Career Advice
john.g.m...@gmail.com
here that can help some current students.
It's that time of year. When Seniors need to start looking for jobs. If
you are graduating in April, you need to start TODAY.
So here is the deal, I know there are questions. Some about are
specific companies. Some are less specific. We have alumns on-line and
willing (I hope) to answer questions. We have gone through it and
hopefully we can provide some good interaction.
Let me emphasize that we have a strong program and students coming out
of the BYU-Idaho IT/IS program are well suited to compete for jobs
right along side any big name school. So, don't be afraid to send your
resume wherever you want, big or small. And if you think you know that
someone here is working for a particular company just go ahead and
reach out to them or the group to help get your foot in the door!
Another thing, Can some one or a few people please start spreading the
word about the group to the new guys? They deserve to know about this
resource as well.
-John Martinson
runsrealfast
your correct about the starting early. Depending on location
preferences and job preferences, it could take awhile to find your job.
I started looking a semester before I graduated and didn't find a job
(at least the one that I wanted) till almost a year later. I know
others that have also had a long wait for that first IT job. I wish I
would have started even sooner, but you can't change the past.
john
Tejay Cardon
You already answered the first question, Apply early. I'm acctually graduating in July, but I think I'm still OK with starting now.
Second, How soon should I expect to get interviews?
Third, when those job offers do finally start comming in, How quickly do most companies expect an answer? I don't want to miss a great job offer because I jumped on the first offer that came my way.
Fourth, Does anyone know a good source of entry level salary info? Negotiation requires education. I want to be able to say the average is this and I deserve x amount more than that.
Finally, What do you wish you had known a year ago?
runsrealfast
Tejay Cardon wrote:
> I'll ask!
>
> You already answered the first question, Apply early. I'm acctually
> graduating in July, but I think I'm still OK with starting now.
>
> Second, How soon should I expect to get interviews?
Depends on how many jobs who apply at. I was going to interviews while
still in school.
> Third, when those job offers do finally start comming in, How quickly do
> most companies expect an answer?
when you do get an offer they will put an expiration on the offer.
sometimes its 72 hours or two weeks. Would depend on the company,
situation, etc.
> Fourth, Does anyone know a good source of entry level salary info?
> Negotiation requires education. I want to be able to say the average is
> this and I deserve x amount more than that.
Be vary careful on your first job. You might be the most qualified
person, but companies will take the person that fits into there budget,
especally in the corperate world. If you negotiate to much they may
just drop you. Also, don't comitte to them until you actually sign that
offer sheet. I had a compnay verbally offer me a job. Two months later
the offer was resinded b/c the contract that I was going to work for
(10 year gig) was sold to another company. I actaully turned down
another offer b/c I liked the first one better. I ended up waiting till
May of the next year (7 months) before getting a good job (AMI
Semiconductor in pocatello).
> Finally, What do you wish you had known a year ago?
Experience, experience, experience. Companies want people that have
experience. I will tell you right now. If you apply for a job against
someone with even 6 months experience your screwed. So apply for entry
level positions with companies that you can promote in, or look good on
a resume. The pay might be less, but its more than not having a job.
john.g.m...@gmail.com
depending on my preference, so you are on target. As for expecting
interviews, I had a lot of my interviews done in the fall semester, but
others were't done until winter. As far as job offers, my 3rd offer
was the one that was right for me.
What I wished I'd known a year ago is that just because you get an
offer in Nov. Or Dec. You may not start until July or later based on
the training that companies do for new graduates.
-John (In Myrtle Beach w/o Spell check)
WayneH...@gmail.com
looking for people that are passionate about what they do. Playing
Halo every night isn't an item that you can put on a résumé or brag
about in an interview.
Get some people together and get involved in a project that solves a
problem. For example, I wrote a web app to keep track of my homework.
Besides gaining a lot of experience in coding, it gave me wonderful
insights into "how to" and "how not to do" things in a programming
language.
I would also encourage colaborative projects where you need to work as
a team. It seemed like all the questions that were thrown at me in my
interviews had to deal with how I work in a team and what projects etc.
I had done with others.
Honestly, just doing course work is not going to get the experience you
need to do your job. Tinker with things whether it be getting a hold
of a server platform and start designing enterprise solutions. For
example, I've taken up and solved how to set up AES 802.1x
authentication using a radius server and hooking that up to an access
point using WPA. This isn't paricularly useful for my programming job
at work, but shows that I love IT and spend my spare time messing
around with it. Employers love that!
My 2¢
Clint Checketts
I personally recommend getting in on pet projects.
In fact, Open Source projects give you a good way to dive into something your interested in a colaborate with other folks with the same interests. In fact because of my contributions I 1)learned lots of cool stuff, 2) made some great friends/contacts (quality employees working from Microsoft to Vonage to Independent fellows) and 3) surprisingly made probably $7,500 just playing with my 'toy'. They're also low stres because you can walk away from an open source project at any time.
I highly encourage playing with these sorts of things.
-Clint
runsrealfast
I think we can all agree that experience is what matters most
(experience with that degree of course)
Brobble
research into what aspects of the pet project would be attractive to
the interviewing business. Remember that they want you to be
passionate about their product in addition to IT. Consider what you
learned from the pet project and how it can be applied to your new job.
One thing I'd like to re-emphasize is that BYU-I has an excellent
program, and has given us all a competitive advantage in the workplace.
--Ben