My Campus Playbook - What to do if you miss the career fair

As the spring college recruiting season starts to kick into high gear, it got me thinking a bit about two things.  First, are these fairs worth it for students?  And secondly, what do you do if you’re a student who can’t make it....well, here we go.

Are career fairs worth it?  Without a doubt these fairs are worth it if you are a student looking for a job.  Tons of companies and recruiters descend on campus to hire as many students as the can....it’s really a no brainer for you to attend.  If nothing else, it’s great interview practice to talk to so many companies over the course of a few hours.

What do you do if you can’t make it?  Now this is a bit more complicated b/c a lot of companies view career fairs as their primary recruiting vehicle on campus.  So...you’ve got to have a plan.  Here is what I’d do....

1) Ask your friends for connections - Chances are you’ve got a friend who attended the fair and met a ton of folks.  Ask them if they don’t mind either sharing names of people they met...or even pass out your resume to a few places for you.  Most companies are hiring for multiple roles so no fear of competition here so your friends should be a great asset.

2)  Ask your professors - Professors are great connections for you.  They have former students that work at great companies and in many cases may have worked in industry before becoming a professor.  They’ll likely be able to connect you with a few alumni too.

3) Go to Career Services or the Alumni Office - Schools have these offices for a reason...so use them.  Now, don’t show up expecting a job...go there with a plan.  Ask for company contacts or lists of alumni that have registered themselves with the school.  Basically, these offices should be able to provide you with enough leads to jumpstart your career.

4)  Start Networking via LinkedIn - The sooner you start your LinkedIn profile the better but get that going and start reaching out to folks who might help.  Research companies, groups, alumni associations, anything really that might help you find a cool gig.  There is no such thing as too aggressive when using LinkedIn for a job search

5) Ask your parents - Huh? What?  I bet you didn’t expect this one but it’s true.  You really have no clue who your parents know...sure you know a few of their friends but your parents likely have a big network of folks they can tap for you.....the trick is asking and making sure they realize you need help.  So, suck it up and ask mom/dad for some advice you might be surprised at what comes back.

Hope this helps, missing a college career fair should be fatal to your search...you just have to work a little harder.

Good luck out there, let me know if I can help!

My review of Team Geek.....a shout out to Ben and Fitz

It’s been a little while since I’ve done a book review...this time it’s written by people I actually know..awesome.  Ben and Fitz wrote Team Geek as “a Software Developer’s Guide to Working Well with Others”.  What’s great about it, it’s a very good read for everyone...not just technical folks.

I’m not going to get into how awesome Ben and Fitz are....you should know that by now or just go watch one of the videos I’ve linked below.....you’ll get the idea...

Anyway, I’d highly recommend you buy the book (from the link below!) and with that here are a few thoughts/insights I drew from my read:

The Genius Myth - Great point here in the book about people wanting to find idols in the industry and worship them.  The believe that there are these mythical engineers (or coworkers) who can do superhuman things....not true, the Genius Myth.  These great people are great....NO doubt but they do amazing things working with a team.

There is no substitute for human experience - In the age of social media and video conferencing...we still need to interact as humans.  Working alone, in a silo might sound nice but really being on a team and interacting with others who make you better...that’s the stuff.

Humility, Respect, Trust - These are the three pillars of social skills.  Great pieces of advice here especially when you think about using these skills within your team, the organization and even more importantly the users.  Great advice.

Fail Fast, Learn, Iterate- This is probably my favorite piece of advice in the book.  Do I even need to get into any detail here?  It’s great advice and frankly finding companies that encourage and embrace this mentality are the kinds of places you want to work.

People are like plants - Love the image this creates...especially the image in the book.  People really are like plants thought when you think of it.  Each one requires different things to grow....attention, motivation, encouragement whatever... Your job as a lead or as a teammate is to identify what makes people “grow” and feed them until the bloom.  Simple stuff right?  um, right...

If you can’t take the path, make the path - Last insight I drew from the book....if you can’t take the path, make the path.  Hell yes.  I’ve tried to really work this way in my career and appreciate when folks can identify a problem and then hammer through a new solution.  In other words....get it done.

Ok, obviously this was a quick review...but this is a great read.  Very good advice for not only engineers but also for anyone working in a team environment.  Grab a copy here and if you ever get a chance to meet Ben and Fitz....make it happen, they are some of the best guys I’ve had the luxury of working with and you’ll learn a ton.

Lessons from the Scott Thompson story

Usually I avoid talking too much about “current events” in recruiting but I think I’ll start doing more blogs that give my views on such things.  So, here we go...first try.

By now you should all know the story of Scott Thompson, the former CEO of Yahoo who resigned because of a discrepancy on his resume.  If not, you can read about it here.  Crazy story, but honestly I think there are a lot of lessons for anyone either looking for a job or involved in hiring.  In no particular order:

Don’t lie on your resume - OBVIOUSLY!!!  Come on man, don’t like on your resume!!!  This is like being a decent human 101.  And while I’m at it...lying about the kind of degree you have?  Really?  I mean, come on people this stuff isn’t hard....

Blaming the recruiter is for jerks - Apparently Thompson blamed the recruiting agency who placed him for the discrepancy...please!  This whole part of the story makes me sick.  Seriously, this kind of thing gives recruiters a bad name and it shouldn’t.  If you get busted doing something shady, suck it up and admit it.

Background checks matter - I’m pretty horrified that neither Yahoo nor Heidrick & Struggles did a background check to confirm degrees on Thompson.  Frankly, what was Ebay doing too?  Now, some of my Exec Search friends might chime in with a “finding a CEO is different” response but I’m sorry...if you’re going to do a background check on a $35K a year entry level hire you’d better be doing it for C-level hires too.

Know your candidates - If you’re a recruiter out there reading this, you have to know your candidates.  Spend the time to check references from when they were in school and get to know them.  Companies are going to pay you big bucks for the service, do them right and take the time to know your candidates.

Admit it - Thompson was outed by AllthingsD.com and then proptly went all Watergate and tried to blame everyone involved....rather than take the blame.  The moral as always here, the coverup is frequently worse than the crime.  When busted, suck it up and admit you were wrong.  People love a comeback and are likely to forgive you.  No one like a lying jerk who digs a deeper hole.

That’s it, sitting here I feel like this could be a REALLY long blog so I’ll cut it short.  Now, I don’t know all the facts (clearly) but from what I’ve read (see the link to the WSJ story) we can all learn a ton from this story about recruiting, HR, a job search and working with an external agency.

Take a Class...for free

I’ve spoken a lot on the past about ways to prepare for an interview or build up your skillset....but I’ve been following something that hopefully a lot of you have seen but I wanted to make SURE you see it because I honestly think it has a chance to change the way you think about education.

It’s called Udacity and it’s trying to dramatically alter the education system in the US.  I could go on and on about how cool this idea is...but um, you’ll get more info reading this article.  There are a lot of amazing people in the program but more importantly for those of you looking for a job or trying to break into the software industry...there are a TON of resources to get you started.

These are online, video courses taught by some of the biggest names in Computer Science.  So, if you are thinking interview prep....these are great.  I’d recommend starting with “Building a Search Engine” and “Design of Computer Programs” and assuming you have more time....digging deeper into the curriculum.

Remember, your job search and career are a journey....meaning, they never end.  Leveraging resources like Udacity, or the MIT Open Courseware help you keep building your skills and becoming a better engineer.  The better you are, the more jobs and opportunities you’ll find....or even better, will find you.

Good luck out there, let me know if you take one of these classes I’d love to hear from direct feedback on them!

Wish you had a Computer Science degree?

Interviewing for a Software Engineering role is tough, we’ve discussed it before in this blog so I’m not going to recreate the wheel. It’s especially hard if you come from an engineering background but not Computer Science. Lots of great engineers have degrees in Physics, Electrical Engineering, Math.....anything really, including no degree. However, some companies interview in a way that really gives classically train computer scientists an advantage as the really look for the kinds of skills you’d learn in a Computer Science program.

So, you’re interviewing at one of these places or thinking about it so what do you do? Well, here’s what you do...you take a free set of courses from the MIT Open Courseware program and give yourself a crash course in Computer Science that’s what you do.

It’s amazing really if you think about it, a school as prominent and prestigious as MIT offering free courses online. If I was a Software Engineer, these resources would be critical to my success and long term ability to keep learning new things.

Anyway, here’s a few quick recommendations on courses to take and give yourself an ad hoc Computer Science education:

- Introduction to Computer Science and Programming - have to start here. Some of this info might basic but getting the basics right will ensure you’re on the right path.

- Introduction to Algorithms - this course covers common algorithms, data structures and search trees.....have to know this stuff and know it like the back of your hand.

- Introduction to C++ - I’d consider this one the bonus course. Not every job requires C++ programming skills so it’s not like you HAVE to know this stuff...I will say thought that knowing C++ is never a bad thing so taking a few days to knock the rust off your coding skills will serve you will either in the interview or in your next job.

That’s a start, there are a ton of great free resources out there that people tend to ignore. If a school like MIT offers you free courses.....take them, learn some new skills, improve a few old skills and ace that next interview!

Good luck!