Jan 16, 2022
3 Steps that help me land interviews
I’ve been on the job search for a little over 4 months now and I have a few tips to help you land interviews as well. When I first started looking for my first software engineer position, I was constantly thinking about everything I have to do and if I'm doing the right things to land a position. There is so much that goes into trying to find the right company and it can get overwhelming at points and stressful as well. I’ve talked to a decent amount of engineers now and I’m still trying to dial in everything to land my first position, but I am getting interviews and that's all that counts. It takes a lot of no’s till you see that one yes! I took a lot of the information I was told by other engineers and kinda break it down into 3 tips to keep you moving forward and land some interviews.
- ) The first tip is your resume. Make sure to have a really solid resume with only one page of your work and a little about you. I’ve found that the resume I have worked and displays my basic info like name, address, and links to my Github and LinkedIn. After I display the skills and languages I am experienced with. Then I start by listing 3 of the best projects that I created. I go in-depth and talk about the things I used to create the project and anything that relates to what I did when creating the application. The important part here is to make sure you use Action verbs when starting with a description and also use KEYWORDS threw out the resume. These keywords help you when submitting applications because some companies get so many applications that they have to use a bot to pull applications into the system and if your resume doesn’t have the right keywords then you get rejected. I revamped my resume at least 4 times before hearing back from more companies.
- ) The second tip is your projects. A lot has gone into creating projects and really showing what I can do. A lot of companies will ask you what projects you have created and why you created them. When creating new projects try to have some meaning behind them. Also, this is the part where you can shine above other engineers applying for the same position. I keep creating projects and trying to learn something new every time I create a new one. Take a leap and try to create a project using different languages or frameworks to show that you can learn different stuff other than the skills you already have. Also, you can create a project and write a blog about the new thing you learned how to do. Companies love to see engineers blog about the problems they face or the situations that they can solve.
- ) The third tip is your branding/communication. I have had a lot of people tell me that branding is your biggest thing. I truly believe that it is. Branding is what makes your career and how you want people to see you. To brand yourself successfully is to make sure that you have all your social media platforms up to date with where you're trying to go with your career. I use LinkedIn a lot to connect with other software engineers and companies. If it wasn't for connecting with people on LinkedIn I probably wouldn't have as many interviews as I got. Another big thing companies love to look for is your Github commits. That is the cream and where companies can come to see what you have been creating or just coding in general. I like to keep side projects and always try to be working on something to show that I am consistent and willing to learn more. Lastly, a lot of people have told me that it's super important to at least have your own website. I created my own website using just HTML, CSS, and javascript. This is the place where you can really brand yourself because you have the ability to list all your projects/blogs and explain a little about yourself.
There is so much that goes into finding a software engineer position but most importantly just keep pushing ahead. I hope the 3 tips help out and land you some more interviews.
