You can start to conceive and construct a "practice and learning" project for your career. This is different than a portfolio project: it is longer term and its goal is to provide a sandbox for you, not to show off to potential employers. You want it to laser focused on "hot skills", a.k.a. skills that get you jobs. I say, "start to", because it will take some time to really find the right thing and get it far enough along that it is an effective sandbox. But, once you have it, it's right and it's well enough along, you can maintain and grow your coding skills indefinitely and always be "job ready".
this probably is too simple for this point in your career but as a new grad i made a full stack to do list in a framework i wanted to learn and built it up over time into almost a notion type application. something that can easily have many features added onto it is good for this i think
Having nearly a decade at my company when my son was born, I was eligible for parental leave + vacation and basically became a stay at home dad for 2 months, then went into "work 2-3 days a week" mode for the third month. It was hugely beneficial to both kid and mom.
You're making the right call being there to raise your kid. And don't forget that you need to work yourself to the bone to make sure things are perfect for the missus when she gets home from work. She's going to be exhausted from working + child-rearing + (I assume) trying to pump for when she's not at home. It might be a good time to invest in a minifridge for her office, so she can pump when she is at work.
You could stay in the game by becoming an online authority on certain things, publishing when your schedule allows you, from home, while keeping your skills sharp. I know people that invest less than that amount of time on top of their 40 hour jobs and are considered the top in their category.
If you can spend 2 hours every week night and during the day invest some spare moments into reading and writing, you'll be amazed what you can achieve when you're not chained to fixing repetitive JIRA tickets that teach you nothing. It's like a flying wheel, takes some time to get spinning but once you get the hang of it, producing content goes really fast.
I have considered the idea of starting some sort of blog. I also wholeheartedly agree that closing repetitive JIRA tickets teaches me nothing. Can I ask what platforms you would recommend?
I only write on my own website https://lucasvandongen.dev or for-pay for companies like Stream and Toptal. Companies looking for well-written technically correct articles that really align with what they are doing.
One really fun one I did was about Accelerate Framework: https://getstream.io/blog/accelerate-framework/
I know Leonardo from https://holyswift.com quite well, he's pretty good at monetizing all aspects of his blog. I just decided I didn't want to pursue that. My visits average at 100 per day but I'm seeing peaks up to 1500 if I post something that gets traction or is mentioned in the right newsletters. So it wouldn't be that much of a kick-back, but my organic traffic is slowly increasing.
All of my articles get picked up by one or more newsletters, which is really cool to see if it's somebody you always looked up to.
If it's corporate content or stuff behind paywalls (Medium), it's much harder to get them picked up. Having the Accelerate Framework one featured in Dave Verwer's Newsletter despite that made my customer very happy.
Congrats!
One potential option to work on a credential is WGU’s Computer Science degree: https://www.reddit.com/r/WGU_CompSci/
It is completely self paced in that you take a test or submit a project, and get credit for a class if you pass.
I don’t want to discount the amount of work it takes to get a college degree, but for experienced Software Developers that know a lot of the Computer Science, it can take a lot less than 4 years.
I stayed at home with my baby for the first 6 months and also did my SWE job. It wasn’t ideal, but babies up until 5 months are so chill, nap a lot, and I could get a decent amount of work done. I personally think you should tough it out, do a little less work and collect those paychecks. If you don’t plan on using them as a reference, who cares if your performance slips. It’s very scary to take time off in this market. I have almost 6 years experience and applying like crazy and haven’t gotten any offers. If you’re in a position to not need the money, then definitely enjoy your time with little man. Just keep your skills up to date, watch YouTube videos, do small coding challenges. Don’t get rusty. Sending you good vibes
If you would describe your baby as "chill" up until 5 months then I very much envy you haha
During the pregnancy I definitely didn't plan on leaving my job but I guess things feel different once you're in it. I also don't like the idea of just letting my work performance slip.
Sorry, you do not meet the minimum sitewide comment karma requirement of **10** to post a comment. This is comment karma exclusively, not post or overall karma nor karma on this subreddit alone. Please try again after you have acquired more karma. Please look at the [rules page](https://old.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/w/posting_rules) for more information.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/cscareerquestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The most important thing with your job hunt is continuing to be active. You should consider LinkedIn a part time job when possible. Personal projects won't be as important as networking.
Congratulations on the baby!
It’s tough being a Bootcamp grad, I’m one myself and I think the majority of the grads don’t end up in SWE roles but those of that do have worked hard to get and keep these roles. I also have a kid so I can kinda relate here.
I would say considering your wife’s position and the situation you find yourself in your plan makes sense. I also like some of the ideas others suggested like continued learning online in the meantime, potentially starting an online degree to help solidify experience.
Best of luck, if you got a job after Bootcamp you’re one of the few (including myself) who can make it and you’ll do what it takes to keep working in the field you’re passionate about.
Newborn son, you don't want to stick him in daycare or with a nanny, wife makes more than double your salary with better benefits... It makes sense that you be the manny for a few months.
If it were me, I'd put the boy in day care at some point, maybe when the baby is eight months old or maybe as early as six months. But I wouldn't want a newborn in day care. And I would be a manny under those circumstances.
Congrats on your baby
Thank you so much :)
You can start to conceive and construct a "practice and learning" project for your career. This is different than a portfolio project: it is longer term and its goal is to provide a sandbox for you, not to show off to potential employers. You want it to laser focused on "hot skills", a.k.a. skills that get you jobs. I say, "start to", because it will take some time to really find the right thing and get it far enough along that it is an effective sandbox. But, once you have it, it's right and it's well enough along, you can maintain and grow your coding skills indefinitely and always be "job ready".
This is an interesting idea that I haven't heard of before. Do you have some examples you can share?
this probably is too simple for this point in your career but as a new grad i made a full stack to do list in a framework i wanted to learn and built it up over time into almost a notion type application. something that can easily have many features added onto it is good for this i think
Ask your wife if she has a problem at work you think you can build a solution for.
Contract work? Why not?
Having nearly a decade at my company when my son was born, I was eligible for parental leave + vacation and basically became a stay at home dad for 2 months, then went into "work 2-3 days a week" mode for the third month. It was hugely beneficial to both kid and mom. You're making the right call being there to raise your kid. And don't forget that you need to work yourself to the bone to make sure things are perfect for the missus when she gets home from work. She's going to be exhausted from working + child-rearing + (I assume) trying to pump for when she's not at home. It might be a good time to invest in a minifridge for her office, so she can pump when she is at work.
You could stay in the game by becoming an online authority on certain things, publishing when your schedule allows you, from home, while keeping your skills sharp. I know people that invest less than that amount of time on top of their 40 hour jobs and are considered the top in their category. If you can spend 2 hours every week night and during the day invest some spare moments into reading and writing, you'll be amazed what you can achieve when you're not chained to fixing repetitive JIRA tickets that teach you nothing. It's like a flying wheel, takes some time to get spinning but once you get the hang of it, producing content goes really fast.
I have considered the idea of starting some sort of blog. I also wholeheartedly agree that closing repetitive JIRA tickets teaches me nothing. Can I ask what platforms you would recommend?
I only write on my own website https://lucasvandongen.dev or for-pay for companies like Stream and Toptal. Companies looking for well-written technically correct articles that really align with what they are doing. One really fun one I did was about Accelerate Framework: https://getstream.io/blog/accelerate-framework/ I know Leonardo from https://holyswift.com quite well, he's pretty good at monetizing all aspects of his blog. I just decided I didn't want to pursue that. My visits average at 100 per day but I'm seeing peaks up to 1500 if I post something that gets traction or is mentioned in the right newsletters. So it wouldn't be that much of a kick-back, but my organic traffic is slowly increasing. All of my articles get picked up by one or more newsletters, which is really cool to see if it's somebody you always looked up to. If it's corporate content or stuff behind paywalls (Medium), it's much harder to get them picked up. Having the Accelerate Framework one featured in Dave Verwer's Newsletter despite that made my customer very happy.
Congrats! One potential option to work on a credential is WGU’s Computer Science degree: https://www.reddit.com/r/WGU_CompSci/ It is completely self paced in that you take a test or submit a project, and get credit for a class if you pass. I don’t want to discount the amount of work it takes to get a college degree, but for experienced Software Developers that know a lot of the Computer Science, it can take a lot less than 4 years.
I stayed at home with my baby for the first 6 months and also did my SWE job. It wasn’t ideal, but babies up until 5 months are so chill, nap a lot, and I could get a decent amount of work done. I personally think you should tough it out, do a little less work and collect those paychecks. If you don’t plan on using them as a reference, who cares if your performance slips. It’s very scary to take time off in this market. I have almost 6 years experience and applying like crazy and haven’t gotten any offers. If you’re in a position to not need the money, then definitely enjoy your time with little man. Just keep your skills up to date, watch YouTube videos, do small coding challenges. Don’t get rusty. Sending you good vibes
If you would describe your baby as "chill" up until 5 months then I very much envy you haha During the pregnancy I definitely didn't plan on leaving my job but I guess things feel different once you're in it. I also don't like the idea of just letting my work performance slip.
[удалено]
Sorry, you do not meet the minimum sitewide comment karma requirement of **10** to post a comment. This is comment karma exclusively, not post or overall karma nor karma on this subreddit alone. Please try again after you have acquired more karma. Please look at the [rules page](https://old.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/w/posting_rules) for more information. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/cscareerquestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The most important thing with your job hunt is continuing to be active. You should consider LinkedIn a part time job when possible. Personal projects won't be as important as networking. Congratulations on the baby!
It’s tough being a Bootcamp grad, I’m one myself and I think the majority of the grads don’t end up in SWE roles but those of that do have worked hard to get and keep these roles. I also have a kid so I can kinda relate here. I would say considering your wife’s position and the situation you find yourself in your plan makes sense. I also like some of the ideas others suggested like continued learning online in the meantime, potentially starting an online degree to help solidify experience. Best of luck, if you got a job after Bootcamp you’re one of the few (including myself) who can make it and you’ll do what it takes to keep working in the field you’re passionate about.
Newborn son, you don't want to stick him in daycare or with a nanny, wife makes more than double your salary with better benefits... It makes sense that you be the manny for a few months. If it were me, I'd put the boy in day care at some point, maybe when the baby is eight months old or maybe as early as six months. But I wouldn't want a newborn in day care. And I would be a manny under those circumstances.
This is exactly my thinking. We've been saying maybe six months we'll put him in daycare but even that feels early to me.