Since graduation from FlatIron, I have been thinking about how to apply my new skills. There is so much potential for web applications, it is often hard to wrap my head around all the things a developer can do.
In starting the job search, I see job description after job description, and they all say the same thing:
Why do you want this position?
When I browse through my tech-filled Twitter feed, I see tweets joking in response to this question:
….I want a job…. and you’re hiring devs???
Jokes aside, I look at this question in every company: “What will I be doing in this role? Why do I want to be doing it? What is the impact that I will be making?” In this process, I have re-examined my values.
Purpose
In FlatIron’s course, one of the instructors recommended reading Weaving the Web by Tim Berners-Lee, a recommendation that I will extend to you, dear reader.
Throughout the first-hand account of inventing the World Wide Web as we know and love today, Tim emphasizes the Web’s inherent mission of improving humanity. In decentralizing information, we make it accessible to anyone with a computer, and when we make information accessible to as many people as possible, we provide humanity with progress. More people solve problems more effectively and efficiently, and therefore contribute towards societal change and improvement, more than ever before, and it is all due to the Web’s existence.
So I think of that question: “Why do you want this job?”, and I take my answer seriously. So much of the world relies on the Web, and therefore the applications that live on it. As the people who create and maintain these programs, we have an awesome responsibility to push humanity towards a better future.
Future Tech
In keeping up with tech news, I learn daily about various new developments in the tech industry: benefits of using a decentralized currency by means of blockchain and cryptocurrency; using IoT technologies to stop illegal Rhino poaching in Africa; even building dancing robots! (undoubtedly capable of much more)
I look at these constantly developing technologies and feel inspired. I have always wanted to contribute towards positive societal change, and with my new web development skills, I feel capable and ready to make an impact.
I also often look at these developments as a new developer and become overwhelmed; how could I, a fresh Bootcamp grad without any previous tech experience, build something truly meaningful and impactful? Nerves and the dreaded Imposter Syndrome kick in. What could I possibly contribute?
Also found in my tech-Twitter feed, there is often a tweet trying to inspire new devs to feel more comfortable coding and getting started, similar to the following:
Steps to becoming a developer:
- Start building
- Start building
- Start building Just get started!
As reductionist as these kinds of tweets can be, I think they are helpful to newbies because the sentiment reigns true: if you want to do something, start doing it.
In other words, if I want to make a positive impact… I need to start doing it!
I know that I often overlook my own potential, not only in tech, but in life generally, and in these instances, I am the only obstacle standing in my way. I want to become more involved in creating a better world, so I am constantly searching for resources that support it:
- companies that support sustainability like TenTree, where every item purchased results in 10 newly planted trees;
- companies like Cognizant that develop AI-driven software solutions for the Health Care industry;
- companies that make financial health and literacy more widely available like Acorns and Circle
In short, companies that are looking to make a positive impact, to make the world a better place.
These are companies that I want to support, and when asked the great question, “Why do you want this job?”, I can honestly reply that our values are aligned, that I want to contribute to a team with such a goal in mind….