On August 23, Code Nation hosted a virtual panel event that brought together our alumni, students, volunteers, and corporate partners to talk about the current state of the tech industry and best practices for job seekers. Code Nation CEO Ron Summers moderated the discussion between our fantastic panelists, representing some of Code Nation’s company partners across the country: Eric Bohl of Basis Technologies, Rachel Francois of Google, Lindsay Harris of SeatGeek, and Michael Valocchi of Cognizant.

During the lively discussion, the panelists talked about their own career paths, and emphasized the variety of roles within the tech industry beyond software development. They shared their insights into the current and future state of hiring in the industry and gave recommendations for how candidates can make themselves stand out from other applicants, and even the most promising job search websites.

They also reflected on their career experiences, and shared advice for emerging professionals. Looking to the future, they discussed the trends and skills that will be important in the next few years and gave advice on how Code Nation alumni can highlight their projects on their resumes and job applications. We know how important this topic is to our alumni community, so we recorded the event. You can check out the recording of the panel below:

Throughout the event, attendees were invited to submit questions for the panelists, which prompted further discussion into creative ways to get a job in tech and how to find the right job fit for you in the industry. We received many thoughtful questions that we didn’t have time to answer, so we look forward to hosting more events in the future where we can continue to learn together!

If you have any ideas for programming that you’d like to see from our alumni team in the future, we encourage you to reach out to Code Nation’s Alumni Manager, Mollie McSherry.