Finding Your Career in Tech

Talk and workshop to help new bootcamp grads understand how to choose a first job in tech and how to prepare for a career in tech.

Transcript

1. Finding Your Career in Tech
2. Careers in Tech
3. Careers Within An Engineering Organization • Design: UI Designer, Visual Designer, Interaction Designer, Product Designer, UX Researcher, UX Designer • Development: Front-End Developer, UI Developer, Back- End Developer, Full-Stack Developer, Software Engineer, Data Engineer, DevOps, Mobile Developer, Data Scientist • Quality Assurance: QA Engineer, QA Analyst • Product: Product Manager, Technical Writer • Recruiting: Technical Recruiter
4. What Does This Mean For You? Know what you want!
5. Exercise Time
6. Your Dream Job
7. Your First Tech Job May Not Be Your Dream Job • What will you be aiming for with second tech job? • According to a White House report, 60% of millennials will spend one year or less at a job, on average. • So, where do you want to get to?
8. Your Dream Job Who are you?
9. Who Are You? • 15-second “elevator pitch” & 3-minute pitch • What are your strengths? • What is your background? • What can you do?
10. Your Dream Job Who are you? Your past jobs:
11. Your Work History is Important • The average 25-year-old has already worked 6.3 jobs according to a recent study by the Labor Department. • Think about 3 jobs (i.e. first, best, worst): 1. How did you get those jobs? 2. What did you like? What wasn’t so great? 3. What did you accomplish?
12. Your Dream Job Who are you? Your past jobs: 3 non-negotiables:
13. source: http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/
14. Diversity in Tech • Is diversity important to you? • Network engineer: 92.7 % male • Data analyst: 53.8 % male
15. Your Dream Job Who are you? Your past jobs: 3 non-negotiables: Skills:
16. Skills • What are you learning now? • What do you still need to learn? • Non-tech skills • leadership • entrepreneurial skills • mentoring, volunteering
17. Top Tech Skills Required for Entry-Level Jobs • Jobs that require 1-2 years of experience and don’t mention a formal degree as a requirement • 231 jobs analyzed • Data source: Indeed.com • Date: July 25, 2014 • Infographic source: TalentBuddy.com
18. Next Step: Getting a Job
19. Your Dream Job Who are you? Your past jobs: 3 non-negotiables: Skills:
20. Getting a Job Is a Job • As a general rule: • 10-20 cold calls = interviews • 7-10 interviews = job • Data source: indeed.com
21. Interviewing • Be ready with your pitch. • Repeat your key strengths 3x. • Prepare 5+ success stories. • Research the company, product line, and competitors. • Keep an interview journal of the questions asked.
22. Let’s Recap • A job is not a career. • Plan out a career. • You will be looking for several jobs over the next 20-30 years. • Know what you want.
23. Caterina Paun @caterinasworld Thank you!