Tips for getting your first job in software development

Recorded January 15th 2021 – watch the full episode on YouTube.

What do you advise for new college graduate students who have not done any type of internship and are searching for a job at this moment?‌

Mayuko Inoue: Well, I feel like at any stage in your career when you're looking for a job you're basically trying to prove to an employer that you are worth your value. You are valuable to them, that your skills are valuable to them, I should say. Internships are a great way to show them the ticket of just like, "I've been here before. I know how to do this thing a little bit. I have some experience," but I don't think a lot of those things you can learn on your own by doing similar things.

It's all really about how can you prove to an employer that your skills are valuable? Obviously, it depends on what kind of job you're going for? Which employer you want to be employed by? What your existing skillset is?

But I think identifying that gap of like, "What do I need to know to get from where I am to where I want to be," is important. I think the best way to do that is to talk to current engineers, talk to engineers of the company that you want to work at and understand what that skill gap is, and then work at it.

"You can find someone who you want to model your career after, who you admire, who you want to be one day. I think there's a lot of things that can come out from that."

If you want to go into iOS development, for example, I think maybe in some ways more important than doing an internship is learning, shipping your very own app into the app store, which you can totally do by yourself is a really great way to demonstrate to an employer, "I know how to do this. I've written an app. I know how views work." Because by doing that, you're demonstrating, "I know how views work. I know how data handling works. I know how app life cycle works. I know how the app store review process works," which in and of itself is super valuable I think all of that kind of stuff is a great way to tell employers, "I can do this."

I would say it's basically working on your own skills, figuring out what those skills are and then networking, talking to engineers. Being like, “what's your opinion on what I should do to get to where you are?" And see what they think because everyone's going to give a different answer, I think, depending on who you talk to. You can find someone who you want to model your career after, who you admire, who you want to be one day. I think there's a lot of things that can come out from that.

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