Career Upgrade Plan for 2017
What never goes out of fashion? Good Engineers!
2016 has not been the best year for job hunters and hiring managers alike. With the job market a little dicey, there is ONE thing most CXOs and CTOs agree on — companies are always hiring good engineers.
So…
- How hard is it to switch to a tech position from a non-tech profile?
- How to upgrade to a better paying developer profile from a non-programming profile?
We at Udacity India interacted with thousands of learners, many of whom have successfully upgraded their career, and with the top tech companies in India.
So how do you become the engineer which is always in-demand?
Learning New Skills is Easy but Mastering them is Hard
It takes time and commitment to go through the drill. Lack of time is cited as the most common reason for drop-off among online learners. But as with most things in life, availability of time is a function of priorities. Best solution is to assess time availability in 2017 and allocate fixed time for learning anything new.
Sense of Completion can be Misleading
Most successful professionals never stop learning new things and practicing what they have already learnt. For example, in a Udacity Nanodegree program, every concept is followed by quizzes and every lesson (group of concepts) is followed by projects. This has proven to be a much more effective way to learn a new skill, retain it and apply it in the context of a real world problem. In fact, most successful Udacity Nanodegree graduates continue to build on their personal portfolio of interesting projects beyond what they build as part of Nanodegree curriculum.
Optimise your Preparation for Cracking Jobs
No amount of learning can cover the requirements of every hiring organisation. There will always be some specific stack, framework or system that you might not have covered and is used in the organisation you are applying to.
The best way to increase the hiring probability is to customise your preparation. Read the job description carefully, especially the “good to have” section, which often contains information on actual technology or stack that the organisation is using.
Read the blogs by the team members and organisation. They discuss culture and work environment. An informed conversation regarding the target employer, their technology stack, product or culture during the interview can help swing the vote in your favour.
Try to find someone in your network who works for the organisation and try to know more about the company, product, work style etc..
Do not Underestimate the Importance of Basics
Most often, in absence of deep experience in the job skill you are switching to, interviewers rely on fundamentals to test technical capabilities. Algorithms and data structures are the most tested topics in tech interviews for development roles and same goes for Statistics concepts like P Value, Type or error, CLT etc. in data analysis interviews.
Learning is Only Half the Job Done
Applying for a new job is a often a long process and getting selected for a desirable position takes more than just the technical skills. Quoting Mike Miller, a Udacity student, “Market yourself the most you possibly can. Apply for lots of different things. And do whatever you can to stand out and make an impression — put time into cover letters and follow up. Even if a job isn’t the right fit, you never know who will remember you if something comes along that might be a better fit”
On an average, a new job hunt requires at least 2–3 months of search and applications, and candidates apply for more than 15–20 positions to get more than a few interview calls.
Have more questions or would like to contribute to the discussion? Come join us, for an AMA and the LAST live chat session of 2016 — where we talk about improving your Skill Index, cracking the employability code, how to prepare for the most in-demand jobs and what sets rockstar engineers apart.
- On Thursday i.e. 22nd December, join us for an AMA (Ask-Me-Anything). You can ask us all your career/job related questions — the Udacity team & Nanodegree graduates will be answering your questions all day.
- Attend the Interactive Chat Session on 28th December, 2016 at 7:30pm. We will address the most popular questions and tell you exactly how to upgrade your career in 2017.
