A student can only earn the ideal job offer with much time and effort. Therefore, you should begin thinking about what kind of future careers appeal to you as early as possible. More specifically, getting internships as early as freshman or sophomore years of college significantly help earning job offers later, so preparation for those should start not long after beginning college. However, you should always be thinking about the different possibilities available to you in the future, and what you feel would be best for you. Before even beginning the job search process, you should carefully define exactly what you are looking for in a job. It is important to know which qualities of the job you are flexible on, and which you are not. Below are some categories to consider. Deciding which of this are important to you, and how important, is the first step in the job search process.
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For example, Chris knew that he wanted a job in New Orleans that would use the skills in software development he is learning in school. Chris had worked in IT support for a summer, and while that was enjoyable, it was not as challenging or satisfying as writing powerful code. However, he was flexible about which programming language the job would require, as he enjoys learning new languages. Some other factors Chris felt were important for his future career were a location in New Orleans and a strong work-life balance. Keep in mind that the pickier you are about a job, the harder it will be to find options, but too much openness will lead to many applications and a wider range of interviews to prepare for. These specifications will help you not only avoid spending time applying to jobs uninteresting to you, but also provide good questions to ask at interviews.
There are many different ways to find available jobs. Some popular websites include www.monster.com, www.indeed.com, www.linkedin.com, and www.ziprecruiter.com. These sites include hundreds of listings, and provide easy search options to narrow down listings. One way to use these sites is to simply upload a resume and submit it to as many different listings as possible. This is how Chris found the company that he eventually signed with. It was a company he had never heard of before, but they saw his application on LinkedIn and it fit all the requirements he was looking for. Just getting your resume to as many different companies as possible can help you find those jobs that do not have as many applicants, simply because people are not as aware of them.
Notre Dame’s Career Center provides a more helpful and specific but more limited version of these websites. If you can find a job that fits what you want in this site, then you have the advantage of knowing that this company has hired Notre Dame students before, and you may even have the opportunity to meet people from the company on campus. Other resources provided by the career center include resume reviews and mock interviews. Definitely consider these services, as they helped make Chris’s resume look sharp.
Often, working with someone you know can be a huge benefit in enjoying your future job. Therefore, talking to friends and family is a good way to find opportunities. Many people study a similar field as one of their parents or a sibling, and this role model can provide much information about different jobs available in that field, or at least what companies are out there. Chris’s second internship was at the same company that his mother worked at, and not only did the family recommendation give him an edge in the interview process, but he also was able to enjoy many lunches with her after spending most of the past two years away at college. Companies will sometimes provide a bonus for employees who recommend others who successfully apply for a job.
Finally, job fairs are a great way to physically meet the people who will be considering your applications. The people there often have great advice on how to stand out among other applicants, provide much information about the company, and can give you experience in communication and presentation with employers. However, it is often difficult to really stand out at these fairs. There are so many other students with similar experiences, and the companies represented are a small fraction of all the companies out there. Do not rely solely on jobs found at job fairs for your career, because every position presented will have as many as hundreds of candidates from the same school as you. With enough effort, eventually you will get that call asking for an interview.
No one can ever be completely prepared for an interview, but there are a number of things a student can do in anticipation of interviewing. It’s important for students to prepare answers to the most common interview questions. Even if those specific questions are not asked, preparing answers to those questions can help get you in the right mindset to interview. You will be thinking about how to answer questions in a way that allows you to represent yourself the best way you can to the interviewer.
Beyond preparing answers to specific common interview questions, you should also come up with examples of how experiences you have had and work that you have done makes you qualified for the job. When Matt interviewed, he made a list of different experiences he has had at Notre Dame and how those experiences have helped him develop good coding habits and the type of qualities that interviewers are looking for in applicants. It is also important to study the company you are interviewing with. Oftentimes, companies will have a mission statement where you can see what qualities the company values. It can be very helpful to make sure you bring up stories and show that you have the same qualities that the company values. Furthermore, if you know more about the company, it will show the interviewer that you are interested in working there.
When it comes to technical interviews, the above advice can help you prepare, but there is more you can do. Similar to how you would come up with stories of how you exemplify the qualities the company values in a behavioral interview, in a technical interview you should have specific examples of using your relevant technical expertise. if you are interviewing for a database management job you should be able to talk about prior work you’ve done using SQL, if you are going to be a web developer you should be able to talk about past experiences working with JavaScript. Then, like you prepared for common interview questions, you should prepare for common coding interview questions about algorithms and implementing data structures.
Another important quality is participation in extracurriculars. Which activity you do is not as important as how involved you are. The main reason companies want to see that you have extracurriculars is that they want to see that you are a well rounded person with varied interests. So while extracurriculars related to your field of study are helpful in showing that you like the kind of work that you do, completely unrelated extracurriculars are also helpful. Also, if you get more involved with a club, you can use your experiences in the extracurricular as examples of your leadership abilities.
Extracurricular activities give employers information about you that they wouldn’t find elsewhere. Looking at extracurriculars gives companies an idea of how you spend your free time, and how someone spends their free time can be a good indicator of the type of person they are. More important than anything, you want to make sure that your extracurriculars give employers a good representation of who you are. They shouldn’t just be things you do very infrequently to pad your resume.
After earning an offer, how can you tell if it is the right one? Often the right company cannot provide the best paycheck, but a higher paycheck rarely justifies a worse job. Negotiation is one way to see how much a company really values you experience. The idea situation is to have multiple offers you can compare and present as counter-offers, but strict deadlines can make this difficult. Therefore, research on websites like www.glassdoor.com can provide a baseline on how much to expect. There are so many factors influencing the number an employer will present, so do not expect it to exactly match what you find online. Keep in mind that your first job is more about learning, gaining experience, and breaking into the industry, rather than making as much money as possible. With enough work, you will find the job that satisfies all the requirements you ask for, and maybe it will surprise you with factors you did not know you wanted.
Chris Maheu 2017 