Things I wished I knew while doing my bachelor / undergraduate

This talk is about how to use your bachelor to craft your tech career. I started with what I have done and some examples of where my friends have reached. Then I focused on things to consider for selecting and doing projects for technical subjects in bachelor study.

After that I opened up the secrets of selecting a company and doing internship. To concluded I gave some tips on approaching the job market.

Transcript

1. Things I wished I knew while doing my bachelor - Geshan Manandhar http://bit.ly/pc-bt
2. Geshan Manandhar Quality and Maintenance Lead, Namshi.com @geshan geshan.com.np
3. Prime College +2, Find me in the photo :)
4. There I am. It's the first batch (2003)
5. BIM 2007 (3rd Batch)
6. BIM 4th Semester Project (Who reached where?)
7. Why this talk?
8. To get more twitter followers?
9. To get more twitter followers? NO.
10. To get more visitors on my blog?
11. To get more visitors on my blog? NO.
12. It's about you
13. And how you can use your bachelor study to craft your tech career
14. In 2014 being a software developer is better than being a doctor (in US) - source: BusinessInsider.com
15. 1 million more (tech) jobs than students by 2020 (in US) - source: Code.org
16. Are you an information hungry student?
17. Or a marks hungry one?
18. A good balance between being information hungry and marks hungry will get you far
19. Things to consider when you select and do projects for bachelors
20. Do a marketable product as a project which has utility, and can be sold in future
21. How about Rent/Building Management System?
22. Back To Kathmandu, Nepal. A foreign employment information system.
23. Always use a project management system/tool, you can start with or Trello Redmine
24. Using a source code version control system is a necessity, I prefer which is DVCS. Use for hosting. Git bitbucket
25. Write more specs and code than words on the report
26. For web projects, think in terms of APIs than user interface, consider with . Think Mobile, try . REST JSON Ionic
27. Weekly update to academic supervisor or lecturer.
28. Even presentation can be HTML, Javascript and CSS, like and it Reveal.js host
29. Continuity : If you contribute 1 hour per weekend for 2 years it's 100 hours for your project. Be consistent, focus.
30. Barter your working project with scholarship. Why should scholarships always be given on academic performance?
31. Secrets of selecting a company and doing internship
32. Start early. Try finding a company that will host you as in intern by end of 6th sem. So start searching for one from 5th sem, surely not 7th sem.
33. Select a medium sized organization, not too big and not too small
34. College should assign academic supervisor and assessor for internship
35. Do requirement specs very well. If you can, follow methodology. agile
36. Do not reinvent the wheel. Use Open Source software
37. Depending on the project, give high priority to using a framework (MVC) or a Content Management System (CMS).
38. 4 years, one of the longest time you study. Use it well.
39. How to approach the job market.
40. College should perform career counseling session for each interested student, Preferable at the middle of the course
41. Make a CV/resume that accentuates your skills
42. Focus on one language/framework/CMS, have idea of the others. Don't become jack of all master of none.
43. Start writing technical blog posts
44. Network and search for a job with commitment
45. Be prepared for coding challenges. Interviews will be there, coding challenges will help you seal the deal.
46. Continuous Learning, technology changes fast. matters. Passion
47. Conclusion/Recap Be informed of the latest technology, framework and other news in the tech/web dev industry. Start a blog, make a Linked In profile. Have some good GitHub public activity. Bachelor study is 4 years, utilize it to the fullest. Passing exams is a must, just being able to program will not earn you a degree. Use academic projects to build a ladder to a great internship project. Exploit your internship opportunity to land your first job. Focus on a language or framework or CMS, don't try to learn everything. Learning is a continuous process even after you get a job. Suggestion : Pursue a Master after working for 2-3 years.
49. Questions???
50. Credits https://www.flickr.com/photos/62244271@N03/8553590682/sizes/l https://www.flickr.com/photos/dhammza/577671123/sizes/o/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/nathangibbs/98592171/sizes/l https://www.flickr.com/photos/laughingsquid/5301017657/sizes/l http://www.pptbackgrounds.net/increasing-performance-graph- backgrounds.html https://www.flickr.com/photos/hhayk/8505539467/sizes/l https://www.flickr.com/photos/mpp_flr/7892904178/sizes/l https://www.flickr.com/photos/107198933@N02/10589586074/sizes/k/ http://tagcrowd.com/ - to generate the tag cloud/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/86429392@N03/7975354658/sizes/h/ http://socialmediaimpact.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/calendar- a52b4f1d4d18c566eeb37c14a008d66c.jpg GitHub.com
51. Credits2 http://jerseygeeks.blogspot.ae/2013/02/how-to-get-programming- experience-when.html http://myweightlossexperiment.wordpress.com/weekly-weight-loss- chart-of-progress/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/torek/14421164021/sizes/l http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/what-breach-of-national- security/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/66539915@N03/6274989251/sizes/l http://www.discprofiles.com/blog/wp- content/uploads/2012/12/meeting-iStock.jpg http://opensource.org/files/OSI-Affiliates-April-2012.gif http://greatlakesvoice.com/blog/common-interview-mistakes-job- candidates-make/ http://urbantips.wordpress.com/2012/04/03/im-bringing-back-the- barter-system/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/odgersdesign/4623902675/sizes/l https://www.flickr.com/photos/patrick999/502722535/sizes/l https://www.flickr.com/photos/zeldman/14538663789/sizes/l
52. Credits 3 https://www.flickr.com/photos/anned/8700093610/sizes/l https://www.flickr.com/photos/oberazzi/318947873/sizes/l https://www.flickr.com/photos/wazari/8283709193/sizes/l https://www.flickr.com/photos/30093796@N07/10793050886/sizes/l https://www.flickr.com/photos/30093796@N07/10793050886/sizes/l http://www.mysansar.com/2014/08/14315/ http://www.pahilopost.com/content/-257.html http://www.edudemic.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/twitter- wallpaper.jpg http://code.org/promote http://www.smu.ca/campus-life/career-services.html
53. Some Links Main Git site Github - free public git hosting BitBucket - free private git hosting Trello - Easy project management system. Redmine Hosted - Full project management system PHPStorm Free Academic License Drupal - A CMS built in PHP Symfony - A MVC Framework build in PHP Angular Js - HTML enhanced for web apps! Javascript Framework Node Js - Platform for easily building fast, scalable network applications. with Javascript Ionic Framework - Front-end framework for developing hybrid mobile apps with HTML5 Feedly - A very good RSS reader
54. Some programming mantras to remember.