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
   

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2. Careers in Tech
   

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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
   

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4. What Does This Mean For You?
   Know what you want!
   

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5. Exercise Time
   

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6. Your Dream
   Job
   

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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?
   

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8. Your Dream
   Job
   Who are you?
   

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9. Who Are You?
   • 15-second “elevator pitch” & 3-minute pitch
   • What are your strengths?
   • What is your background?
   • What can you do?
   

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10. Your Dream
    Job
    Who are you? Your past jobs:
    

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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?
    

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12. Your Dream
    Job
    Who are you? Your past jobs:
    3 non-negotiables:
    

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13. source: http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/
    

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14. Diversity in Tech
    • Is diversity important to you?
    • Network engineer: 92.7 %
    male
    • Data analyst: 53.8 % male
    

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15. Your Dream
    Job
    Who are you? Your past jobs:
    3 non-negotiables: Skills:
    

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16. Skills
    • What are you learning now?
    • What do you still need to learn?
    • Non-tech skills
    • leadership
    • entrepreneurial skills
    • mentoring, volunteering
    

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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
    

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18. Next Step: Getting a Job
    

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19. Your Dream
    Job
    Who are you? Your past jobs:
    3 non-negotiables: Skills:
    

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20. Getting a Job Is a Job
    • As a general rule:
    • 10-20 cold calls = interviews
    • 7-10 interviews = job
    • Data source: indeed.com
    

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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.
    

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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.
    

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23. Caterina Paun
    @caterinasworld
    Thank you!
    

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