Vassar in Tech is a volunteer-led group with the mission to support Vassar College alumnae/i working in technology across industries and functions and to support current students interested in pursuing careers in the field with resources and mentorship. Originally based as a meetup in New York, the group has shifted to a LinkedIn group and is now hosting ongoing nationwide events online.
The Career Development Office offers a variety of ways for students and alumnae/i to find resources and connect. First, join VassarNet, Vassar’s online community of alumnae/i, students, parents, faculty, and friends of Vassar, to build your network and find Vassar-connected opportunities. Secondly the CDO offers other alumnae/i-specific resources, many now virtually, here: https://careers.vassar.edu/info/alums/.
VFA is a two-year fellowship program for recent grads who want to work at a startup and create jobs in American cities. Fellows learn important startup skills at a monthlong Training Camp, apply for jobs within the company network, and work for two years as full-time, salaried employees in one of 13 cities. When fellows are ready to start a company—be it 2 years after college or 10—VFA has the resources to help make that dream a reality. Vassar has had a proud record of providing fellows into the VFA program since the first class in 2013 through to the upcoming class of 2021.
Many liberal arts graduates find that the addition of a technical bootcamps is a great complement to their formal education. One such program is Flatiron School, a coding bootcamp that offers intensive courses to teach students the skills needed to launch a career in tech as a developer, data scientist, or cybersecurity analyst. In 2020 their job seeking grads had an 84 percent employment rate and Flatiron was recognized by Career Karma as the Best Online Bootcamp, Best Coding Bootcamp, Best Data Science Bootcamp, and Best Cybersecurity Bootcamp.
Other accessible online learning tools include LinkedIn Learning, Codecademy, Khan Academy, and Lynda.
Tech is a fast moving and well covered industry—so if you’re interested in learning more about any area, it’s easy to keep up by reading publications such as TechCrunch, VentureBeat, The Verge, Forbes Tech, and vox.com/recode.