Getting a Job after your Degree

All students have the same dream – get a good job after completing the degree. Of course, every student has immediate worries about the next set of exams or lab assignments, but the ultimate goal always remains the same: Get a good job. How do you go about doing that?

I had the same thoughts when I was studying in SOCS. What should I learn? Where will I search for jobs? How should my resume look? What do interviewers ask? Hundreds of questions like that kept floating through my brain all the time.

Fortunately, I was able to get through an interview arranged by Shreds Society in Ernakulam. In the past few years, I have been doing interviews for my company to hire both freshers and experienced people. I thought, what if I write something that can benefit someone looking for a job. So here it goes:

Fundamentally, study hard. This is really the only thing you have under your control. You cannot control the Indian economy or your looks, but you can decide how hard you want to study. Recruiters filter resumes by looking at your academic scores. And, the more you know, the better you can perform in the interview.

How do you study well? First, don’t fool yourself by thinking that people who get better marks are more intelligent. The only difference is that they are willing to work harder. The “smarter” student probably spends 3-5 times more time studying than the other students. Don’t believe me? Just ask the topper in your class to explain how he/she spends her week and compare that to your week.

But there are only 24 hours in the day. How do the “smarter” students do it? They do it by reducing the hours for non-study activities. While you sleep, they are staying up late in the quiet night reading or doing something. Even when they are sitting idle, they spend more time talking about some subject. What do you talk about?

That is why it is very important for you to make a friend of your classmate who gets good marks and spend more time with them. The more you are with them, the less you will be distracted by other matters and the better you will be able to learn. It is like the passive smoke and lung cancer – only in this case, it is a good thing.

Second, score high marks. You could learn the entire book, but you could still end up with low marks. Spend more time learning the areas that could be asked in exams. Learn how to write answers clearly and to the point. Brush up on all formulas before the exam.

Learn to write fast so that you don’t run out of time. If you have a 3-hour exam, learn to write as if you only have 90 minutes. You will be surprised to see that you can now tackle the more difficult questions in the exams, because you have greater time to work on them.

Third, read books and Internet blogs. By books, I don’t mean “Learn Java in 24 Hours” (although that is also good). Read books about design, architecture, usability, computer history, etc. Now, some of these books may be hard, so start with the simpler books and then slowly increase the complexity.

When I recommend books to people, they always say, “I have no time.” But how much time do you have? Can you spare 15 minutes every day? Usually, you can finish 15 pages in that time. In 10 days, you can finish a 150-page book without spending any great effort.

Also, once you start reading a book, sometimes it will be so interesting that you may continue to read it to the end. You can also meet up with a friend and spend a couple of hours silently, both of you reading something. Start today! Internet blogs (like www.codinghorror.com and www.worsethanfailure.com) are excellent resources to stay informed about software news and issues. Some articles take less than a minute to read. The beauty of using blogs is that they will automatically come to your email Inbox (Yahoo! or Gmail). So you can read them like emails from your friends. You do not have to remember to visit those sites every day.

Fourth, get a good course project. Don’t settle for a project that is easy to do. That will look really bad on your resume. Find the most complex project in a hot technology. Once you are in the project, learn the project and technologies involved so that you can clearly explain them in an interview.

One mistake that many people do is to only concentrate on the project and ignore the people and processes. Learn to interact with people. Understand how a project can be done successfully in a real organization. Build up your personality skills.

Fifth, prepare a good resume. Do this correctly. Allocate 2-3 hours to do this. Ask a friend to sit with you and start typing. What courses have you done? Describe your projects in detail (at least 3 paragraphs each). Describe what you are interested in. Format it properly. Kill the spelling and grammar mistakes. Use color appropriately.

Imagine you are a recruiter at a company reading your resume. What will they think about you when they read your resume? Will they find it interesting to read? Will they notice the important points and your strengths in the resume? Write your resume accordingly. Show your resume to your friends and teachers and use their comments to make your resume better.

Sixth, make yourself presentable. Make sure that you are well-groomed and well-dressed for an interview. If you don’t know how to do this, ask a friend who knows. Arrive at least 30 minutes before the interview. Do not try to learn something at the last minute. It never works. Seriously!

Try out mock interviews. I am amazed at how many times people fail to answer basic questions like “Describe yourself”, “Explain your strengths and weaknesses”, “List your favorite computer subjects”, and “Why do you want to work for us?” Be prepared for such questions.

Seventh, be honest. The fundamental reason why most people fail in interviews is because they lie. Not lies like, “I have an IQ of 180.” No, what people do is to try to be somebody that they are not. Don’t try to act intelligent or smart. Instead, be frank and open. Say this is what you are and what you know. Describe what you can do to help the company interviewing you.

Here is something you need to know: Your interviewer is also interviewing other freshers. He doesn’t expect you to know everything. Instead, what he is looking for is “potential”. If he hires you, will you learn what you are taught? Do you have the commitment to do what it takes? Will you co-operate and work well with other people?

Your intelligence and knowledge is only a small percentage of what the interviewer is looking for. If you are sincere, open and interested, the interviewer will warm up to you. If he likes your attitude, he will make the interview simple to help you succeed. If you don’t seem to have the right personality, he will try to find ways to reject you by increasing the complexity of the questions.

Remember: You will win or lose the interview within the first 60 seconds.

Finally, stop worrying and do something about it. Instead of worrying, study harder, update your resume, buy a good tie for the interview, email your seniors about job opportunities, etc. Do something – anything! Every minute you spend in pursuit of your goal will bring you closer to it.