Life is Beautiful: My advice to a Software Engineer looking for his first Job

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It’s absolutely OK not to get a job in college as many colleges don’t have good placement facility. This doesn’t mean that those software engineers cannot excel in life. I want to share with you all that Campus Placement is a buzz word only in India and that too from last 10-15 years. In fact, Colleges like Harvard and Cambridge also do not arrange or assure campus placement. Students have to find job on their own. Colleges are there to provide a platform to the students to be strong enough that they can find jobs on their own.

Although, I should not be allowed to write about it as when, I was about to chose a college then Placement opportunity was a major criterion. Now, I can only say that, it was a bit immature. Why I am saying all this is because of what I have seen over years.

Many of my classmates who were not placed during campus selection have got jobs in higher paying companies through competitive exams. Some of them started their career from relatively unknown companies and have switched to jobs with better package and are earning more than most of those who got placed in campus.

There are more than a dozen people I know from my family or friend circle who have carved an opportunity on their own after not getting placed in campus. Believe me, the struggle they did with patience paid off and they are doing exceedingly well in life. Their career is much better than most of those who were placed in campus.

Please follow the following steps to find your first job. If you have anything else to add then please reply in the comment section.

1.    Update your Resume, Cover Letter and profile on Job Portals like Naukri, Monster, etc.

2.    Polish your profile on LinkedIn. Connect with people who are working in companies you want to work for. Also, add your professors, your friends and your family members working in Software companies. This will let you leverage the connections of all the people you know.

3.    Network with people in software companies on Quora and learn from valuable discussions. Read Question & Answers on Quora to learn about any topic.

4.    Learn Java/ Dot Net/ PHP/ Python/ DBMS. Enroll in a course from a reputed Institute.

5.    Build a project and add technologies used on your Profiles on Job Portals and LinkedIn. Also, give prominence to the project in your resume.

6.    Move to an IT Hub like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, etc and register on local consultancies so that they can notify you whenever any there is an opening. Few consultancies in Bangalore are Adecco India, Career Net, IKYA Human Capital, Randsand India, Team Lease, Zyoin, etc.

7.    Give online Tests on indiabix, gpl4you, freshersworld, etc regarding the aptitude and reasoning.

8.    Prepare for Interview and Group Discussion by giving Mock Interview\GD. Also, read about the interview experience of other people as we can learn from others and prepare ourselves in a better way.

9.    Interact with People on LinkedIn and Quora to get your doubts clarified.

10.  Target startups/ emerging companies rather than running behind big names.

11. However, must attend Career Fair and Off- Campus drives conducted by several companies.

12. Keep applying for jobs on LinkedIn and Job Portals. Also, pay heed to the job openings as informed by the local consultancies.

13. You can consider an option of working as an intern for a startup on one of their live project. It will help you in your career.

14. Take Tests like E-Litmus/ AMCAT. These tests provide score and companies call candidates for job interview based on these scores.

Some things you must keep in mind:

1.    Improve your Immunity and take care of your physical, mental and emotional well being. Stay positive and trust me this struggle will make you very strong and hence will prepare you to handle difficult situation. It is actually a blessing in disguise.

2.    You have a strong family support. So, you need not bother about anything except getting passionate about software engineering.

3.    You will feel proud on yourself for getting a job on your own. Struggle of 1-2 years is nothing in our career spanning over close to 40 years. Feel relaxed and focus on becoming better and better with time.

4.    Focus on the learning opportunity not on the salary. It is better to get 10K per month for a role of JAVA Developer than getting 15K at a tech support or BPO job. Try to get into software development because, if you developed an interest in that then you are going to dictate terms in future.

5.    Never regret for past but work in the present to create a wonderful future. Don't forget that your life is beautiful.

6.    Acquire Flow. Flow is a state when you are so involved in an activity that you don’t get much distracted and you enjoy the process very much.  

7.    Enjoy the journey and count your blessings. There may be 10 reasons to be upset but there are 1000 reasons to be happy.

8.    Stay hungry Stay Foolish. Develop a passion for software development and jobs will run behind you.

9.    Like Rancho has told in 3 Idiots, “ Kamayab nahi kabil bano, Kamyabi Jhak maar ke aayegi” ( Be Talented and success will follow you)

Happy Job Hunting!!

BY- Rohan Sinha