This is a great discussion.
As someone who's had to wade through hundreds of resumes looking for
qualified candidates, my biggest piece of advice is:
Do something to distinguish yourself.
This could be:
* A personal relationship with a trusted recommender (as Thomas and
Jim described well).
* An internship paid or unpaid.
* A cool personal project that you're excited about (your excitement
more interesting than actual project specifics).
* A contribution (however seemingly trivial) to an open source project.
* A detailed description of past projects or project coursework
separate from your resume. Doesn't have to use names, etc., just be
something more than a bullet point.
* A "portfolio" -- needn't be particularly formal.
* etc.
Academic achievement and/or certification has, at least in my
experience, correlated poorly with job performance among hires I've
made. I'm much more interested in someone that's hungry and excited.
Best,
-c
Thomas Lockney wrote:
On a closely related note to what Jim suggested, I would extend that
and say that, while it’s considered a bad word to many, networking is
something you should be considering. The point, though, is not just to
meet people, but meet people who are doing things that are of interest
to you. And ideally meet them in settings where you are naturally able
to talk about what they’re doing, what your interest in it is, and
that, ideally, leads to learning more about it. User groups (like
DorkbotPDX, of course, but also the various other tech groups in the
area) are generally one of the better venus for this. Also, mailing
lists, IRC, and even, to some degree, social networking (Twitter has
been surprisingly helpful here for my own personal situation) can also
help.
Github, portfolios, etc. are helpful and good, if you have them and
can share them, but for many of us, that’s not always an option. I
personally don’t have much in the way of free time (as evidenced by
the fact that I don’t even attend meetings of various groups I helped
start, anymore). But interaction with people who are doing things I’m
interested is often “low-cost” in terms of time and benefit.
I hope this helps!
~thomas
On Sep 18, 2014, at 8:49 PM, Jim Larson <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Great advice, and it could help you. But here's what works:
Find a place where you have an "in", where you know someone or have a
friend that knows someone. Personal contacts are the only way I've
found that work consistently. If someone in the company says you're a
good person, then all sorts of requirements melt away or morph to
conform to you. Of course you should be at least reasonably qualified
for the position. But you can be *perfectly* qualified and not get a
nibble. The personal contact in the company is the best possible bait!
Anything else is a crap shoot at best.
On 9/18/2014 7:53 PM, Greg Peek wrote:
Erik,
http://siliconflorist.com/jobs/
Clean up your resume and polish your portfolio. You have something
in Github and some web site(s) you've worked on, right?
Ignore anything that has in the title "Sr." "Senior", or "Architect".
Read the descriptions and find something you'd like to do. You
should have at least some of the qualifications they are looking
for. Job descriptions usually contain their entire wish list.
Study the company. Know what their product does, who their target
customer is, competition, any trivia you can dig up.
Go for it.
Getting told no a few times won't kill you. Worst case, you should
get from them what you need to learn to become employable by them.
Good luck.
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