Ask a Career Coach: How will data jobs fare in the volatile tech job market of early 2024?

Welcome to Ask a Career Coach, an advice-column where real bootcamp career coaches answer a question from a Course Report reader. Today, Beanie Brady from Flatiron School is answering a question about what you can expect in the current data science/data analytics job market and how to stay relevant as a job-seeker. Beanie was a Career Coach for 3 years, and in her current role as a Relationship Manager on the Employer Partnerships team at Flatiron School, Beanie connects bootcamp grads with potential employers.

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Our question comes from someone interested in a career in data, who writes:

“Are data jobs being impacted by the recent tech company layoffs? And how do you think data jobs will fare in the 2024 job market?”

A quick answer to this question is…

All jobs are impacted in this current environment. Similar to the onset of the pandemic in 2020, we are seeing companies placing hiring freezes through the end of 2022. Personally, I weathered the first dot-com bubble burst in 2000, and that taught me that there are cycles in the tech industry. 

That said, while it’s impossible to anticipate what changes will be made to the job market at any time, we live in a world of data with the ever-increasing need to know how to analyze, understand, and use that data for predictions.

What I am seeing on the employer partnership side of things is a strong interest in hiring Flatiron School graduates to work for small, boutique data analytics firms and many other data teams. 

In this turbulent tech market, do you expect any bias against data bootcamp grads within the tech hiring space?

There can be a bias against a bootcamp education by people who don't understand the value of a bootcamp education and what a bootcamp graduate can bring to a team. As a Relationship Manager, I source and post relevant roles to an internal job portal for our job seekers and I see what they see, which is a lot of job descriptions asking for Master’s or Ph.D-level degrees. I empathize with the frustration our job-seekers feel when they run up against those job requirements after just graduating from a data bootcamp. My feeling is that as the need for more data scientists and data analysts grows, the industry must expand to hire more bootcamp grads. I see it happening and I’m excited that it’s happening for our Flatiron School bootcamp grads because they’re amazing — they work hard, they're eager to learn, and they know how to learn quickly, so they will be ready to join a team and add value. 

How is Flatiron School helping today’s employers find this kind of tech talent?

Flatiron School offers many tools for success, including a job portal through Huntr.co where we post open roles from employers who are looking specifically for Flatiron School graduates as well as roles that our team sources. 

With our Post a Job feature, employers can post a job to our internal job board, and then we market and highlight it to our job-seekers. Our Flatiron grads are relieved to know there are companies that specifically want to hire them!! 

In addition, Huntr allows us the functionality to extend invitations for employers to search the portal and source and communicate directly with candidates. It’s a game-changer to have employers searching for candidates, with access to resumes and projects from Flatiron grads. 

Employers who are interested in access to the portal can send a request to hire@flatironschool.com.  It is exciting to give employers the opportunity to see firsthand how amazing our grads are and reach out directly regarding open roles! 

How is your team preparing recent Flatiron School graduates for an uncertain job market?

We're actually revisiting our learnings from 2020 to apply to today’s job market. Nobody can ever control the market or hiring managers, so coaches spend a lot of time focusing on what is in a job seeker’s control. Both in Employer Partnerships and in Career Coaching, we work with students and graduates on what they can do to weather these cycles and what to focus on to manage a job search amidst uncertain hiring times. 

Our team in Career Services supports students in the program with a series of 5 workshops delivered by Subject Matter experts on topics like embracing your new tech identity, building a strong LinkedIn, writing a robust technical resume, and strategies for cultivating connection. Once students graduate from the program, they have the support of an individual coach who meets regularly with a grad for 1:1 sessions to support each unique job search. Coaches work closely with Employer Partnerships to connect grads with employers who are eager to hire bootcamp grads. 

How can grads set themselves up for success in an uncertain job market?

I like to encourage people to think about what they can control, and to have realistic expectations of what a job search might look like. Many people think of a job search as a straight line, where you apply to roles, get interviews, and then a job offer. However, I like to think of a job search as a 3D puzzle where you're solving for multiple sides: cultivating connections, engaging in ongoing learning, telling your story, and applying to jobs — these are all actions you can take. You can set goals for yourself every week to learn something new, engage with somebody, make connections on LinkedIn, and set up coffee chats. You can control how many jobs you apply to. You also need to learn how to manage your expectations about the things that are out of your control, like you might not hear back from an employer even after a first round interview. 

In coaching, clients often say that looking for a job is like dating — but, as a coach, I like to point out that in the job search, your end goal is not looking for a lifetime connection, but rather your next job. It is helpful for a job seeker to set an expectation that the first role out of bootcamp is one that you might be in for 18 months to three years. 

So, a job search is different from dating because you are focusing on cultivating connections for your career. It’s important for a job seeker to build relationships for a career rather than focusing narrowly on landing the next job. 

3 Ways to Stand Out in a Data Job Interview in 2024

1. Showcase your other skills besides tech skills. 
2. Highlight how you align with the company and their values. 
3. Make sure to demonstrate your problem-solving skills in the technical interview. Employers often tell me that in a technical interview, they’re less interested in you getting the answer right and more in seeing how you think to solve the problem. 

What kinds of jobs do Flatiron School bootcamp graduates typically land? 

Flatiron School bootcamp grads get hired as data analysts and data scientists. Our graduates have interviewed for data science related jobs that feature a range of titles, such as: Data Scientist, Junior Data Scientist, Data Engineer, Junior Data Science Apprentice, Data Analyst, Associate Consultant, Datametrics Software Engineer, Sr. Specialist-Quantitative Analytics and Data Science, Senior Marketing Technology Analyst, and Business Analyst.

What’s your advice to anyone who is considering enrolling in a bootcamp like Flatiron School in order to be successful in 2024?

My biggest piece of advice to somebody considering enrolling in a bootcamp is: Figure out what you like to do and think about who you are, and then show up as who you are in your projects. Aligning your story, values, and interests in your project choices tells a story to an employer and really helps in your job search. In a bootcamp, you create a project portfolio, so think about projects that reflect who you are and what's important to you. When an employer looks at your resume as a bootcamp grad, they're looking very deeply at your projects and want to know that you understand the technology, but also what each project says about you.

Once you’re in the bootcamp, connect with the people in your cohort! We found that students who direct message (DM) at least 17% of their cohortmates get jobs faster. For some people, a scary element about the job search is making connections with new people, so start breaking down those barriers by making connections with people in your cohort. Connect with your instructors and everyone else on the team. Start planting seeds for your job search that you can cultivate at the end of your bootcamp experience. Build your LinkedIn and start making LinkedIn connection requests. As you're thinking about a bootcamp, start telling everybody you know that you're entering a bootcamp and will be job seeking when it’s done. 

Find out more and read Flatiron School reviews on Course Report. This article was produced by the Course Report team in partnership with Flatiron School.