Shortcuts To Landing Your First Job | Hacker News Reader

Shortcuts To Landing Your First Job

collegefeed.com

21 pointsceekay23 comments

One thing I'd add is don't be afraid to list non-technical work experience on your resume when you're looking for your first job. We all assume each entry level candidate with a CS degree has done the standard coursework and projects which can be evaluated in a technical interview. However, experience in unrelated fields, like waiting tables, is a differentiator in my mind since it tells me the candidate has already had a taste of the time and commitment responsibilities one has to take on when entering the working world.

great point!

Would add that students should "open source" showcase their work - especially CS students - host your code on github, participate in open source projects, participate in stackoverflow... so you can showcase your real working code to employers rather than writing code on whiteboards during interviews.

I think this is huge for CS grads, and I would add to not overlook a blog/SO as it can really showcase your ability to discuss and explain technical topics. I can never write a blog post because every time I try I end up with an outline for a 9-part series explaining everything I've ever learned tangentially related to <topic>, but SO gave me the focus needed to showcase some of my communication abilities. I know that helped me at least get noticed by companies.

Great idea, plus with beautiful, idiot simple tools like medium.com its so easy to write a blog today.

What's that 14.7% of 'Information Systems' unemployed graduates?

People that degree in IT but can't actually code/sysadmin/whatever is the technical skill they're supposed to have?

Probably.

There's a non trivial number of these around. Politicians, students, parents, etc. are keen to build relevant skills is high demand areas. On paper that's great. In reality creating programs overnight and admitting students without the vocation because the funding and students are available is a recipe for problems. There are a lot of "IT Specialists," graphic designers and other (genuinely needed) "professionals" around that can't do anything useful.

Some didn't like it, so never got good. Some are just unsuitable talent-wise (I don't think I could have ever been more than a barely competent designer). For some it's a combination of things. Below average suitability. No motivation. Bottom rung course.

Thinking of Tertiary Schools as factories for turning people into professionals at something is problematic analogy. Often its a case of we need to do something, lets do this. The result is weird numbers. High unemployment in high vacancy professions.

Not sure. The numbers in the infographic are from Georgetown's latest study[1], but I cannot find a definition of what Georgetown's categories are. However, their chart makes it clear that engineering and computer science are not part of the "Information Systems" umbrella, and since this only covers Bachelors holders or greater I have to assume the category covers CIS, MIS, and similar "business technology" type degrees.

[1] http://cew.georgetown.edu/unemployment2013/

I would assume the issue is that most Information System degrees are unaccredited. There are only 36 IS programs accredited in the US.

I seriously don't agree with working for free for "exposure and experience". Didn't HN just have a couple of posts recently about the serious negatives of unpaid internships?

This is pretty tech-specific. In many other fields, unpaid internships are seen as a good deal, mostly because their are so few of them and so many applicants. A friend of mine who recently converted an (unpaid) internship to a job in DC worked really hard just to land the internship. At the same time, he was learning the job but in no way provided the same benefit to his employer as a tech intern does.

Sort of adding on to that, an unpaid opportunity doesn't have to be an unpaid internship. An unpaid opportunity could be a CS student in college working on the website for an on-campus club, for example, or a public relations student serving on the executive board as the PR chair of an on-campus organization.

I think when facing a choice of 'doing nothing' vs. working on an open source project or unpaid internship, a college student should choose the free exposure and experience. Sure, if you can get a paid internship or work in your field, do that. But if you haven't yet, free exposure and experience is a great way to do something positive.

Good point here and I'd have to agree with you. Sure, the unpaid route isn't ideal, but then again neither is an internship in general. The whole point of an internship is to gain experience/see if you're a fit for working at the company full-time. Now, in the tech world, I fully understand unpaid internships at brand new companies with absolutely no money. What I don't understand is unpaid internships at PayPal. That's where I draw the line. But yes, when it comes to either working for free or doing nothing, most (rational) students will choose to work for free.

When its an "employer" approaching the student/employee that wants something done for free, its a bad idea.

When its the student being deliberate about making himself employable, its a good idea.

Interesting information. College students often tend to ignore the "Explore" phase. It is very important to be strategic about your job search and spend enough time thinking about what direction one wants to go into. This make the job search (including the networking much more effective). Unfortunately too many of do not spend enough time thinking through our goals. It has to to be SMARTer than 'I want to work at Google'

As a college students, I find it the hardest to "explore." The best advice so far has been from parents and friends that refer something. On campus, it seems like the only resource is the career fair...and that only has big known companies. I wish there was a way to find startup opportunities.

This stuff is mostly consistent with what I've found to be effective. I would also really emphasize the effectiveness of learning about your prospective employer, not just the company but the actual individuals in it. Demonstrating that you're genuinely interested in the people you're talking with and the company they work for can really pave the way for you. The book How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie has a lot of good examples of how to get what you're after (in an honest, non-manipulative way) by focusing on the other person's interests before your own.

As a college student who is trying to find a job, I believe that most people my age skip over many steps and therefore, are unable to land their dream job. More specifically, students major in anything they find "easy" in college and expect to be able to find a job after college. As much as we would like this to be true, it is not. The steps outlined by Collegefeed in this infographic highlight that the first important step is to "Explore". You must find a job that you are actually interested and that is the field where you will flourish in the future.

Networking is key and a lot of times students forget to leverage off of their current networks. Networking doesn't necessarily have to be connecting with new people but getting referrals from friends and family can be huge. I've noticed in my experiences that a lot of times students don't know how to ask someone to help them find a job.

These really don't seem like "shortcuts" per se. More like general tips to position yourself for getting hired. Maintaining an online presence, preparing for interviews (especially technical) and networking all take a ton of work and must be done consistently to have some impact.

That's actually a pretty good point. Networking is a more effective way to get work than just scanning craigslist, although I can see why you might call these tips "shortcuts" since from the perspective of a naive job seeker you're going of "going in through the side door" and circumventing the "traditional" job seeking process (even though most jobs are not filled through the "traditional" process).

I think the point is most college students don't know that most jobs are not filled through the 'traditional process'. This article helps explain that.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com