# Plan a strategy

## Getting started

The first step is to have a strategy. You've come this far with a deliberate and strategic approach to learning, why abandon it at the most important phase? Getting a job can itself be a full-time job so use your time wisely and plan ahead. There are some things you can and should do ahead of time, which we will cover in greater depth below.

The path to working takes the following form:

1. Figure out your needs and skills
2. Figure out what companies need and offer
3. Increase your odds by laying the groundwork early
4. Collect job leads
5. Qualify job leads
6. Reach out and apply
7. Interview
8. Handle the offer(s)
9. Profit??

You'll notice that it's quite structured. Some things are more optional than others, but you've got to have a plan or you'll find yourself spamming your resume out to every job post on every job board and wondering why you haven't had any success. Or maybe you'll end up going through a long and painful process and realizing you never wanted that job anyway -- a total waste of time.

We'll also cover some alternate paths you can take like finishing up your education at a coding bootcamp and how you can contribute to open source projects (like this one) to boost your "real world" experience.

## Assignment

A fantastic place to start your "getting hired" journey is this [**very thorough article from Happy Bear Software on How to Get A Programmer Job**](http://web.archive.org/web/20160925155912/http://www.happybearsoftware.com/how-to-get-a-programmer-job.html).

Now get your head out of the clouds, stop dreaming about how you'll get hired, and actually do it!

## Additional resources

This section contains helpful links to other content. It isn't required, so consider it supplemental for if you need to dive deeper into something.

* [Getting your first IT job from InformationWeek](https://www.informationweek.com/team-building-and-staffing/how-to-land-your-first-it-job/d/d-id/1111584)
* [Engineer’s Guide to US Visas](http://blog.sourcing.io/visa-guide)
* [Lessons from a Silicon Valley Job Search by Robert Heaton](https://robertheaton.com/2014/03/07/lessons-from-a-silicon-valley-job-search/)


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