Covid times are tough for job seekers. On one hand, technology has taken out jobs. On the other, companies have cut jobs due to financial strains.
LinkedIn pleas asking help, to get a job, are aplenty. As job seekers, what do we do ? Here is an approach that on one hand is NOT easy, on the other works !
Before I explain the method, I would like to apologize; for writing long texts.
Admittedly – I have a bad habit of ensuring you, the reader, understand the content. Even if that means reading lots of text.
You will see this habit in action.
But before we become selfish, we ought to become selfless. That is, before we try and get a job, we need to be “give” something. In this case – our attention.
To that effect – let’s understand what organizations need.
What women Companies Want
Covid or no-covid, organizations need and want sharp qualified people. Period.
Anything else is bullshit.
While so, companies need to select the few good candidates from the crowd of morons.
In their shoes, how would I (or you) go about selecting the right candidate ?
With limited time and energy, I would rely on some “signals”. Meaning, some proof that the hire is a good fit. Such signals could be …
I would assume a reputed company to have a good hiring process. One that would be able to filter the wheat from the chaff.
Recommendations would provide a “social proof” of an individual’s performance.
Someone who has spent 4 years of his life ( and lots of their parent’s money ) would be interested in building a career. Right ?
20 years back, this was true. Since very few graduates passed from even fewer colleges. Therefore, the system itself filtered out the “less-motivated” bunch.
Unlike then – Now we have hundreds of colleges, producing millions of graduates each year. Notably – paid for by their parent’s money.
Turns out … Few are motivated to work !
Since a college degree was a good filter 20 years back. It was used to find a qualifying candidate back then.
However, a degree is NOT a good filter anymore. Therefore it is less used these days. ( lots of college graduates are lethargic and uninterested )
Mindnote
In other words – if you are looking for a job in 2021, then a college degree is NOT as useful as you might think it to be.
Once everyone had college degrees, no candidate had a distinguishing signal. However, the companies still needed to recognize good candidates.
Filling the gap, came online portals. Like – Udacity, Udemy, HackerRank, HackerEarth, and many others. With their online evaluations, these sites claim to provide a “signal” of a candidate’s worth.
This is the reason, we see many companies using online tests platforms.
I know that the criteria, used by websites, are bullshit. This is regardless of the platform’s performance in filtering candidates.
These platforms test certain concepts. But, 99% of people in the tech industry do not understand, remember or use the concepts. Meaning, the evaluations are inefficient and can be optimized; an entrepreneurial opportunity.
While my opinion stands, do companies have a good alternative to online platforms ?
Nopes.
So, like it or not .. these platforms will stay ! Period.
Moral of the story
Companies want a signal that you are a worthwhile candidate. And the signal changes over time.
Your responsibility is to understand this idea. And, provide a good signal of your abilities.
From the Other Side of the Glass
What do companies see when they look at you ?
They see a bunch of rag-tag nobodies. Ones who think something of ourselves because we’ve written some lines of code. They are NOT wrong.
Firstly, college teaches only theory. Such learning is very disconnected from the real world.
Secondly, even when some projects are done, they are very controlled viz. the architecture is pre-defined, technologies are chosen and the changes are well described.
At college, the goal is not to “learn”. Instead, it is to “score well”.
Since what is pursued is achieved. So, graduates get good grades and little understanding.
The next alternative to gain some knowledge is through online tutorials. Once again, while they claim to give real experience. Usually, They are a set of recorded instructions. Again a very controlled environment. The reality of a project is very different.
I’ve conducted many interviews. And have known candidates who were able to explain concepts. But given the simplest problems weren’t able to apply the same concepts.
This is because – knowledge of a concept and that of its use are very different. Students only read about the concepts and never “understand” them.
Firstly, we students aren’t well educated. Secondly, there is also a huge competition of all us incompetents. Any wonder we aren’t able to get jobs ?
Finally – think of this from a business’ perspective. ( by the way – business is HARD, harder than you’d ever imagine it to be.)
Even if you are a good, prudent, skilled individual. Why should a business risk its hard-earned $$ with someone with unproven skills ?
This is the company’s mindset.
If college, courses, and learning are all not useful, then it begs a question. Why do we go through such torture to get a college degree ? Listen to our parent’s admonitions, give away such a lot of money to colleges ?
WHY ??
Transfer Mirage
Formal education promotes an idea. That something learned in one context can be applied to another.
That is, learning content in a classroom helps us to become better software engineers. But I’ve been there, done that and it doesn’t happen !
If the idea were true, then …
Not the case in my experience.
But, my interviewees couldn’t.
The idea of ‘Transfer’ is NOT true. More than a mirage, such an idea is a scam.
Excerpt From: Scott Young. “Ultralearning”.
…. in almost all the empirical work to date, on the role of example solutions. A student who has studied examples often cannot solve problems that deviate slightly from the example solution.
… Students receive honors grades in college-level physics courses. The same students are frequently unable to solve basic problems and questions encountered in a form slightly different from that on which they have been formally instructed and tested.”
Transfer trap – traps us into thinking that using a piece of information in one context helps us use it in another. Simply NOT true.
And this is the reason we go through the torture of college, and end up with poor results.
But here we are. Since getting upset gets us nowhere … what do we do ?
What to do
Within every problem lies its solution. Applies here too …
Since, our problem is – Indirect learning. So, our solution is: Direct learning
Here is a true story that describes it.
Excerpt From: Scott Young. “Ultralearning”.
Vatsal Jaiswal moved to Canada to become an architect. But just a few years after the 2007 market crash, getting a job was nearly impossible. Firms were laying off even experienced architects.
…. Vatsal sensed that the companies didn’t see him as a useful employee. He had studied architecture in school, but his program had focused on design and theory. He had trained in projects that were isolated from reality. The reality of building codes, construction costs, and tricky software. Because his portfolio of school projects didn’t resemble real-world projects. So, firms thought hiring him would involve training, something few firms could afford.
… He needed to show them that, rather than being a “burden, he could get to work straight away and be valuable from day one.
To do this, he would need to learn how architects actually drew building plans with all the details. To do that, he found a job at a print shop, the kind that does printing for architectural blueprints. The job allowed Jaiswal to absorb details about how the drawings were put together.
Next, Jaiswal self-learned a design software called Revit. The software was commonly used at architecture firms.
Finally, with Revit and his new knowledge, he created a new portfolio. After a few months of work, he was ready. New portfolio in hand – Jaiswal submitted it again, this time to just two architecture firms. To his surprise, they both immediately offered him a job.
Jaiswal’s story highlights a few points:
Learning from Jaiswal’s story, to find a job we can …
Create a working application. End to end – frontend, backend, middle-layer
( I warned that the method will NOT be easy, and promised that it will work )
Thats it ! If we create such a project and add it to our portfolio, then companies will look or us. And not the other way round.
Of course, these will take time. But until you get a job, what else do you have in mind ?
Not convinced yet ?
Please help me answer the below questions.
While doing the college project might’ve helped you do a number of things … it did not expose you to real problems like:
Think about it – This is what companies like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn need.
We know that it should be sortable by different keys. Like earliest, cost, reviewed, recommended, etc.
Is there an auto-restart mechanism to start from the failure point ?
On the other hand, if the functionality is adhoc ? is there a design to schedule it ?
These are the type of problems companies face during software creation. And these are the problems companies want their employees to be able to solve.
I bet you do not know the answer to some of the above questions. This is because – such questions can ONLY be answered when we take a “direct approach” to work on them.
So next time when you see someone begging for a job on LinkedIn. Give them a link to this article and ask them to.
Create a working application. End to end – frontend, backend and the middle-layer
Rest assured, they will get a job.
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