In 2019 our graduates experienced the shortest job search times in our eight-year history. However, since the COVID-19-induced recession, job search times have lengthened in response to the tightening job market. Nonetheless, our promise to our graduates remains the same...our job is not done until they find their first job in tech. The NSS Board of Directors recently approved our proposal to make support for Seekers (that’s what we call bootcamp grads that are still searching for their first tech job post-graduation) the top priority initiative for the second half of 2020. But what strategies could we roll out quickly to help?
We’ve long preached that nothing is more important during a graduate’s job search than continuing to learn and practicing the skills they learned at NSS. Well, the current situation provides a great opportunity for NSS to not just preach it but to do it. What better way to support our graduates than to help them keep learning new skills at our expense. Yes, our Seekers have to dedicate their time. But we’ll supply the instructors, the curriculum, and the support they need to keep learning. This is just one strategy we’ll launch: double down on our graduates and invest further in their ongoing learning.
The initial phase of this strategy taps into already available or in-development professional development courses. One existing course is UI & UX for Digital Product Design. Another course, that was still in development, is a SQL class we plan to launch in early 2021.
UI & UX for Digital Product Design has always been a favorite among our full-stack web development graduates who choose to focus on front-end development after graduation. We had already scheduled this class to start in August so we opened up 10 extra free seats just for our active Seekers most interested in front-end development.
Even more of our web development Seekers will be able to test drive the beta experience of our new Mastering SQL for Developers class. This class was created based on feedback from local employers. To test it, we’ve opened it up to 25 seekers to join us 3 mornings a week for 5 weeks. They get a much deeper and broader understanding of SQL - for free - we get invaluable feedback on this new class. Interest in this class from our Seekers was high enough that we’re exploring how we can offer it again this year.
These will not be the last free classes we offer to Seekers between now and the end of this year. We plan to offer a series of additional classes, including options for our Analytics + Data Science Seekers, ranging from short workshops to full-length classes. during the COVID-19 job search period. We’ll be sharing more information about upcoming offerings soon.