Career (Udacity course notes)

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - Job Search

Identify Target Job

  • Know what job wanted
    • Build “Focused” Job Requirements
      • Note: Important to be “focused” so perceived as committed/excited by prospective employer
      • My Job requirements (“want” to do vs just “could” do distinction)
        • Languages interests
        • Mission of client org
        • Locations to relocate if necessary
  • Know what employer wants (by research)
    • Build “Direction” for Application
      • Highlight how would
        • “Job Functions” - perform as necessary with tech. proficiency and passion
        • “Company Goals” - drive goals and mission
          • Ensure know companies mission so both qualified for and getting job offer
          • Demonstrate understand what important to org
          • Demonstrate excitement about work they do (particularly things you don’t already know to try convince them to take a chance on you)
          • Willingness to do anything to drive their mission
    • e.g. Udacity
      • People wanted - passionate about education to be a good fit for org
      • Career page
        • International roles available - so highlight experience working with international teams, and resolving conflicts with remote logistics
        • Keywords in job titles - i.e.
          • Community - highlights their building worldwide community of connecting people
            • so highlight passion for connecting with people
      • Home page
        • Keywords scattered - i.e.
          • innovation, community, industry recognised, data mobile, face-to-face, accessible education worldwide, ensure education helps students get job ready
            • so use these keywords to answer question in Cover Letter of “Why want to work at Udacity”
              • i.e. want use my skills to make online education more personable by connecting students to real people
              • i.e. make sure curriculum both teaches students and helps get them job in an emerging field

Chapter 2 - GitHub Profile

  • GitHub “Profile/Professional Portfolio” of programming work
    • Usage
      • Examples of “work” to show to employers
      • Shows “how” you work
    • Components
      • Photo with “Smile” that captures personality
    • Check that if contributed significantly to a fork that create a new repository, as GitHub does not include code contributed to forked projects in their “contribution” graphic
    • Check that “Pinned” repos are ones where significant contribution by me was made, otherwise customise and select others instead
    • Contributing to Open-Source projects

Chapter 3 - Linkedin Profile

  • References: http://blog.udacity.com/2015/02/3-goals-for-your-linkedin-profile-to-achieve.html

  • DONE Create public profile URL www.linkedin.com/in/ltfschoen
  • DONE Check profile is “Public”
  • DONE Professional photo
  • Headline
    • Positive language in headline, do not mention “seeking employment” to indicate lack of employment
    • Avoid using slashes
    • Check language is readable by recruiters
    • Check present tense for current duties, past tense for old duties
    • Check in groups relevant to goal, position, industry
    • Check all links are correct and working
  • Summary
    • Briefly describes work experience, applicable knowledge, and builds a narrative of my professional experience and goals.
    • Written first person.
    • Professional entire narrative.
    • 1-4 sentences in length.
  • Projects
    • Only list most relevant 2-3 projects (including personal, academic or work projects)
    • Each project description includes link to code or project itself
    • Each project uses max 2-3 bullet points
    • Demonstrates individual contribution (at least 1 bullet point)
    • Communicates a project result (success metrics, findings) (at least 1 bullet point)
  • Experience
    • Note company/organization, title of role, start and end date (month & year), location.
    • If I include unpaid or part-time work, I omit the words “part-time” and “unpaid”.
    • Max 3-4 bullet points per work experience.
    • Max one sentence per bullet point, no longer than 1.5 lines
    • Start each bullet points start with action verb.
    • Use correct tense in bullet points: past tense for previous, current tense for ongoing.
    • Do not use sub-bullet points.
    • Each job listing includes:
      • Communicate how I benefited company or cause (at least 1 bullet point)
      • Provides concrete, numerical evidence such as projects completed, money made, people managed, accomplishments (eg. % increase). (at least 1 bullet point)
  • Education
    • Listed in reverse chronological order.
    • List Nanodegree as either Education OR a Certification, but not both.
  • Skills
    • Include both technical skills (ie: programming languages) and others, such as “project management” if applicable.
    • Do not include commonly-used technologies such as Microsoft Word or PowerPoint
    • Do not include common soft skills like “communication” or “attention to detail”.

Chapter 4 - Elevator Pitch and Personal Brand

  • Explaining Career Change
    • e.g. Over the past __ timeframe at __ I developed so many __, __, __ (i.e. web apps, backend, data), but only been a software engineer for 3 years. [SMILE CONSTANTLY WHILE TALKING] I have a diverse background, my career started __ years ago, originally I was a __ then got into __, and even did __ in __ industry. I went from being a __ to being a [SOFTWARE ENGINEER] originally through [VOLUNTEERING], I made __ for __ and __ using [TECH TOOLS], and courses including __ and __, where I learnt skills including __ and __, and how to think computationally like a computer scientist, and I’ve been learning ever since. Most challenging was taking the initiative to acquire the skills whilst working full-time, and then convincing people I had enough to build and contribute to larger organisations even when I already had a background in that area.
  • Elevator Pitch
    • Components
      • Identify what you want employers to know about you - i.e. I’m passionate about __ but want to be __ (must both be what employer wants)
      • Identify what most proud of - i.e. I worked hard to get where I am, and that I’m worth taking a chance on, as if I got the job I’d give it all I had
    • Example 1
      • Who am - I’m a __, passionate about __
      • Why want it - After working in _ areas, I realised __ is the solution to many ___ (i.e. societal) issues
      • What want - I’m excited to apply my __ skills at your company __.
    • Example 2
      • Who am I - Hi I’m __, a Full Stack Software Engineer who loves building __ [TYPE COMPANY WANTS/DOES] products.
      • Why want it - I recently developed a web/mobile/native/hybrid app using __ framework [TYPE COMPANY WANTS] that lets [USER TYPE] do __.
      • What want - I’d love to combine my passion for [LEARNING], [PROJECT/PRODUCT MGMT] and __ [SOFTWARE DEV - AI/ML/WEB DEV] skills to continue building personalised [LEARNING] and ___ products for people
  • Recruiter Pitch [CONSTANTLY SMILE, RELAXED AND CONFIDENT, PRACTICED MULTIPLE TIMES, SET POSITIVE MOOD IN CONVERSATION SO IT CONTINUES]
    • Hi I’m ___.   Other person speaks…
    • Cool, I love __ [WHATEVER THEY SAY]. || Other person asks what they’ve been working on… I’ve used your product a number of times and want to try… [GIVE FEEDBACK] It’s really helped me __, and I love that now having used it I have ___
    • Actually recently I was building app || Other person is lead to say its funny that what you say you’ve built is what they’re looking at developing themselves that allows _ [PEOPLE LIKE THEM] do __, and it’s going really well. I’m trying to add in new feature/tech __ so I can do __ a bit easier [SOUND AS SERIOUS AS POSSIBLE AND THEIR FIELD DUE TO MY PREVIOUS EXPERIENCES]
    • Oh cool, can I get your card?   Sure email me some time
    • …   What other projects have you worked on and how get interested in ___?
    • …   Tell me about your ___ background, and how you build a new skillset whilst working full-time?
  • Applications of Pitch to Online Branding (Advertise yourself with fliers)
    • Blogs or Podcasts to tell Personal Narrative on job-focussed and non-job focussed platforms:
      • Linkedin, GitHub, Twitter, Medium
  • Personal Branding (makes job candidate unique)
    • Personal Story (how got where you are, based on impressive work ethic and drive, how solve problems, how overcome challenges, how achieve results, what motivates and drives you)
      • Storytelling
      • Branding (including re-branding over time)
    • Passion (to drive company’s mission, be part of innovation)
      • Skills
  • Other
    • Whether it’s necessary to practice smiling the whole time when conversing with a recruiter in order to be perceived positively and gain advantage over other candidates who may be expressionless or only use some other types of body language (i.e. moving hands around, etc)
  • TODO Links
    • http://blog.udacity.com/2015/12/storytelling-personal-branding-and-getting-hired.html?_ga=1.178380836.1263722407.1461268066
    • http://lifehacker.com/overcoming-impostor-syndrome-what-to-do-when-you-feel-1651827849
Written on April 21, 2017