How many interviews did you go through, before you got a good job?
I had about 5 since graduating last year, but given up looking, and sticked to my boring day job…but continue to deepen skills.
Is it about pure skill or determination?
What got you in the IT industry?
3 months after college. I think I got lucky. The company that hired me isn’t a IT or software company. They resell someone’s product and want to streamline their whole process. I went there for about 8 months before I jump to another company then every 2 years I jump to another company. Some due to lay off and some due to problem with the management but I always managed to land something. I think you have to be flexible and do stuff that you don’t really want to do or got nothing to do with your core skills or even take a pay cut to gain some experiences.
IMO, experiences weight more than your degree in IT.
I got my 1st job after more or less 8 job applications meaning 8 interviews in general, though some of them are taking initial, hypothetical and final interview. Very brain twisting.
I was so frustrated that time, I was so pressured and the expectation on me worsen my stressed.
Thanks be to God, by the middle of the year I was hired in an IT company (SP* Global).
I decided to be on IT Industry because I’m a graduate of Computer Science.
Nowadays company usually hire people who have relevant experiences, and have good grasp of following instructions.
Yes the determination is always there, but the thing is only few company really giving a chance to those less skillful.
One need to do interesting work after completion of studies. Try to get in to some thing that is interesting or develop interest in what you are doing. Additionally, one can try doing some certifications like CCNA, JAVA, or Oracle. Some times, it may take up to 2 - 3 years for a fresher to get a job.
Good luck!
Right out of high school.
Many. The largest stumbling block was not having “x years of experience”. And that was when the economy was still in good shape.
I had about 5 since graduating last year, but given up looking, and sticked to my boring day job…but continue to deepen skills.
Conservatively, you should be getting at least 2 reasonable responses per month. It can be discouraging when it doesn’t lead anywhere, yes, but it gives you practice. You’re not going to advance much by being complacent.
Also keep in mind the job market is in the toilet, unless you’re in very specific areas with booming industry. So, you may want to consider relocation if you’re not having any luck in your immediate area.
Is it about pure skill or determination?
A degree helps you get in the door. Internship experience is favorable. Real-world experience is almost a requirement, unless the organization has made it a point to hire new graduates. If you happen to know somebody, that will definitely push you to the top of the pile.
Have you contacted your college’s career services office for leads?
I’ve always been quite lucky in that jobs tend to find me, rather than me find them. In my last internship I signed up to a business/marketing internship and the company that hired me kept me on and taught me .NET. I’ve known people get jobs immediately, and I’ve known people struggle for months to land interviews.
If you’re flexible about where you want to live then landing a good development gig is easier than in other industries. There is definitely a talent market out there, and if you’ve got five years experience I think you could walk into some positions at smaller companies.
Frankly, the system of hiring developers is so broken that I’d say it’s almost entirely determination, luck and a sprinkling of ********.
I’ve attended interviews before where you were quizzed on algorithms for a basic front-end development job, and I’ve been offered jobs after a five minute talk about what languages I’ve used at university with no proof, references or real technie talk. It’s a shame that few people tend to get it right.
The best interviews I’ve been to involve nothing more than a straight-up talk about previous work, perhaps a couple of code examples and a general chat about how you’d fit in. Additionally, it’s always worth sitting someone down and having them code something incredibly simple, like a navigation in ASP.NET or a contact form page from a PSD. You get a far better feel for a person from simply talking to them about code.
The reason I prefer these is because it takes out the ******** factor. Determination is something that employers like to see, but they also want to measure skill in such a way that they’re only testing things that will help on the job. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to know how to find a 5-cycle in a dense graph if your job is to build PHP sites for a small consumer electronics company.
To answer the question, it depends on the interview itself, but if you have all three factors and a certain confidence in the way you carry yourself you’ll be prepared for most interviews.
It was what I always wanted to do when I was younger, outside of being a professional footballer.
I’ve been “cowboy coding” for years, ever since I graduated. I still don’t think I have landed a true programming job. This doesn’t bode well for my future career opportunities :x
A job is what you make of it. If you’re in a programming role now that doesn’t use source control or test environments then make some noise and implement these things yourself and you’ll likely be rewarded for it when people come around to the idea.