Real World Survival Kit (Tue Dec 10, lect 26) | previous | next | slides |

Interviewing, Networking, Choosing a career

Logistics

  • Discussion: How to make the course better. Open discussion of feedback on how to make the course better.

Details on final deliverables for the course

Real World Survival Tips

Do what you said you would do

  • Immediately you are in the top 25% of professionals
  • Say what you are going to do, and do what you say
  • No one is perfect, sh*t happens, so…
  • Underpromising?
  • Be willing to make specific (not wishy washy) commitments, including scope and date
  • And then do what it takes to deliver - or make sure you let people know

Networking

  • It’s a gift economy
  • The personal network you start building now is more powerful than anything else I say
  • Who do you know - who knows you?
  • It’s an ongoing project
  • Karma. What you sow is what you reap
  • Know why you want to talk; know why you’d be worth talking to
  • Book: Never Eat Alone

How?

  • When you meet someone interesting, make effort to make a connection
  • Keep a notebook of people you’ve met who are ‘interesting’ Template People Networking
  • Invest a little in the relationship: jeep in touch with some regularity
  • Phone call, email, invite for coffee
  • Figure out why you want to talk to them and tell them
  • Make sure it’s mutually ‘useful’

LinkedIn

  • Some people have reservations about LinkedIn… Don’t
  • Please join now and connect to me.
  • Lets look someone up (Fake account Joan Salas)
  • Designing your profile

Jobs: Where to apply, from worse to best

  • info@bigco.com
  • meet at a career fair
  • someone you know even a little
  • someone who knows you well
  • A ‘warm intro’

What they Look for

  1. Specific content knowledge, obviously
  2. Self-starter
  3. Perseverance, solves own problems
  4. Can get things done even when there’s no grade attached

What They Hardly look at

  1. Your GPA
  2. Your three majors

What they avoid

  1. High maintenance people

Resumes

  • Remember: Not what they can do for you; what can you do for them
  • Competitive advantage/ What makes you special? (professionally)
  • Who looks at them, for how long
  • Type, color, pages, appearance
  • Put GitHub name or portfolio near the top
  • When needed: Career goal; Special qualifications
  • Cover letters
  • Have dates and make sure they add up
  • Put skills etc. in priority order (what you know best goes first)
  • One page resume rule
  • Personalize resume based on job/job type (within reason)

Large companies

  • Fewer interactions outside of department (less personal)
  • Process/politics/paperwork etc.
  • Career paths: multiple products, departments – more opportunities
  • Can get laid off out of nowhere - less connection between you and your job security
  • Less scrutiny on each individual employee

Small Companies

  • Less process, take initiative to get things done (fix your own problems)
  • Very focused; Lives & breathes the one project/product - not good if you want to experience more than one type of thing
  • No room/limited room for mistakes (Spotlight)
  • Easy access to higher-ups

Choosing

  • Location
  • People
  • Risk factors. Runway. Layoffs.
  • Big vs. Small company

Interviews - Dress, demeanor:

  • Body Language
  • Enthusiasm

Trick questions:

  • “What salary are you looking for?”
  • “Are you a hard worker?”
  • “When can you start”?
  • “Whats your greatest weakness?”

Taxes and Benefits

  • Some companies withhold taxes automatically
  • 401K- deposits are not taxed
  • Some companies match a portion of salary
  • 5% match - they will match up to 5% of your income

Stock purchase plan

  • vesting - you can buy stock but you cannot get it unless you work at the company for x amount of time
  • Significance of each benefit depends on person

THANKS

  • I read all of your reflections – Thanks for the sincerity and thoughtfulness
  • It has been a lot of work I know
  • We did our best, we all worked hard, I think it was worth it!
Everybody! Thanks for your contribution to this course and all your hard work! You can see that you've achieved a lot and learned a lot! And especially thanks to our TAs!

Thank you. Questions?  (random Image from picsum.photos)