How do you get the job?

There are a few key things that stand out to me for a student or early professional that is about to kick off their career:

1) Networking

This aspect was particularly daunting for me when I was in college as I am definitely on the shy side! Over time, however, I've learned how important networking is, and moreover, how it can be turned into a very enjoyable exercise if you participate in the right places.

In the technology community for example, I would recommend attending a local hackathon, which offers a great opportunity to meet other students & professionals, all while working together on a project that you can showcase to employers as part of your portfolio (more on that in the 2nd section).

If you currently attend college, I would also recommend participating in a professional development group/club on campus (I was personally part of SHPE). If you're out of college, I would look into other professional development groups (I'm currently part of Toastmasters & Techqueria) which allows you to stay in touch with other professionals who share similar interests all while developing your own skillset and/or network.

In essence, start making connections when you don't need them! You never know who you'll meet or interact with that may translate into a career opportunity in the future.

2) Portfolio/Resume

If you're a student/early professional, you may not necessarily have the relevant work experience that you can showcase on a resume, which means that you have to highlight your skillset in a different manner.

My suggestion would be to create a portfolio of your projects that you can easily share with potential employers. For example, you can upload your projects/code to Github, which will allow you to host and share the projects with employers so they can see your work!

We've all seen the job postings for Entry-Level positions that somehow want multiple years of experience. Having a portfolio of side projects is a great way to prove your skills to potential employers in a very tangible way, even if you have minimal work experience at the time.

How do you get a job?

For me two things stand out often

• Have a good resume
• Have a good attitude

Resume

Having a good resume will help you stand out and at least get a foot in the door to getting an interview. Google has some great advice here on having a neat resume (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYUy1yvjHxE). This may be Google specific but there are things here you could consider putting into your resume too.

Attitude

You resume will get you a foot in the door. I think what can carry you through a telephone / video conference interview or a face to face interview is attitude. What I mean by this is when I am faced with a candidate who is not as qualified as another, but has the right attitude I would consider that candidate before some who is highly qualified but doesn't have the right attitude.

When I say attitude I mean things like the willingness to learn, work hard, always be up for helping the team even if the work is not at that time what they want to do, being open to adapting and listening to feedback. All these things if they come across in an interview are great signs. If you can demonstrate how you have done these in your past - try to bring these forward in your interview answers!

Early in your career, you may not have a lot to speak to in the way of work experience, so you need to play up to your education strengths. Any courses, internships, volunteer work, self-study, etc. that can address the job requirement only helps. My first IT job, I had absolutely no formal IT training beyond some programming classes in college (but this was not a programming job and I didn't have a technology degree), but it had a customer service aspect to it which I could talk about at length having worked in retail and the food industry. After you get your foot in the door, you need to be willing to learn whatever you can. At that first job, I learned about IT security, learned to write my own scripts, and surrounded myself with people that were passionate about the security field in general. I made it clear to everyone around me that I wanted to learn and I had a team that was willing to teach. This got me to eventually transfer out of my initial role into the network security team. From there it was three things - continual education, the willingness to pick up new technologies / concepts, and networking with people in the industry. Every job after, it was building on a skill that I had learned at previous jobs and packing my resume with certifications and education experience to show that I was continually growing professionally. I could not have gotten to where I have, however, without having made connections along the way. Find those teachers or educators or just enthusiastic people and learn from them.

I don't think there is one particular way to get a job in the industry, but the most successful method for entry which will provide you with the most versatility for your future, would be do to a degree first. Although you can get a job without a degree, having one is an extremely useful tool, as the industry has grown significantly and will continue to do so, and as it does, the more sought after jobs often focus on having a decent education. Building a career is the most fulfilling thing you will do with your life as it will allow you to do something that engages you every day and I think the first step to building a career is achieving a degree.

got relevant degree from uni, got related certificate, start scholarship on a company, then applied for a paid job