how to get a job 2016 - summer of tech

How to get a Job?ICT Graduate School 2016

John Clegg - Summer of TechVictoria University - 4th August 2016

* How to get a Job?* Career tips

Twitter: @summeroftechHashtag: #SOT2016

Today

How to turn the job hunt on its head

Get companies hunting you

We want to show you how to turnthe job hunt upside down

We asked our best studentsto give us their tips

Dex and Dawn will be our guides

DISCLAIMER

Our advice has been captured from 10 years of helping students get jobs. > 500 placements with 75% on-hire rate

We know what works and we will tell you how to get a job. If you don’t understand then keep asking WHY until you get it .

95% most of the students who don’t get a job don’t follow our basic advice.

Yeah Nah !?!

Who am I ?

We help you to ...

Get training on what companies want

Learn the “important” stuff in getting a job

Lots of companies have got jobs...

Our journey starts here!

JOB

Jobs are connected to people

JOBPeople People

People People

JOBWhat doCompanies look for ina Candidate?

JOBWhat do Companies look for in aCandidate?

Skills PersonalityTraits

JOBWhat do Companies look for ina Candidate?

Skills PersonalityTraits

How do I get the right skills?

How do I do the right things?

JOBWhat do Companies look for ina Candidate?

Skills PersonalityTraits

How do I get the right skills?

How do I do the right things?

How to find a good company?

X

JOBWhat do Companies look for ina Candidate?

Skills PersonalityTraits

How do I get the right skills?

How do I do the right things?

How to find a good company?X

What you can do NOW!

( )+

JOBWhat do Companies look for ina Candidate?

Skills PersonalityTraits

How do I get the right skills?

How do I do the right things?

How to find a good company?X

What you can do NOW!

( )+

Summer of Tech is here to show you how!

What are companies looking for?

“I largely don’t care about someone’s actual coding skill on day 1, because they often won’t align with our patterns anyway, but it’s all teachable.

What I want to see is a candidate’s ability to interact with an existing codebase and team….”

What companies are looking for

What companies are looking for

“…The single best way you can do this is by choosing a project and contributing.

One way to get started (assuming github here), is fork the an interesting repo, read the contributor guidelines (which typically also include an explanation of how to set up for development), and then look for a bug to fix, or new feature to add.” - Brad Murray , DATACOM

“We like to see working demos of games they have made. An app I can run on my phone is great, from the app store is even better.

Some people have unity games that are very impressive, but Unity hides some of the difficult parts so we prefer to see C++ game demos…”

What companies are looking for

“The stuff that sticks out the most is when they have a larger game demo they have worked on in a team. It helps us get a sense for how well they work with others.

Things like the Imagine Cup or Global Game Jam are great.”

Joe O’Sullivan - PikPok

What companies are looking for

What are companies looking for?

0) You

1) The right attitude

2) Team fit

2 Team Player aka Cultural fit

3) Communication skills

3 Communication skillsaka Can I talk to youand do you listen?

4) Your skills

-

5) Your track record

6) What do you want to learn?

0) You

Your school career is about making you the same

What makes you unique?

What are you good at?

1) The right attitude

Enthusiastic

Curious

Humility

Willing to learn

“There is no such thing as an 'I am willing to learn' certificate.

If you really are willing to learn, demonstrate it instead.”

Professional

Be on time

Be honest & honour promises

Be careful what you say online

Your attitude is important

Presentable

“Make the right impression, dress neatly, make sure you've groomed and look presentable. People will remember you if you make an impression.”

2) Team fit

2 Team Player aka Cultural fit

aka Cultural Fit

2 Team Player aka Cultural fit

Understand how to work in a team

Agile / Scrum

Code Management

Google researched - What makes a “perfect team”

“We had lots of data, but there was nothing showing that a mix of specific personality types or skills or backgrounds made any difference.”

The ‘‘who’’ part of the equation didn’t seem to matter.’

Two factors that mattered most to the teams

1) ‘Equality in distribution of conversational turn-taking.’’

- Teams where everyone spoke the same amount. (ie. no one dominated)

2) ‘‘Average social sensitivity’’- Understanding people's cues

What did matter most for teams was ...

3) Communication skills

3 Communication skillsaka Can I talk to youand do you listen?

“Be prepared to go out of your comfort zone (promoting yourself, networking, interviewing),

you'll improve a lot and pick up transferrable skills (eyy buzzwords) by doing so”

Building software products is a team sport

3 Communication skillsaka Can I talk to youand do you listen?

Can I talk to you about a problem?

3 Communication skillsaka Can I talk to youand do you listen?

Written comms

Commit messages

Take feedback

Explain an idea

Presentation Skills

4) Your skills

-

Research Skills

Critical Thinking

Test Driven Development

Build your own environment

What skills do companies want?

What skills they would like you to have?

5) Your track record

“Build your CV while you are at uni;

That might sound strange but people often think that they will start building their CV after uni.

The most challenging thing is to get your first job.

So build your CV now.”

“How to build your CV? Attend as many programming events, hackathons, etc. as possible.

Build a complete website / mobile app while you are studying.

Have a cool github profile. Participate in open source projects. ”

“Work on team projects.

The university does not prepare you properly for that.

Learn how to use git in a team (branching, merging, etc.)”

How to use Git properly

Use git as your daily backup

What they are looking for in your Github?

1) Interesting projects2) Examples of your work3) Contributions to projects

Annotate your code in an README.md

● The purpose of code● What it does and doesn’t do● Any special instructions● Any anomalies● If you had to make trade-offs, state

why

Nothing to see here - move along!

Hmm interesting spike...

Alright, what are they into

Start now !

6) What do you want to learn?

What are you passionate about?

What are you passionate about

Learning comes from failure

“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” ― Thomas A. Edison

Recipe for success...

Try -> Fail -> Learn -> Experience

Rinse, Repeat

How to find a good Company

“Don't be shy about requesting information from companies, or asking if you can get a tour.

Actually being in the office was a huge indicator for me if I wanted to work there.”

Do your homework

“If you're aiming for a company that uses C#, do a small project in C# to show off on your github so they know you're actually interested and will put in the effort.”

“Researching the company so that the interviewer was impressed with my knowledge and interest in the company and its products at the M & G and the interview.”

Figure out what does the company do?

“Talk to employers and figure out what kind of people the companies are looking for.”

“Know what you want and go for that. (research different types of companies and get a feel for startup/small companies vs larger more corporate ones) “

Glassdoor

Lots of companies have got jobs...

Glassdoor

Glassdoor

Student word of mouth

Glassdoor

Glassdoor

When thinking about a company...

Join a smart team

Think about the work environment

Think about the tools they use

Think about how they get the job done

What can you do NOW?

Find areas of interest

Find a pet project

“Have at least one project you've done outside of university to show to potential employers - bonus points if it's on Github! ”

“Find people who really want to work on a project and team up with them. Don't just talk to your friends about working on a project because all you'll end up doing is drinking a lot and playing scrabble.”

Github

LinkedIn

Get out of your comfort zone

Go to Meetups

Career Tips● Make sure you have the right attitude● Practicing working in teams● Focus on improving your comms skills● Try lots of things to find your passion● Build your track record

○ Have a pet project ● Figure out what you want to learn

Summary

Questions