard skills:

• HTML

• CSS

• JavaScript

• React

• NodeJS

• Spanish/English or any other language you speak

• Git

• Web Development

• Software Engineering

• Office

• Excel

Soft/personal skills:

• Teamwork

• Communication

• Leadership

• Public speaking

• People management

Languages

A must as well: add the languages that you speak, either just a little bit or fluently! LinkedIn will allow you to add your level, so if you just speak A2 Spanish, add it, and select 'Elementary proficiency'.

Recommendations

So what's this last important thing? In this section, you are able to let others confirm you are indeed the best person to hire! In other words, here you can ask people to recommend you by writing how happy they were with you in other job or educational experiences you have had in the past.

So, for example, you can ask your old manager to write a few lines about how good you were at managing orders, or how amazing you were with handling conflict. Don't be shy: reach out to those old bosses and ask them to write something! If they suddenly write something negative, you can always just hide the recommendation from your profile.

Check out the awesome recommendations our previous student Rahaf has received from MigraCode volunteers (and the great one she has written about her fellow MigraCode student):

What's next?

If you followed all the above steps, there's still much to improve! There are more sections available (like Volunteering or Certificates) that we recommend you to fill if they apply to you, to make your profile as complete as possible. More information can be found over here.

After that, you can start building an online professional network!

Introduction

GitHub is often seen as the LinkedIn for software developers. But it does more than just connecting the tech community; it also provides access control and several collaboration features such as bug tracking, feature requests, task management, continuous integration and wikis for every project. And just as important: (good) recruiters use it as well to see how well you can code and how active you are!

Creating a GitHub profile

Starting with LinkedIn is easy: just go over here and follow the steps to create your personal profile. There are some important things to keep in mind:

• Choose a username that can be tracked to your name so recruiters can easily find you (so not codinglover1993, but rather VincentvanG1993)

• Keep in mind that your profile will be public, so just like with LinkedIn, fill the data correctly with correct spelling and capitalisation

• A profile picture is a little less super important as with LinkedIn, as on GitHub, it's mainly about your coding skills and experience. You can also choose to make an avatar, through this website for example

Creating an (awesome) profile page

As GitHub is a tech platform, you need to use your tech skills to make your profile really complete. The best way to do so is to 'code' your own profile page, which you can do by adding a README file to your profile 'Repository'. How to do so?

Step 1: creating a README.md file for your profile

1. Create a new repository with the same name as your GitHub username. For example, if your username is Gapur, the repository name must be Gapur.

   

2. Within the repository, create a README.md file. This new file will be displayed on your GitHub profile page!

   

Step 2: code that README.md file!

Now it's time to be creative! You can use HTML markup to style the file, and just like with HTML, you can insert images and other content. In general, we recommend to create various sections, like LinkedIn does as well. For example, you can add the following sections with <h1> (or h2) elements:

• Quick introduction (who you are, what you do, what you're good at in tech)

• Examples of your experience (web development student at MigraCode, completed various Khanacademy courses, for example)

• Projects portfolio (from small to big ones)

• Goals (learning Java, learning NodeJS, etc.)

• Skills (frameworks, coding languages, technologies, soft skills such as adaptability, creativity, self-criticism, etc.)

• Your programing music!

• How to reach out (LinkedIn profile, other networks)

Start contributing!

Now that you have your GitHub page ready, and you may have added your first followers, it's time to become really active. It's SUPER important to have an active GitHub profile, as recruiters will definitely check if you are actively coding and upgrading your skills!

Option 1: committing your own work and projects

A great way to keep your GitHub profile active and to easily show-off your tech skills is by simply committing all the hard work you do for MigraCode and any other projects or courses. Make sure to commit each exercise, save each project you do and keep track of larger projects in your profile README.md. And keep them organized in the correct repositories, so it's easy for recruiters and others to separate your work.

Option 2: contributing to open-source projects

There are many reasons why contributing to open-source projects is a great idea:

• It builds your resume by demonstrating that you can collaborate with others on code.

• It gives you practice with Git and GitHub, which is a valuable data science skill.

• It helps you to build relationships in the open source community.

• It feels good to give back to a project that you use!

And luckily, there are many guides out there that explain you in simple steps how to start contributing right away. We found this one on DataSchool, although this one on Akrabat also looks good.

Introduction

While LinkedIn and GitHub are great to present yourself and promote your skills and experience, the most impressive thing to send to a recruiter is your own developed webpage with your portfolio and other relevant information. Not only will it show great motivation, but by making a great webpage, your profile itself is already showing your skills!

Some general advice

• IF you make your own profile page, make sure to have enough coding knowledge to make a really good one. If you just started coding, wait a little while. It's better to just have LinkedIn and GitHub than having a super basic HTML/CSS self-developed profile.

• Once created, make sure to have other developers take a look at your page to receive proper feedback, so you can really finetune both the layout as well as the code itself.

• Any self-developer profile needs to have the following key-information:

  1. Who you are

  2. What you do

  3. Your location

  4. The work you have to share

  5. How to contact you

How to make your own profile?

There are many guides online how to make your own profile, and also with various options where to host it. You can either buy a domain like www.vincentvangrondelle.es, or you can host your page on GitHub or Heroku (so you will get like vincentvang.heroku.com). Below you can find some guides to start coding your own profile!

12 Standout Examples of Web Design Portfolios | ElementorElementor

How to Build a Web Developer Portfolio (2022 Guide)BrainStation®

8 Tips to Build an Outstanding Web Developer Portfolio - Toggl BlogToggl Blog

How to Build Your First Web Developer Portfolio WebsiteCreative Tim's Blog - Fully coded design resources for web developers

Introduction

Once you have created your online profiles and you have them fully setup as described in the previous sections, you can't just leave them there. You will need to be actively engaging with these networks, ideally on a daily or weekly basis. Don't worry: this is quite easy, as these networks are made exactly for that!

Connecting to the right people

With MigraCode members

The easiest people to start connecting to on LinkedIn and GitHub are those you already know from MigraCode: your fellow students, the volunteers and the management of MigraCode! You can add them or give them a follow, and probably they will join your networks soon enough. If you don't know them that well, make sure to include a message when you add them on LinkedIn.

Give it a try, starting adding:

• Yogesh Yadav, our Head of Education (GitHub over here)

• Diana Dashkovska, our Education Assistant (GitHub over here)

• Vincent van Grondelle, our Program Manager (GitHub over here)

• Eduard Bargues, an awesome volunteer (GitHub over here)

• Ricard More, an awesome volunteer (GitHub over here)

• Anandamaya Arnó, a MigraCode graduate (GitHub over here)

• Henriette Hettinga, CodeWomen Manager (GitHub over here)

With recruiters

Even if you're not a full stack web developer or advanced tech support agent yet, you can already start building a network of recruiters on LinkedIn that could potentially share interesting jobs with you, or contact you once they see you have completed MigraCode or other relevant courses! Just make sure to introduce yourself properly and provide some context when you send them an invite.

Give it a try, start adding:

• Eduard Pinilla, Talent Acquisition Specialist at our partner Adaptive

• Helena Torrents Aymerich, Tech Recruiter at our partner Adevinta

• Silvia Bellmunt, Tech Recruiter at our partner Glovo

• Daniel Mortos, Recruitment Operations Lead at our partner Preply

• Megan Walker, Director of People at our partner Marfeel

• Alvaro Rodriguez, Recruiter at our partner Holaluz

With other people

Don't limit yourself those recruiters out there: add your friends, old colleagues, sports buddies and basically everyone you know: job offers and possibilities can come from the most strange directions! Maybe you add an old friend on LinkedIn, who knows the HR Manager of a tech company, and you can be connected! So don't hesitate to go the 'My Network' page of LinkedIn and start sending those invites. For GitHub, you can search by username/full name via this page.

Sharing

On any professional online network, it's important to stay active and share and interact with your network and potential new connections. You can do this by simply liking and commenting to posts of others or of posts of companies, but even better is sharing your own posts with content. Below you can find some examples of what you can share!

Sharing accomplishments

Whether you finally graduated from MigraCode, or maybe just finished the first HTML/CSS module, share it! Show your progress to your network, and keep potential future employees or interested recruiters up-to-date with the skills you are developing. Who knows, maybe after finally finishing the React module of MigraCode, a recruiter suddenly finds you more interesting!

Sharing tech-related topics

Whether you visited a tech event and have some cool pictures, or you read a great article about the future of coding (for example), it's always good to share this as well. LinkedIn is no Instagram, but as long as it's career-related, feel free to share a cool picture related to your job search or to coding/tech!

Sharing your projects

Last but not least, don't be afraid to show off your hard work! Whether it's your first Codepen page made with HTML and CSS, or it's the draft of your Final Project, share it as an update on LinkedIn or put it as a public repository on GitHub. Explain people what you have done and how you have done it, and spark the interested of a recruiter or impress a CEO!

Introduction

You can do all the things perfectly online and have your profiles ready and active - nothing works as good as just meeting people in-person and just talking directly to recruiters and other company representatives. You can always add them on LinkedIn and GitHub later! It's easy to find events and to join them (for free) - below some tips how to find them and what to do there once you're there.

Types of events

Meetups

Meetup became an organizing tool for a variety of interests including hobbies, drinking, sports, and gaming. Meetups provide a means of gathering like-minded people interested in a variety of social activities or interest. Especially in Barcelona, there are many Meetup events related to technology, and even so specific such as JavaScript or React events.

Job Fairs

A job fair, also referred commonly as a job expo or career fair or career expo, is an event in which employers, recruiters, and schools give information to potential employees. Job seekers attend these while trying to make a good impression to potential coworkers by speaking face-to-face with one another, filling out résumés, and asking questions in attempt to get a good feel on the work needed. It's THE best way to get in direct contact with recruiters and find that first job.

Hackathons

A hackathon (also known as a hack day, hackfest, datathon or codefest; a portmanteau of hacking marathon) is a design sprint-like event; often, in which computer programmers and others involved in software development, including graphic designers, interface designers, project managers, domain experts, and others collaborate intensively on software projects. It's an awesome way to build your portfolio and to meet other developers.

Finding useful events

Meetup.com

Meetup: somos lo que hacemosMeetup

Eventbrite

EventbriteEventbrite

LinkedIn Events

LinkedIn: Log In or Sign UpLinkedIn

You at an event

So, you are there, what now? Finally you are at a job fair or at a cool and fancy tech meetup, now you need to act! Below some best practices, depending what kind of event you have joined:

• Dress to impress! That doesn't always mean you need to suit/dress up! It rather means wearing according to the type of event: if it's a job fair, yes, maybe wear a tie or a nice dress, but if it's a regular networking event, it's not so common in tech to dress up fancy - just regular clothes will do.

• Talk to people! Almost all events are in the end networking events, meaning you need to connect to people and see if there are interesting people who can help you further in your career (or maybe you can help them). Of course, this isn't easy - don't worry if you haven't spoken to a lot of people at your first event: it takes practice!

• Get information! Take business cards, take flyers, or in other words: take all the information you can find. At home, you can organise all the information and potentially follow any interesting leads or information you received.

• Connect digitally! If you meet an interesting person or get to know a cool company, connect to them on LinkedIn or give the company a follow to stay up to date on any potential job opportunities. And as explained before: having more LinkedIn connections can never hurt.